Down to Earth

Santa Fe County’s Sustainability Office is ready for action

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For Santa Feans looking to add climate-friendly goals in the new year, Santa Fe County’s Sustainability Office has numerous suggestions, including planning waste-free meals; creating a personal-waste inventory; and upping your recycling game.

Those suggestions—and more—can be found in the office’s January newsletter. County Sustainability Manager Jacqueline Beam offers another: Plant the right tree in the right place, such as a backyard that already has irrigation.

“A tree a year will cover the average greenhouse gas emissions a person creates,” Beam says, “and so just simple things like that, thinking of ways you can counter your footprint, feels a lot more empowering.”

Beam has managed the Sustainability Office for close to a year and brings her background as a therapist to the job, along with experiences designing eco-lodges in Central and South America, as well as her early career as a linguist with the military.

“I always credit that as being my first place of learning the importance of our environment and habitat,” Beam says, “because I was assigned to Special Forces throughout pretty remote areas…[and] our ability to adapt to nature was incredibly important.”

Beam also has a master of science degree from the University of Florida in architectural studies and sustainable design.

“Somehow it all fits,” she says, “I’m looking at behaviors often, so the therapy piece fits. I’m also just completely just passionate about our relationship to the earth and to the planet, so those the dry facts and figures, I like to tell the story as opposed to just showing the numbers.”

Numbers, however, will drive a major initiative from the office this year: a greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan that will be part of the county’s overall climate action plan. That initiative builds on the county’s work over the course of nearly two years inventorying its greenhouse gas emissions, using 2005 as a baseline and data from 2017 and 2018 to show trends over time. The inventory showed county buildings and facilities accounted for more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions in 2017 and 2018.

The plan to address emissions in the county’s own operations is slated to be presented to the Board of County Commissioners at its Jan. 25 meeting. Beam says the county has worked close on those strategies with ICLEI, an international non-government organization that focuses on sustainability practices for local governments. “They provide a lot of consultation and support for our strategies,” she says.

From addressing its own emissions, the Sustainability Office will then tackle larger Santa Fe County. Currently, it is in the process of developing an inventory of county-wide emissions Beam says she hopes will be completed in the next three or four months.

“I like to refer to the 2013-7 resolution,” Beam says, wherein the county commits to “lead by example” as it relates to implementing cost-effective waste reduction, recycling and clean energy. “We definitely are kind of following that track where we’re leading by example,” she says, “starting from our own house first and then branching out towards the county. It sets up a good model for us as we look at the county-wide emissions because we understand the sectors and the process of calculation and strategies now for eliminating certain emissions.”

The county’s other sustainability efforts last year included transitioning its motor pool to an all-electric fleet; installing solar at the Rancho Viejo Fire Station in March and the Public Safety complex in August (the county now has 19 solarized facilities); and approving energy efficiency and water conservation upgrades for 13 facilities, work that will continue throughout this year. Those efforts, Beam emphasizes, come as a result of support from Santa Fe County Manager Katherine Miller, expertise within the Sustainability Office and other departments, as well as countywide support.

The trajectory from looking at internal operations to the county as a whole drove, in part, the office’s reorganization last year from the Public Works to the county’s new Community Development Department, which also houses the county’s Economic Development, Affordable Housing, Tourism and Film divisions. “That reorganization was really something that was thought very carefully about because of our growth in sustainability going from an operational focus to more of an outward focus on a county-wide effort,” Beam says.

The county commission also recently passed a resolution establishing its legislative priorities for the session starting Jan. 18, as they relate to environmental sustainability and climate action. The list includes basically “anything that has to do with best practices around land conservation, water and energy we are definitely in support of it,” Beam says, although the county is taking a “wait and see” attitude regarding a proposed hydrogen hub, an initiative supported by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, but facing criticism from numerous environmental organizations.

Beam says she hopes to see greater state support for local government efforts. “We need more support from the state,” she says. “None of what we are attempting to do can be successful without the support of the state…there are so many risks that we’re facing with climate change, and we really do need a larger body to help support us in our efforts to change our ordinances and our laws and our regulations. We really need support from the state and federal government.”

While the Sustainability Office has many initiatives, Beam’s favorite, she says, is its 30x30 efforts—part of a national initiative to save 30% of the country’s land and water by 2030. For its part, Santa Fe County and more than 150 volunteers planted nearly 1,500 trees and shrubs across the county as part of its Earth Day events, with an eye toward helping ward off soil erosion and increase shade.

“I feel like that’s an area where all as a community can come together and work together,” she says. “It’s low hanging fruit, but yet the reward is incredible.”