Dear Council Members:
As a practicing architect in the Bay Area for 25+ years, I hope you will consider allowing BlocPower to assist with Menlo Park’s building electrification. I’m actually called upon by my professional organization, the American Institute of Architects, to advocate for accelerated electrification of all buildings and a phase out of fossil fuel appliances and systems immediately!
The California AIA recently announced a climate emergency. Buildings account for as much as 40% of green house gasses, and we absolutely MUST decarbonize our building stock immediately. Here are a few good reasons:
1) methane, a by-product of fossil gas, is up to 80x more warming than carbon dioxide
2) however, since methane disperses quickly, it can deliver the quickest climate win and give the world the kind of breathing room it needs to stave off the worst impacts of climate change. We could eliminate methane IN OUR LIFE TIME.
3) we have absolutely all the technology NOW to achieve the goal of decarbonizing our building stock by 2030. We just need the political will!
Please permit BlocPower to begin the building decarbonization process in Menlo Park and join other forward thinking communities in grabbing this low hanging fruit that can have a big impact on protecting our environment.
https://aiacalifornia.org/aia-california-declares-a-climate-emergency/
Best,
Hilary Bates AIA
LEED Green Associate
San Mateo County Committee on the Environment
Hilarybatesarchitecture.com
