HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 5/5/2020 - Memorandum From Jensen Morgan, Sarah Meline Re: Earth Day And Shift Campaign UpdatesEnvironmental Services
222 Laporte Ave.
PO Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522
970.221.6600
fcgov.com/environmental services
1
MEMORANDUM
Date: April 28, 2020
To: Mayor and City Council
Thru: Darin Atteberry, City Manager
CAP Executive Team1
Lindsay Ex, Climate Program Manager
Caroline Mitchell, Lead Waste Reduction and Recycling Specialist
From: Jensen Morgan, Climate Action and Community Engagement
Sarah Meline, Waste Reduction and Recycling Program Assistant
Re: Earth Day and Shift Campaign Updates
Purpose: To provide a status update on the efforts to support Virtual Earth Day and adjustments
made to the Shift campaign as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Accomplishments & Updates
Virtual Earth Day: The Sustainable Living Association (SLA) hosted a virtual event to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of Earth Day on April 18 20 on social media platforms, posting both live and prerecorded
content from local organizations, businesses, and community members. This was in place of the annual
Earth Day Celebration planned for April 18 in Civic Center Park. Utilities, Environmental Services and FC
Moves partnered with SLA to share content during the virtual event which covered a variety of topics
including: recycling, air quality, bike safety, stormwater, greenhouse gas emissions, municipal sustainability,
and flushing only the 3 Content from the City was seen by approximately 15,000 people on social
media.
Shift Earth Day Challenge: The Shift Campaign launched an online community greenhouse gas reduction
challenge in February 2020 at Shiftfoco.com. The challenge encouraged residents to reduce their
greenhouse gas emissions by 5,000 lbs. of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) by Earth Day 2020. The goal
was to get 250 households to reduce emissions by 250 tons, and the campaign greatly exceeded its goal -
566 households joined the challenge and reduced emissions by 499 tons CO2e, the equivalent of taking
108 passenger cars off Fort Collins streets for 1 year. Participants enjoyed friendly competition in teams and
one of the top teams to reduce emissions was from the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery. Staff plan to run
the Earth Day Challenge again next year in response to strong public interest and reduction outcomes.
Next Steps:
The Shift Campaign is developing a series of short videos called that will give community
members suggestions for how they can make easy changes at home to save money, time and
energy while contributing to climate action. The first round of Shift Tips was shared at the virtual
Earth Day event and new ones will be shared throughout the year.
Staff will develop a year-round campaign to Shift Your Ride in partnership with FC Moves that is
adapted to Safer at Home. It will launch summer 2020.
The Sustainable Living Association will celebrate the 20th anniversary of their organization at an in-
person event on September 19, 2020. They will be honoring all of their Earth Day sponsors and
exhibitors as well as opening it up to others who want to participate in a larger scale event.
1 Includes Deputy City Manager Jeff Mihelich; Utilities Executive Director Kevin Gertig; Chief Financial Officer Mike
Beckstead; Interim Director of Planning, Development, and Transportation Dean Klingner; Chief Sustainability Officer
Jackie Kozak Thiel; and Environmental Services Director Lucinda Smith