As part of Portland’s 2018 Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF), a voter-approved tax on large retailers that allocate funds to community-led investments, the Portland City Council unanimously passed a $300 million budget on Dec. 18 that includes eight large-scale initiatives that will accelerate the city’s climate-efficient efforts. Photo Credit: Unsplash/Elena Kuchko
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Portland Expands on Long-Standing Clean Climate Vision

Green Building

By Fay Harvey  

PORTLAND, Ore. — As part of Portland’s 2018 Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF), a voter-approved tax on large retailers that allocate funds to community-led investments, the Portland City Council unanimously passed a $300 million budget on Dec. 18 that includes eight large-scale initiatives that will accelerate the city’s climate-efficient efforts. 

The funding comes from PCEF’s overall $1.6 billion five-year Climate Investment Plan that was updated earlier this month. The latest list of investments is the largest to come out of the PCEF to date and will enhance local school facilities and workforce opportunities while opening doors for solar projects, green transportation and clean manufacturing.  

Along with climate-focused action, most projects will invest in workforce developments, training thousands of people for careers in green construction, vehicle electrification, HVAC installation, renewable energy installation and other careers within the building operations and maintenance sector.  

“These projects are transformative,” said PCEF Manager Sam Baraso in a city-issued statement. “We are collectively acting at the speed of climate change — which is now — while creating lasting improvements in schools, homes, jobs and our city’s infrastructure, starting with communities that have been long left behind.”  

Sustainability projects within the package, coined Collaborating for Climate Change, were created in tandem with community members and design experts to streamline large-scale climate action. All projects are led by a respective nonprofit organization or government agency and also include multiple partners from private to public to the nonprofit sphere.  

Approximately $70 million is being allocated towards climate resilience in six Portland school districts. The funding will cover the installation of more efficient windows and HVAC systems, the addition of geothermal heating systems and LED lighting and efforts to decarbonize transportation and implement green schoolyard projects. Children will benefit from improved air quality, healthy learning spaces and a reinvestment of funds into education.  

Also included in the funding package is $55.5 million for a Bus Rapid Transit system, workforce development and corridor-cooling elements along seven miles of 82nd Avenue from Southeast Clatsop Street to the Northeast Cully neighborhood.  An additional $41 million will be used to decarbonize the City of Portland’s vehicle fleets and create careers within fleet and facility maintenance. Another $20.6 million will be a part of efforts to construct new tree-lined sidewalks near schools for walkable, carbon-free communities.  

Additionally, $20 million will fund Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability to provide resources for large facilities and industrial business wanting to invest in decarbonization and renewable energy. 

To further support solar energy accessibility, $25 million will be used for mass installation of solar energy systems for approximately 2,700 low-income households and will also create jobs in the solar workforce. In collaboration with Metro, Port of Portland and other community partners, a separate $31.6 million project will provide additional solar power and battery storage and energy efficient technologies to more than 1,500 low-income households. 

Green transportation efforts, such as replacing diesel buses with zero-emission buses, are projected to have an annual reduction of over 1 million miles travelled. Solar implementations will provide up to $12.8 in utility bill savings over a 20-year period and are done on a subscription-based system, allowing residents the option to bring solar energy to future households.  

“These projects all embody a vision that our organizations had for PCEF when our organizers dreamed this up,” said Duncan Hwang of Metro Council and co-chair of the 82nd Avenue Transit Project Steering Committee, in a statement “Today really feels like a milestone and the result of years of organizing. I am so excited to be able to make that community vision, which seemed just impossible a decade ago, a reality.”