Business & Tech

"Green Idea" Grows in Hermosa Beach

Inspired by the greening of his own house, local businessman Robert Fortunato wants to help make Hermosa Beach the first carbon-neutral city in Los Angeles County.

Robert Fortunato is seeing green and he wants all of Hermosa Beach to join him.

In February the local businessman, joined by environmental activists Joe Galliani and Dency Nelson, pitched the City Council their vision to make Hermosa the first carbon-neutral city in Los Angeles County.

Mayor Michael DiVirgilio and the rest of the council were enthusiastic about the plan and asked the city's Green Task Force to begin developing a timeline to make it a reality. 

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Hermosa Beach Patch sat down with Fortunato, who owns a management consulting firm in the city, to discuss the green initiative and its potential impact on local businesses. 

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Patch: You're in the midst of a zero-carbon renovation of your home (greenideahouse.com). But converting a city is a much more ambitious project. What prompted you to take it on?

Fortunato: As long-term Hermosa Beach residents, we are struck by the generosity of those supporting our project and felt compelled to give back. That led to a series of conversations with Dency Nelson and Joe Galliani, longtime activists and environmentalists, to understand the economic and environmental opportunities that exist for the City of Hermosa Beach. Joe had the idea of taking the "Green Idea House" concept and scaling it to the city. Given Hermosa Beach is only 1.3 miles in diameter and has a very innovative Mayor, City Council and staff; this is the perfect testing ground for the "Green Idea City," the first carbon neutral city in LA County. We rolled up our sleeves and went to work creating a proposal.

Patch: What does being carbon neutral imply?

Fortunato: To become carbon neutral, a city must offset all its activities that produce carbon dioxide with efforts that remove the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere or produce no pollution at all. For example, the approach could require reducing vehicle use, planting trees and promoting alternative energy.

Patch: Why do you think Hermosa Beach is a suitable place for this mission?

Fortunato: This is a great place because it is a city of innovators and iconoclasts. Historically, this is an innovation hotbed for things like jazz and the surf culture. More recently, Verizon used it as a test area for its fiber optic technology. Southern California Edison will soon be using it as a beta site for the new smart meter technology. Because of its size, disposition and lack of heavily polluting industry, it is the perfect beta site for testing green innovations – including this carbon neutral idea.

Patch: What are the technological steps the city would have to take to achieve this goal of being a carbon-neutral city?

Fortunato: The basic technological steps are fairly straightforward. Cities like Austin, Seattle, Boulder and London are already way ahead of us. They are much larger cities with a lot of heavy industry. All we need to do is follow them and scale their plans to our size and climate.  

Patch: Could you explain more about the proposal you, Dency Nelson and Joe Galliani made to the city?

Fortunato: The basic idea is simple. But has to start with the economy and then move to the ecology: be the first carbon-neutral city in LA County and reap the rewards of leading the way in terms of stimulus, grant and sponsor/ vendor funding — or go carbon neutral later (when it is mandated) and pay for it out of your own pockets.

Patch: What is the cost of achieving this goal? Is it expensive? Any grants or funding available to the city? 

Fortunato: The first level of this exercise is about reducing the energy loads of the schools and municipal buildings. There is currently stimulus and grant money to get this done. This may be able to be done at low or no cost and the savings are permanent. The last energy audit revealed that there may be up to $30,000 a year in savings in the school buildings alone. The savings are bound to increase in subsequent years when you factor in the projections of future energy costs.

Patch: When you propose green projects such as this one, there always seems to be conflict and resistance among business, especially small business owners, due to their apprehension over  financial sustainability. Since you're a businessperson yourself, could you explain how this project would affect the local businesses? Would the project create and/or kill any jobs in the city?

Fortunato: The conflicts often arise who (the government, the developer or the consumer) will pay first costs. That is a policy question.  Good policy can balance the carrot and the stick so we are incentivizing clean/green tech businesses to the city that will want to be here as a result of what we are building. The city already has the lowest business taxes in the area, so that makes it even easier to attract that type of business.

Because of our involvement with our house project, we know that the next generation of viable technical solutions to our environmental challenges is here. These innovations are the economic engines of the future. If we do not support them, other cities, states and countries will reap the economic benefits, not us. The choice is ours.

Patch: How many years do you think it would take to turn a city into carbon neutral? 

Fortunato: Estimates for other cities are between 2015 and 2030. Every day counts. Irrespective of how you feel about climate change, this makes economic sense. As parents, we appreciate this initiative because it will also reduce the black carbon soot that our children breathe and that blankets our properties.

Patch: What kind of feedback have you been receiving from the city officials and Hermosa Beach residents about this project?

Fortunato: We are humbled by the level of support and everyone's willingness to get involved.

Patch: Have you had a chance to discuss with local business owners about the project? If so, what did they have to say?

Fortunato: We started with the city; we are now working with the schools. We will be reaching out to the business community next.

We feel grateful that we are fortunate enough to live in a place where this is possible.


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