Sacramento City Unified commits to carbon neutrality by 2045

Earlier this month, the Sacramento City Unified School board approved a resolution committing the school district to carbon neutrality by 2045. It’s a goal that lines up with California’s mission for statewide carbon neutrality by the same year. 

There’s urgency behind the transition: State officials have noted the increasing climate impacts on California schools and the need to adapt buildings to weather these changes, like during extreme heat. Chamberlain Segrest, Sac City Unified’s sustainability manager, said many districts must also act now in order to keep up with the state’s mandate.

“Every time a new HVAC unit comes up for end of life or for repairs, we need to be ensuring that these standards … are in place so that they're not replaced with another natural gas asset which will last for maybe 25 to 30 more years,” she said.  

Segrest added that although cutting transportation emissions is a big goal, most of the district’s emissions come from gas-reliant building infrastructure.  

“Our buildings are older,” she said. “Last year, I would say 50% of our energy use came from natural gas, so it's kind of immediate that we need to be transitioning.” 

Jonathan Klein, co-founder of the nonprofit Undaunted K12 which aims to help public schools make this transition, said the district’s main source of emissions lines up with national trends. 

“Within our school buildings, nationally, the fuels and the energy that we use to power our systems, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems … is actually greater than the emissions nationally from the diesel school bus fleet,” he said. 

Aside from HVAC systems, Klein said other main culprits for emissions include water-heating systems and school kitchens. 

As part of the transition, the district is working on rebuilding three elementary schools in South Sacramento — Nicholas, Oak Ridge and Edward Kemble/Cesar Chavez elementaries — as all electric and energy efficient. Segrest said they also plan to add more electric buses to their 135-vehicle transportation fleet in the near future. 

Nathaniel Browning, the district’s facilities manager overseeing planning and sustainability, said the district’s next steps include a feasibility study. Right now, he said the district has $4.4 billion worth of facilities needs — which largely means needed replacements in school buildings — so he said the district’s first priority was to get the 2045 goal in place. The upcoming study will help officials further understand the costs of this transition and also in deciding what changes can be made more immediately.

Segrest said she’s seen a lot of community and student interest in the issue during board meetings on the resolution, especially when it comes to advancing the goal early. She said as a result of that, the district hopes to complete the transition ahead of the 2045 goal. As part of the feasibility study, Segrest said the school district will project costs tied to achieving carbon neutrality earlier than 2045. 

“The idea is that we're going to do everything we can to get it there before 2045,” she said. 

Segrest said they hope to complete the study by the end of the school year.