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WIN: AB1276 passes to help eliminate single-use plastics from take-out and delivery orders #SkipTheStuff

WIN: AB1276 passes to help eliminate single-use plastics from take-out and delivery orders #SkipTheStuff

Thank you for helping pass AB1276! We now have a policy in place that requires that restaurants and online food delivery platforms list the accessories they provide so that customers can choose only what they need. This will help eliminate millions of tons of single-use foodware from entering the waste stream. Local jurisdictions are creating their own implementation strategies and CEC is working with the City of Goleta in the hopes that they will include an EPS (Styrofoam) ban in their plan.

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Reverse. Repair. Protect. CEC’s Bold Climate Action Plan
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Reverse. Repair. Protect. CEC’s Bold Climate Action Plan

The White House has officially declared we are in a climate emergency. It’s time to lean into local solutions like never before – and that means unrelenting, focused, inclusive, and courageous climate action on the Central Coast.

CEC has outlined an ambitious plan for how our community can meet this urgent moment and go all in together on halting the climate crisis – rapidly and equitably – through three major efforts:

Reverse: Push for ambitious, equitable zero emissions and zero waste goals for the energy, transportation, food, and agriculture sectors

Repair: Tap into the power of nature to draw down excess carbon from the atmosphere and repair the disrupted carbon cycle

Protect: Safeguard the health of our general public and vulnerable populations from the impacts of climate change already underway

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Inside Julia’s Kitchen: Meet Julia Blanton, SBC Food Rescue Program Coordinator</a>
Climate Resilience, Hub Guest User Climate Resilience, Hub Guest User

Inside Julia’s Kitchen: Meet Julia Blanton, SBC Food Rescue Program Coordinator

Recently on Inside Julia’s Kitchen, a podcast of The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, host Todd Schulkin talked with CEC’s SBC Food Rescue Coordinator Julia Blanton about food rescue and how it has been used to address food insecurity and put restaurants back to work during the Covid-19 pandemic. Plus, Julia shares her “Julia Moment”.

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A Lunch Service for the Planet
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A Lunch Service for the Planet

For several years, the online learning company lynda.com has provided free daily lunch for employees. Now the Carpinteria-based company is helping employees Ditch Plastic by piloting a reusable container system for those who want to take their lunch to-go.

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Drinking It In: Eliminating single-use plastic bottles
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Drinking It In: Eliminating single-use plastic bottles

Rethink the Drink started in 2010 with a simple concept: provide schools with an alternative to single-use plastic water bottles and see if habit change followed. Four years later, we are proud to report that habit change is indeed possible. There are now 39 water refill stations in schools and community facilities across Santa Barbara County, and they have been used more than 870,000 times. Creating a single plastic water bottle emits 2.6 pounds of carbon dioxide, thus the amount of carbon dioxide emissions mitigated by our refill stations is more than 2 million pounds.

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CEC's results in 2013
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CEC's results in 2013

The Community Environmental Council (CEC) is a small and dedicated non-profit with a very big mission: ending the Santa Barbara region’s dependence on fossil fuels in one generation. It's been a busy year for CEC. After all, moving our region off fossil fuels is no small task.

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Students Are Part of the Plastic-Reduction Solution
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Students Are Part of the Plastic-Reduction Solution

“I want to do something about all the plastic waste. I want to be an environmental scientist.” Those words of wisdom and hope came from a seventh-grade girl at La Cumbre Junior High earlier this month. The Community Environmental Council’s (CEC) Rethink the Drink staff visited the school and spoke to over 300 students about the importance of reducing our dependence on single-use plastic products.

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MedBridge Earns Green Business Status
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MedBridge Earns Green Business Status

When the Santa Barbara-based ambulatory surgical center (ASC) and physician practice management company, MedBridge, purchased a new building and moved its headquarters into the funk zone, the executive team knew they wanted the location to demonstrate the company’s  “holistic approach to building and core values as a business,” said MedBridge Chief of Staff Ruth Loomer, co-chair of CEC’s Partnership Council

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