GEC’s Earth Day Adventures Began at GCC

GEC board member Emily and volunteer Michael covered the GEC table at Glendale Community College’s 2025 Earth Day event. They really enjoyed engaging with students at the college around environmental advocacy.

A Little Rain Didn’t Stop Glendale’s 2025 Earth Day Celebration!

GEC board members and volunteers had a great time at Glendale’s Earth Day Fair in Verdugo Park on Saturday, April 26. Many thanks to our hard working Sustainability Office and Glendale Sustainability Associate Nora Karakashian who worked very hard putting together a wonderful event. Yes, it rained for a bit, but then the sun came out and the goats came out and the people came out! Thanks to all that stopped by our booths and thank you to our board members and volunteers that stepped up to participate. We met many nice folks in the community, including several students from Hoover’s Climate Change Club (20+ students and growing!) who were interested to work together. Several folks signed up to join our group and participate in an upcoming clean up event and we all enjoyed talking to participants and visiting the other booths, including the electric landscaping equipment test booth featuring the folks at American Green Zone Alliance , who reminded us about the South Coast AQMD’s fantastic Commercial Lawn and Garden Equipment Incentive and Exchange Program that provides up to an 85% discount for pro, battery powered landscape equipment! We were neighbors with the food rescue non-profit Food Forward (who will find a home for your extra fruit and even help pick it off your tree!), Glendale Parks & Open Space Foundation, Walk Bike Glendale, and many others.

Board member Monica brought her worm bin, which attracted a lot of interest from curious little people (and older people too), who wanted to understand how vermicomposting works and wanted to meet the red wriggler worms who make the magic happen. GEC also had a display with helpful tips on how to participate in the City’s organics recycling program and GEC board member Nick brought a solar panel and battery, which also attracted interest and sure came in handy when our ipad ran out of power!

Many City Staff were in attendance, along with our City Manager (Roubik Golanian) and several local elected officials (Councilmembers Brotman and Asatryan and Mayor Najarian) and we enjoyed getting to talk with many of them.  We also got to chat with our state representatives, Assemblymember Jessica Caloza, who represents South Glendale and Assemblymember Nick Schultz who represents the rest of Glendale. Both expressed interest in working with GEC on new legislation for next year.  Assm. Schultz shared that he is strongly supporting the The Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act (thank you Nick!) and said he would welcome the opportunity to talk to GEC members at an upcoming meeting. We look forward to scheduling that soon, so be sure join our Action Network list if you have not already, to get the invite.

Glendale Unveils First Electric Beeline Bus!

One of the big events at the fair, aside from the fabulous goat yoga, was the unveiling of Glendale’s very first, ready to hit the road ELECTRIC BUS! The City has purchased five buses so far for our Beeline Service, as part of the City’s premiere Fleet Electrification Plan. As part of that plan, the City aims to have a zero carbon bus fleet by 2035. This is five years ahead of the schedule required by California Air Resource Board that mandates a full transition by 2040 (similar earlier deadlines have been set by neighboring cities.) The buses will be zero-emission, quiet and provide a super smooth ride.

The bus purchases and related infrastructure upgrades were supported with grant funds, including $34.6 million from from the California State Transportation Agency’s transit and intercity rail capital program to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions in the region. Learn more about this grant received in 2022 which provides funding for “purchasing battery electric buses and chargers, designing and constructing a parking deck with a photovoltaic canopy, installing electrification infrastructure, installing shelter and shade structures and e-ink real time bus arrival information at bus stops, installing bus technologies on all Beeline buses including Cal-ITP contactless payment readers, funding an integration study to better connect Beeline services with the new BRT service, Metro and Metrolink/Amtrak services, and creating a Climate Mobility and Safety App to encourage transit ridership.”

In addition, in August, 2024, Glendale received $4,930,194 in Proposition C 40% Discretionary funds and $7,680,000 in federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (“CMAQ”) Improvement Program funds to support electrifying the Beeline fleet and maintenance facility. Learn more about this grant and the positive impact of this project here. And, in 2023 Glendale received a Volkswagen Mitigation Trust Fund grant of $648,000 for three battery-electric buses.

Back to the Fair! The first Electric Beeline Bus ready for the road was introduced with short speeches by Daniel Hernandez (Public Works), Mayor Ara Najarian (who was a strong supporter of the zero-emission buses) and both Assembly Members representing Glendale.  We are all excited to see these new buses quietly and cleanly cruising the streets of Glendale, reducing our carbon footprint (and bus maintenance costs!) for years to come. Be on the look out for the bus design with the plug!

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