Anna Oliva: Coming Together for Regional Climate Resilience

Anna Oliva is the BayREN Program Specialist with the Regional Climate Protection Authority/Sonoma County Transit Authority, working across nine jurisdictions, local governments, and partner agencies throughout Sonoma County. As someone who grew up in the Bay Area and is now witnessing the impacts of wildfires, flooding, mudslides, and more, climate change has become personal for Anna. Protecting the place that she loves is a motivating factor in her commitment to furthering solutions as a regional response to climate threats. Through BayREN programming, Anna is building capacity for climate solutions by working in partnership with area residents, businesses, and the local government to increase energy efficiency and reduce the consumption of natural resources. Often offered at little to no cost, BayREN programs make climate solutions accessible to more people, which is important for building momentum, climate resilience, and justice in ways that will ripple beyond the Bay Area.

One of the most important things you can do regarding climate change is talk about it.

• Anna shares her experience of what it’s like witnessing climate change in real-time in California, with increasingly severe wildfires, air quality, storms, flooding, and mudslides. "Seeing so much change in such a short period of time, in my home…When you are really seeing climate change, it's in your backyard, it's in your neighborhood, and you are having to live with it, that's when it's something beyond, oh, we're having a conversation about this to we are really living these challenges right now…. It's scary to live in a place where you are surrounded by wildfires…the smoke outside is so consuming, especially if you have a respiratory condition…both my grandmas are in Marin County, and that whole community, and it makes you realize how vulnerable we all are." What is your experience of climate change? In what ways has or will climate change impact your community? How might having a personal experience of the real-time impacts of climate change in your community influence or change how you act on climate?
• Anna focuses on building regional alignment around climate responses, which often means working with diverse stakeholders to find common ground. Anna's work to build climate alliances across the Bay Area relies on solid relationships and strong collaborations. A professional learning experience that prepared Anna for her current role at BayREN was her service in the SEI Climate Corps program, where she worked in local government to develop a coordinated response to climate change. Was there a time you found cooperation with someone who held a different view or opinion from yours? What were some strategies to build a relationship across those differences? How might finding common ground with others on climate change help in our collective work to address climate change?
• When it comes to climate careers, we are in new territory. Roles and opportunities are evolving, which present emergent climate career paths to explore. Anna says about a future career, "I had no idea what I wanted to be when I was growing up, but I knew that I wanted to be outside." She says it took some time and experience in various jobs, like being a florist, volunteering, and working in a research lab, for her to realize what she did and did not want to do. Anna shares advice with her younger self: "There are so many options for you...You are not just going to be stuck on one track. Everything is evolving, and so are you and...your career. That's how I feel now; where am I going to go? I don't know, but I am excited." What sustainability career would you like to learn more about, and what ideas do you have for gathering more information? In what ways are you open to evolving in the exploration of your future career path? Do you agree with the idea that even jobs that help you realize what you don't want to do can be beneficial by illuminating what you want to do?
• Anna has a deep-rooted desire to increase access to environmentally friendly decisions. It is part of her work today at BayREN, where she works with local counties and utilities to facilitate climate resiliency workshops and programs, often with no upfront costs, that guide residents to make smart choices that are both environmentally friendly and cost-saving. A practical tip Anna shares is to get an energy score on your home, whether you rent or own. This will provide information on your energy efficiency and a checklist of actions to improve it. Inquiring about programs available through your local energy utility or provider will also reveal opportunities for rebates and financial incentives to make sustainable improvements possible. Who is your local energy utility or provider? Would you accept Anna's invitation to get an energy score on your home? How could personalized information empower you or your family to make smarter climate decisions?

Learn about the solutions in this story.

• Sectors: Electricity, Buildings
• Climate Solutions Cluster: Enhance Efficiency, Shift Energy Sources
• For more on all of Project Drawdown’s climate solutions, visit drawdown.org/solutions
• Learn more about Anna’s work at the Regional Climate Protection Authority / Sonoma County Transit Authority

Explore Climate Solutions 101, the world's first major educational effort focused solely on climate solutions. This video series combines Project Drawdown’s trusted resources with the expertise of inspiring, scientifically knowledgeable voices from around the world: drawdown.org/climate-solutions-101.

Check out the Drawdown Roadmap, a science-based strategy for accelerating climate solutions that ensures efforts to stop climate change by governments, businesses, investors, philanthropists, community organizations, and others are as impactful as possible.

Visit the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, a resource that shares research, communications strategy, and opinion polling on climate communications.

• Subscribe to the Project Drawdown newsletter to receive biweekly insights and inspiration to guide your own climate solutions journey. 
• Drawdown Ecochallenge, presented by Ecochallenge.org, is a fun and social way to take measurable action on the top climate solutions. Take the challenge, and see how a few weeks of action add up to a lifetime of change for you and the planet. If you want to take action on climate solutions like Anna, start a challenge today. 
• The Drawdown Labs Job Function Action Guides are practical resources that highlight specific, high-impact climate actions employees in common corporate professions can take at work. 
• ChangeX connects people with proven ideas for strengthening communities with the resources needed to implement those changes. Explore countless ways to improve your community and help the world reach drawdown.
• Climate Generation's Green Careers for a Changing Climate Instructional Supplement (for Grades 6-8) contains resources to help young people learn about Green STEM Careers—paths that use STEM skills to help reduce the impacts of climate change. Throughout this instructional supplement, students use Project Drawdown resources to make important connections between climate solutions and different careers.
• Solutions Journalism Network highlights the importance of reporting stories of climate solutions in the media to create a more equitable and sustainable world. Visit their Teaching Climate Solutions resource to find curated collections and the latest examples of climate solutions journalism.
• SubjectToClimate (StC) is a nonprofit online connector for K-12 leaders of all subjects to find materials on climate change at no cost. Explore StC’s educator-generated database to connect to Project Drawdown-based climate education resources.