Climate Action & Sustainability | City of West Hollywood

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About WeHo Climate Action and Sustainability

Long Range Planning staff in West Hollywood is responsible for implementing progressive green policies and offering the community a host of toolkits and programs to achieve the City’s goals in WeHo Climate Action.

WeHo Climate Action is the 2021 Climate Action and Adaptation Plan for the City of West Hollywood. It outlines the City’s intended path to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035 and adapt to the impacts of a changing climate while centering equity and quality-of-life outcomes for the West Hollywood community. WeHo Climate Action:

Establishes more aggressive greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and explore strategies to prepare for and recover from adverse climate impacts (i.e., drought, extreme heat, flooding, etc.);
Obtained feedback from a variety of stakeholders, including specific populations who are most impacted by a changing climate (e.g., older adults, children, low-income families, persons with disabilities, the unhoused, indigenous peoples, etc.);
Empowers the WeHo community to play an active role in creating a sustainable future, and;
Continues to support WeHo as a vibrant and sustainable city for current and future generations.

The following five focus areas set the vision for a sustainable, resilient, and equitable West Hollywood. Click to learn more:

Active Projects and Programs

Improving Energy Performance in Existing Buildings

Based on its 2018 Greenhouse Gas Inventory, buildings are the City's largest source of GHG emissions. Since WeHo has a significant number of existing buildings, many of which were constructed before modern energy efficiency standards, reducing emissions from existing buildings is a critical step toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2035.

The City is working with The Energy Coalition, ARUP, and Inner & Outer Engagement to develop policy and engage the community on Improving Energy Performance in Existing Buildings in West Hollywood.
One of the policies in development is an Equitable Building Performance Standard (EBPS). An EBPS requires buildings to achieve a performance standard by specific dates. In terms of climate goals, EBPS policies should support (1) reducing energy use, (2) electrifying as much as possible, and (3) increasing renewable energy to reduce fossil fuel consumption.
Visit the project page to share your thoughts on how local performance standards and laws can help improve energy performance in buildings and create healthier and safer homes.

Electrify WeHo: New and Existing Building Decarbonization

Burning fossil fuels like methane gas or propane, for cooking and heating, can significantly contribute to local air pollution and climate change. To encourage community members to electrify their homes and help WeHo meet its carbon neutrality goal, the City created Electrify WeHo to provide electrification resources and financial assistance information.

Electrification measures include panel upgrades and replacement of gas-fired appliances with high-efficiency electric appliances (space and water heating, cooking, and clothes drying).

Community Resilience Outreach

Long Range Planning staff is working with Public Safety on a community climate resilience toolkit that includes:

Resource conservation tips Information about how to prepare for and respond to climate-related emergencies (including heat waves, power outages, drought, flash flooding, and wildfires).
Stay tuned for a new webpage and view updates for this project at the WeHo Climate Action Public Dashboard.

Green Business Program

Transportation Demand Management

The City’s Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Program officially launched, in partnership with Steer Group, in February 2024. The intent of the Program is to implement the TDM Ordinance, WHMC 10.16.

February - July 2024: During Phase 1, staff will develop the monitoring tool for compliance and establish a workflow for the requirements to be included in the entitlement and business licensing processes. Staff will also be developing the outreach and marketing strategy.
Following Phase 1, LRP staff and Steer Group will begin implementing the requirements.

To view the WeHo Climate Action Public Dashboard in your browser, click here.

View the Climate Action and Adaption Plan (WeHo Climate Action)

How did WeHo Climate Action engage the local indigenous population?

West Hollywood is located on unceded Tongva/Kizh territory and is situated between two Tongva/Kizh villages, Kuruvunga and Kawee’nga. In addition to the engagement process above, the WeHo Climate Action planning process included conversations centering the perspectives of Tongva and non-Tongva Urban Indigenous leaders, which were held in partnership with the Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples. The WeHo Climate Action engagement effort sought to better understand traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), principles, practices, and pathways to help guide climate action and adaptation efforts, while also building a foundational relationship between the City and the local indigenous community for future collaboration. Feedback from these conversations have been incorporated into the draft WeHo Climate Action Plan. Also, as part of this project, an album sharing snippets from interviews with local indigenous community members was created and can be found HERE.

What are City's past climate actions?

The City of West Hollywood adopted a Climate Action Plan (CAP) in 2011 as an implementation measure of the General Plan 2035. This plan identifies community and municipal strategies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve sustainability within municipal operations and the community as a whole. The City developed a 2017 CAP Annual Progress Report on its climate action activity since CAP adoption. More information on such activities can be found HERE.