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Name
Christienne de Tournay Birkhahn
Title
Commission Chair & Zero Waste Specialist, Zero Waste Commission - City of Berkeley
Bio
Zero Waste Specialist/Educator. BayArea-based, specializing in stakeholder outreach, policy implementation, consultancy, and project management, with a focus on responsible/ethical production/consumption and reuse/recovery of materials and resources through zero waste principles and practices. City of Berkeley's Zero Waste Commission Chair. Creative director professional for over 25 years. Past experience includes project manager of CARE/carpet recycling's marketing, education, and outreach effort through Gigantic Idea Studio, executive director of EcoMom Alliance, director for Sustainable Business Practices Certificate program at Dominican University, and Marin County supervisor's project lead, initiating county-wide bag ban effort, and local foodwaste-to-biogas feasibility studies. She speaks internationally on zero waste.
The Power of Citizen's Advisory Action in Creating Effective Policy
In 2018, the City of Berkeley began a process that resulted in a 2019 landmark piece of legislation, the Single-Use Foodware and Litter Reduction ordinance. For a municipality to successfully develop, adopt and implement zero waste ordinances, it is essential to solicit and build community buy-in and support. The City Council understood the power of its citizen advisory bodies and referred the proposed ordinance to its Zero Waste Commission for handle public outreach and input gathering, and then provide recommendations to Council before voting on the final language. Identifying key stakeholder groups and who will be most affected by proposed laws was a key strategy in designing a public information program. A three-pronged outreach/education approach - explanation of the ordinance, background on the necessity for it, and zero waste-approach conversion success stories - achieved the goal of gathering articulate and extensive public input, while aiding in an ever-evolving authoring process. Face-to-face interaction and surveys with the business community were effective in fine-tuning elements of the proposed ordinance. The role of an active citizen's advisory body can be instrumental in garnering valuable information from the community to create an implementable and effective law. It can also serve to assure elected officials that because a comprehensive outreach and education process was conducted, a more confident vote could be cast. Attendees will get a deeper understanding of how to design a community input program and present it to elected officials that have shared vision and goals.
The Power of Citizen's Advisory Action in Creating Effective Policy
In 2018, the City of Berkeley began a process that resulted in a 2019 landmark piece of legislation, the Single-Use Foodware and Litter Reduction ordinance. For a municipality to successfully develop, adopt and implement zero waste ordinances, it is essential to solicit and build community buy-in and support. The City Council understood the power of its citizen advisory bodies and referred the proposed ordinance to its Zero Waste Commission for handle public outreach and input gathering, and then provide recommendations to Council before voting on the final language. Identifying key stakeholder groups and who will be most affected by proposed laws was a key strategy in designing a public information program. A three-pronged outreach/education approach - explanation of the ordinance, background on the necessity for it, and zero waste-approach conversion success stories - achieved the goal of gathering articulate and extensive public input, while aiding in an ever-evolving authoring process. Face-to-face interaction and surveys with the business community were effective in fine-tuning elements of the proposed ordinance. The role of an active citizen's advisory body can be instrumental in garnering valuable information from the community to create an implementable and effective law. It can also serve to assure elected officials that because a comprehensive outreach and education process was conducted, a more confident vote could be cast. Attendees will get a deeper understanding of how to design a community input program and present it to elected officials that have shared vision and goals.
