ABOUT
As E2’s second-largest network in California, the Los Angeles Chapter includes over 300 members and supporters. E2’s California chapters played a key role in passage of many of California’s marquee climate and clean energy policies, including several firsts for the nation: fuel efficiency standards in 2002, setting the foundation for national standards adopted by the Obama Administration (AB 1493), a comprehensive program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 (AB 32 and SB 32), and support developing, implementing, and defending the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, Cap and Trade, and the Renewables Portfolio Standard. E2’s California policy program will continue work to defend, strengthen, and extend the state’s climate and clean energy program – including advancing building and transportation electrification – while looking for opportunities to establish California as a global leader in water efficiency, plastic pollution reduction, and other issues at the nexus of the environment and the economy.
Chapter Leadership
Jay Baldwin
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Jay Baldwin
E2 Chapter Director
Jay Baldwin is a Green Industry investor and strategic advisor focusing on commercial building services and clean energy. Through Wind River Capital Partners, he follows private equity offerings by providing merchant banking services. Recent clients include Veloce Energy, an LA based company on the front lines of the electrification of transportation with initial emphasis on grid infrastructure for EV Service providers.
Prior to forming Wind River Capital Partners in 1993, Jay co-founded City Gardens, Inc. in 1975, which grew to be the third largest interior landscaping service in the United States with over 200 hundred employees operating in seven states. He successfully exited by selling to a public company.
Laura Berland-Shane
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Laura Berland-Shane
E2 Chapter Director
Laura has been a sustainability advocate and professional for over two decades. Her experience ranges from roles in solar (SolarCity), demand response (Comverge), building technologies (Siemens) and electric vehicle infrastructure. Her expertise includes: business development, corporate development, strategy, policy, and operations. .Currently, Laura is Vice President, Government Affairs at Blue Planet Systems. Blue Planet is a California-based carbon capture and sequestration company with technology that enables the sequestration of CO2 into concrete. Its focus is to decarbonize the power and industrial sector through capturing emissions from power plants, cement manufacturing and steelmaking facilities. Prior to Blue Planet, Laura was Western Region Utilities Director for Greenlots – a leading provider of electric vehicle infrastructure.
Laura has also focused her skills on advancing sustainability within her community and was a cofounder of the Sustainable Business Council LA. . She first became aware of the critical need to address climate change during a trip to Guatemala in 2000, where she witnessed deforestation created by slash-and-burn practices. That led her to form The Macadamia Tree Project, a 501-c that raised funds to donate non-GMO macadamia seedlings to indigenous farmers. She also acts as a mentor for Women In Green. Laura has a BA in International Relations from Brown University and an MBA in finance from The Wharton School, and is a LEED AP.
An avid yoga practitioner and resident of Santa Monica, Laura enjoys taking road trips in her electric vehicle to the mountains and beaches with her two daughters.
Tim Sexton
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Tim Sexton
E2 Chapter Director
Tim Sexton is a Founder and Principal of The Make Good Group, as well as co-founder of E2 Southern California. His firm helps its clients make good on their promises, make good in the world, and make good stuff by creating social impact strategies and programs that grow earnings and differentiate brands. He is a veteran of the content and digital industries, having served in senior management positions as both a creative and operating executive. Tim is also an Emmy Award winning producer who has served as an advisor, consultant, or senior executive to media companies, record labels, technology concerns, large public utilities, investment banks, professional sports franchises, healthcare systems, NGOs, ad agencies, public officials, and rock stars.Tim is also active as a director or advisor to the Alliance for Climate Education, Environmental Media Association, Rock the Vote, International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Liberty Hill Foundation, and others.
Ariel Fan
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Ariel Fan
E2 Chapter Director
Green Wealth Energy Solutions
Now the Founder and CEO of GreenWealth Energy, Ariel Fan started her energy efficiency career on the streets of Manhattan, walking door to door between hotels, bagel shops and dry cleaners helping small businesses save energy. From her experience, she felt that green building technologies and financial incentives were so poorly understood and confusing the public, and made it her mission to create easy pathways for building owners and managers to save energy.
After she graduated from Columbia University and moved back home to CA, She managed a portfolio of 60 commercial buildings across California, working with utilities such as SCE, PG&E, and DWP to educate building owners on how to speed up the decarbonization of buildings.
In 2016, Ariel was recognized as Southern California Edison's Energy Efficiency Partner of the Year, which led to her founding GreenWealth Energy to continue advancing green building technologies for commercial, industrial and public sector buildings.
Today, GreenWealth is rapidly growing and has recently been certified as the only woman, minority owned business enterprise (WMBE) energy company certified for government and public procurement.
Our Issues
- Growing the clean energy economy
- Reducing economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions
- Protecting the ocean economy from offshore oil and gas development
- Decarbonizing the built environment
- Modernizing and electrifying the transportation sector
Our Work
- Following the COVID-19 induced economic downturn starting in March 2020, E2 advocated California Congressmembers and state policymakers to leverage the job creation power of the clean energy industry to drive an economic recovery in California. A primary action in our recovery advocacy was E2’s lead role organizing and mobilizing a business group coalition to advocate to members of Governor Newsom’s Economic Recovery Taskforce, including Tom Steyer and CalEPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld.
- In June 2020, E2 released Clean Jobs California 2020, a report that details employment in the Golden State’s clean energy economy, including energy efficiency, renewable generation, and clean fuels and vehicles. Leveraging the reports data on clean energy job losses in California as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic fallout, the report made a case for a clean energy driven recovery and provided policy recommendations to advance investments in clean energy.
- In June 2020, the California Air Resources Board passed an ambitious Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule. This groundbreaking rule—the world’s first clean truck standard—requires truck manufacturers to sell a steadily increasing number of zero-emission vehicles in California in the coming years. In May, E2 submitted written testimony from almost 270 E2 California business voices in support of the rule and in June E2 recruited and supported business voices in the clean transportation industry to deliver verbal testimony in support of the ACT rule during the California Air Resources Board final hearing on the rule.
- In August 2020, A delegation of 20 E2 California members participated in a remote Sacramento advocacy day, virtually meeting with 27 legislative offices, as well as senior staff of the Newsom administration. The delegation advocated on multiple policy priorities, including support for companion bills (AB 1080 and SB 54) to dramatically reduce plastic pollution, broad support for clean energy stimulus investments, and an economic stimulus proposal (AB 841) to expedite the installation of California’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure and create a new program to repair and replace HVAC systems and water fixtures in California’s schools.
- Throughout 2020, E2 played a leadership role managing and mobilizing The Business Alliance for Protecting the Pacific Coast (BAPPC). BAPPC is a membership group of coastal businesses advocating against expanded offshore oil drilling proposed by the Trump Administration.
- In August 2019, E2 released Clean Jobs California, a report that details employment in the Golden State’s clean energy economy, including energy efficiency, renewable generation, and clean fuels and vehicles. The report received strong media coverage, including from the Sacramento Bee and the Mercury News. E2 also released its district-level fact sheets, analyzing employment and investment in the state’s legislative districts driven by climate and clean energy policies and programs.
- In August 2019, over 200 E2 California members and supporters signed onto a letter in support of SB 54 and AB 1080, identical versions of the California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act. These bills would ensure California is on the forefront of reducing pollution from single-use packaging and products, setting a goal to reduce waste generated from single-use packaging and products by 75 percent by 2030.
- In August 2019, A delegation of 14 E2 California members and supporters traveled to Sacramento for meetings with 27 legislative offices and senior staff of the Newsom administration. The delegation advocated on multiple policy priorities, including support for the California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act and opposition of a proposal (AB 1424) that would hamper open access to California’s public network of electric vehicle charging stations.
- In June 2019, E2 collaborated with Young Professionals in Energy on an event featuring Assemblymember Laura Friedman, who was interviewed by Los Angeles’ Chief Sustainability Officer on a broad range of issues, include water conservation.
Recent Success
- In 2020, E2 California brought the business voice to bear – including critical business community mobilization – to help pass AB 841, an innovative clean energy and economic stimulus bill that will drive hundreds of millions of dollars in clean energy investment by creating a program to repair and replace HVAC systems and water fixtures in California’s schools and accelerate the state’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure build out.
- In 2020, E2 California harnessed the business voice to help secure adoption of the groundbreaking Advanced Clean Trucks rule by the California Air Resources Board, establishing the world’s first clean truck standard.
- In 2018, E2 California elevated the business voice to help pass SB 100, which increased California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard to 60 percent by 2030 and created a statewide planning goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2045.
In 2018, E2 California organized business voices as part of the Business Alliance to Protect the Pacific Coast to defend California’s coastline from additional offshore oil and gas development. In response to opposition, the Trump administration indefinitely postponed its plans to expand oil and gas drilling off the nation’s coasts. - In 2017, E2 California amplified the business voice to help pass the bill package of AB 398 and AB 617, which extended California’s Cap-and-Trade carbon pricing program through 2030 and addressed critical air quality issues throughout the state.
- In 2016, E2 California harnessed the business voice to help pass SB 32, which extended California’s statewide greenhouse gas reduction goals out to 2030.
GET INVOLVED
Interested in learning more? Want to help us advance our climate and clean energy goals in Southern California and across the state and country?
Reach out to Mountain West Advocate Susan Nedell to begin receiving updates about supporting E2’s policy efforts in your area – including attending upcoming events, participating in advocacy campaigns, receiving our email newsletters, and more!
