Read me First: The La Canada Flintridge Country Club’s Green Pathways sustainability quest is launched — the clock is ticking.

Propelled by a sense of urgency driven by the climate crisis, we started to explore how we could reduce our businesses’ carbon contribution to climate change.

Wouldn’t it be great to contribute to the solutions, instead of being a part of the problem? The answer was a big, happy, “yes!”

How to reduce our carbon emissions at the club?  What’s the quickest change we can make? What has the most impact? It’s all so confusing!

I needed help, but even finding the right kind of help seemed daunting. Looking for a sustainability expert, I searched online but didn’t know which consulting companies were reputable and which were greenwashing machines (deceptive practices to appear “green”). Meanwhile, we proceeded on our own to get very complex solar bids and encounter challenging issues with installation. Both the expense and the consequences of not acting are and were high.

I screwed up my courage and made the decision to call Dan Brotman.  Help at last.

I finally turned to a man I admire and had met only once at the La Kretz Innovation Campus in DTLA (a very cool place to tour, if you have a chance), it’s home to Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) and a hub for innovators around the globe. You can tour the DWP campus and see what they’re all about. Here’s a link to see what some of their cleantech startups are up to. When I had visited La Kretz, I walked around the campus, awed and inspired by what the various startups were attempting to do. I was groping around at the point, trying to find my way to something that would be doable, reduce our carbon contribution, and would be within our budget.

Dan is an impressive environmental leader, who has an MA in International Economics, and a BA in Development Studies. He also happens to be the co-founder of the Glendale Environmental Coalition and a Chair of the SoCal 350 Climate Action Legislative Committee. Dan was a leader in Glendale’s vote to transition from extracted fossil fuels, which of course release damaging carbon into the environment, to a 100% clean energy future.

Dan listened carefully as I explained my struggle to find a starting point for our business. I told him about our solar bids and how complicated it seemed (at that point, I was curious about something called community solar — a community solar collective of sorts). He pointed me to Ted Flanigan’s “sustainable solutions” Ecomotion, also right next door in Glendale — I love local and was grateful for the direction.

Finally, we’ve landed on the right path! The Green Pathway.

The only problem was that Ecomotion’s clients are school districts, college campuses, and large corporations. Although our club may look like a big guy, we’re actually a family-run small business, with nowhere near the resources of the bigger players. But my husband, Randy, and I instantly clicked with Ted and he kindly took us on. That stroke of luck was way back in October, in the middle of the “damnpemic” as I call it.

Next, read about how we’ll do our part — yet it isn’t enough.

And while the clock ticks, let’s all keep working towards a green, more sustainable future for our children, our children’s children, and future generations far into the future.