Cool Irvine: Irvine's Campaign to Reach Carbon Neutrality
Climate scientists tell us we must act now to avoid irreversible ecological tipping points and prepare for the worst effects of climate change. Irvine joined the cities of Los Angeles and Petaluma to embark on the ultimate mission of our time: becoming a carbon-neutral community.
Program Details
We are exploring strategies to develop the most innovative pathways to carbon neutrality, and need your help! Our participation in the Cool City Challenge pilot initiative led to the development of the Cool Block Program, now known as the Cool Irvine Program, recruiting over 200 households to join in a shared learning experience to improve sustainability and quality of life in their own neighborhoods.
For more information on the Cool Irvine Program, click here.
Cool Irvine Launch
On January 13, 2022, Irvine Mayor Farrah N. Khan and special guest Congresswoman Katie Porter welcomed over 185 community members and congratulated Irvine for being selected to participate in the Cool City Challenge. During the event, attendees heard from the creators of the Cool City program, Irvine’s Climate Moonshot Team, and several community partners. Participants also had an opportunity to share their input on the Cool Irvine vision and highlighted priorities to help the community become carbon neutral.
To learn more about the launch statistics, click here.
Interactive Climate Action Dashboard
The Cool Irvine Program offers a dashboard that allows Irvine residents the capability to track daily or more long term actions to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The action items are so tangible that every person and household can participate and a lot of actions help people lower their bills overtime! Our household activities are major contributors to carbon emissions. Switching to 100% renewable energy, composting, and water conservation strategies are just some examples of what we can do. Showing us how to implement solutions and how we can modify our lifestyle to help the environment makes this dashboard a powerful tool.
Accept the challenge and join Irvine residents increasing their awareness about sustainable living and making measurable changes they can in their households and communities. It's about doing what we can instead of doing it all. We are stronger as a community and can make a big difference together.
Background
The Cool Block Program is a community-based grassroots initiative where neighbors organize into small teams, often 5–8 households, to learn and take coordinated actions on topics like carbon reduction, water stewardship, disaster resilience, livability, and empowering others to reduce their environmental impact together. These teams share resources, track progress, and support one another through a structured journey of sustainability and community building.
This program serves as the foundational building block for the Cool City Challenge, which scales that neighborhood-level engagement across an entire city as part of a broader “climate moonshot” goal — empowering cities to mobilize residents and local resources toward carbon neutrality by 2030. The idea is that many interconnected Cool Blocks create Cool Neighborhoods, which collectively help cities meet ambitious climate targets under the Cool City Challenge framework.
