Gas-powered landscaping equipment causes significant air and noise pollution and negatively affects workers, neighborhoods, habitat and health of the soil. LOSN has launched a campaign to support healthy yard care practices and the transition away from gas-powered landscaping equipment.
Our mission is to usher in a new era of landscape practices that restore the environment and encourage long-term sustainability, increased biodiversity, and enhanced resilience.
Click the image below to open a pdf copy of the mailer sent to 14,000 homes in Lake Oswego in August, 2024.
Click the image below to read your copy in a new browser window.
Your participation is important to the success of our campaign. Here are ways you can help us expedite the transition away from gas-powered landscaping equipment and toward more healthy and sustainable practices:
Kathleen Wiens kwiens@losn.org
Submitted by Jeff Munro, Deputy Director
The City of Lake Oswego has already taken important steps to eliminate gas-powered equipment from its contracted landscape services for 200 city-owned sites and has replaced much of the gas-powered equipment used by Parks and Public Works.
Submitted by Tod Blankenship, Director of Landscape Stewardship at Mountain Park HOA
Mountain Park HOA (MPHOA) Landscape Stewardship Division has purchased nearly all of the Stihl commercial battery-powered tools available. When it comes to the replacement of any light equipment we will purchase a battery option if available.
Testimonial from Jeff & Kathleen Wiens
For years it was frustrating trying to start our gas lawnmower and edger. Having to mix oil and gasoline, trying to find a funnel to fill it was always a hassle. The cloud of smoke and fumes made the process even more unpleasant. It was frustrating having to wipe the spilled gasoline off of our hands and ground.
Submitted by Michael Earp
Today’s electric mowers are very light and have a long runtime with a powerful Lithium battery. It is so quiet and easy to push and can do the entire lot with no problem.
David Roberts, climate journalist, July 9, 2021
Many of you are alarmed about the climate crisis and trying to figure out what you can do to help slow global warming. You are not alone. In the 2023 Lake Oswego Community Survey, addressing climate change was one of the top concerns of Lake Oswego residents.
One of the most impactful changes you can make is to electrify both how you get around and the sources of energy in your home. Electrification moves us away from fossil fuels that are the primary source of the climate crisis toward “clean”, renewable sources such as solar, wind and hydropower.
Data from the Cool Climate Network, an affiliate of UC, Berkeley, shows that a Lake Oswego household can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 40% by electrifying everything. That’s significant!
Linda Ganzini lganzini@losn.org
Please contact us if you wish to help with our efforts.
Currently Portland General Electric, our local electricity utility, is working to meet a state-mandated requirement for electricity that is 80% clean by 2030 and 100% clean by 2040. However, you don’t have to wait. You can support 100% renewable energy now by installing rooftop solar, participating in a community solar program, or signing up for PGE’s Green Power Choice. Other actions you can take to reduce strain on the grid, keep energy more reliable and sustainable, and save a little money include participating in PGEs Peak time rebates and “time of day” billing programs and installing a smart thermostat.
To help you reduce your electricity bill while making the clean energy transition go faster, there are many new high-efficiency electric appliances available for cooking, water heating and space heating that use less electricity. In addition, electric appliances and vehicles are frequently quieter, safer, have lower maintenance costs, and are fun to use. To help your home get off fossil fuels altogether, replace your fossil gas fireplace with an electric one. All these changes require planning and there are websites that help you develop a home electrification plan that maximizes incentives from Energy Trust of Oregon and federal tax credits. Generous point of sale rebates will become available for low and middle income families, likely in 2025, though many details are still be worked out at the state level.
Through our Electrify LO program we hope to get everyone in Lake Oswego on to electricity as quickly as possible. We will show you step-by-step how to make the transition to clean energy and help you along the way.
Heating and Cooling Your Home and Water
Replace your furnace/air conditioner with an electric heat pump. A heat pump works like a refrigerator. In the winter it takes the heat from the outside air and pumps it into your home. In the summer you flip a switch, and it works as an air conditioner by taking heat out of your home and into the outside air.
Heat pumps can also be used to heat your water. Heat pumps are cleaner, more energy efficient, and healthier than natural gas furnaces. Consider retiring your furnace or water heater early before it breaks down.
For more information on preparing to replace your heating and cooling system including links to personalized guides, contractors, and incentives, see our Heat Pumps page.
Upgrading Your Home
Passive home design can dramatically reduce a homes energy needs. Learn more about this energy efficient building construction. Plus, take a look at how two Lake Oswego residents have transformed their homes to both move off fossil fuels and tighten their building envelope.
Cooking Your Food
Electric induction cooktops are more energy efficient than natural gas or other electric stoves. Advantages include that they:
For more information, see our Induction Cooktops page.
Maintaining Your Yard
Interested in eliminating the noise and pollution from gas powered yard equipment? There are now electric options for every piece of landscaping equipment available that you or your landscaping service can use. Check out what equipment is available and which landscaping services offer an all-electric service at our Electric Landscaping Project page.
Automobiles and trucks, burning fossil fuel, are one of the greatest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. That is why making your next purchase of an electric vehicle (EV) is one of the best things you can do to eliminate toxic air pollutants while you are also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
EV options are rapidly expanding. They are fun to drive, less costly to maintain, and have numerous financial incentives that make them much more affordable.
For more information, check out our EV page.
The climate crisis is alarming, but each of us can make more of a difference than we imagine, and we can support each other as we go. So please join this effort and begin your electrification journey. Pass on the word to others in Lake Oswego about how they can become part of this community-wide effort. Check out the websites of our partners Electrify Now and Electrify Oregon for detailed information. Both websites have contractor resource pages with valuable discounts.
Making your home more energy efficient and electrified can be complicated, especially when trying to maximize your use of utility, state, and federal financial incentives. GreenSavers is a full service home energy efficiency contractor that offers energy audits, energy consultation, insulation, energy efficient windows and clean, energy efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. Get a consultation for $150. It benefits you, LOSN and the planet
Schedule: You can schedule a Home Energy Consultation here: https://bit.ly/46XXh0Y
Bonus: Use the code, LISAADATTO when you contact GreenSavers to set up the consultation. If you use the code and then complete a project of $2,500 or more, GreenSavers will donate $200 to LOSN.
The Inflation Reduction Act, signed by President Biden in August 2022 represents the most important federal climate legislation ever signed into law. It is estimated that the bill will reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by about 40% below the nation’s previous peak. The law includes many ways to reduce the emissions from your home including increased tax credits for rooftop solar, an up to $2000 tax credit for a heat pump space heater and another up to $2000 tax credit for a heat pump water heater. Other tax credits are available for upgrading your electrical panel and basic weatherization. Find out what savings you are eligible for using the Rewiring America IRA Calculator. Depending on your income level these credits can add up to as much as $14,000. Rewiring America calculates that the average American family will save $1800 per year in energy costs by moving their cars and appliances away from fossil fuels to electricity.
Dave Hawley has been concerned about climate change for decades. His first job in the summer of 1968 was as a cook in Glacier Bay. There, glacial ice had receded many miles from the first recorded observations. The glacial recession was initially attributed to...
Ariel and Kyle strive to do their part to live an ecologically sustainable life. They eat a plant-based diet, purchase a CSA share from Luscher farm, and are looking at EVs for their next cars. In 2021, they returned from several years in California and purchased a...
September 2024 Find out about Solar Options for you! The Lake Oswego Electric Home and Vehicle Fair has opportunities to learn about solar. Check out our Home and Vehicle Fair event page for complete details. [button...
Rooftop solar using photovoltaic cells is a great way to address climate change by moving off fossil fuel sources of electricity. However not everyone in Lake Oswego has good solar access. The answer then is to consider Community Solar.
Most simply, community solar is solar energy that is generated from a central location and shared by multiple owners or subscribers. That means you don’t need your own rooftop panels to get the benefits of solar.
Benefits of Community Solar
Gasoline and diesel propelled vehicles are one of the greatest sources of air pollution and contributors to the current climate crisis. One of the best answers to these concerns is the growing movement toward electric vehicles (EVs). The Lake Oswego City Council’s Sustainability and Climate Action Plan has made support for the adoption of electric vehicles in our community a key goal. As the graph shows the adoption of EVs in Lake Oswego is rapidly accelerating.
Most EV’s currently are recharged overnight in a homeowner’s garage. However, people who live in apartments and condominiums typically lack access to convenient charging.
To address this concern the city’s Sustainability Advisory Board and the Lake Oswego Sustainability Network have formed a joint committee of citizen volunteers whose mission is to encourage and facilitate EV charging in our city’s multifamily dwellings.
Duke Castle info@losn.org
To help you get started here are some available resources:
We will be making recommendations to our city council on what more the city can do to help you. Please contact us at info@losn.org to let us know how the city can support you.
In 2015-16 we asked Oswegans to “put on your writer’s hat” to help the Lake Oswego Sustainability Network and Lake Oswego Library envision what role Lake Oswego can play in addressing the issue of climate change!
Everyone was asked to tap into their creative side and write a story, poem or performance piece looking back from sometime around the year 2050. The writer could take the view of a future generation, a newspaper reporter, a long-time resident, a new resident, etc. Writing from the perspective of that person, what actions could Lake Oswegans of today take now to prevent the worst effects of a changing climate and create a better world in the bargain – an action that he or she would take pride in many years from now. The deadline for submissions was March 31, 2016.
After review, stories were posted to the Lake Oswego Sustainability Network website, and some were selected for publication in the Lake Oswego Review.
Read the Lake Oswego Review article about the project: “LO Writes: Project will look into the city’s future“