The Multnomah County Office of Sustainability works with the community and County departments to help make Multnomah County a better place to live, work, and do business. This month, we interviewed Multnomah County’s Sustainability Director, John Wasiutynsi.

“We firmly connect our work of contributing to a healthy planet with Multnomah County's mission to protect the most vulnerable in our community. This mission shapes the way we approach sustainability, which is based on achieving social, economic, and environmental justice.”

*Office of Sustainability staff Tim Lynch, Sara Mihm, Knowledge Murphy, Silvia Tanner, & John Wasiutynski*

How long have you been a part of the ZERO Coalition and what compelled the Multnomah County Office of Sustainability to join?

The Office of Sustainability joined the Zero Coalition in November 2021. As a County, we have been on a path to net zero buildings since the adoption of our High Performance Green Building Standard in 2012, which aligned County building standards with Architecture 2030 goals. This year we accelerated that timeline when our Board committed to no fossil fuels in new construction and major renovations. These goals, and the goals of the Coalition, are vital to Multnomah County’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reach our ambitious goals of powering our economy with 100% renewable energy.

We are equally concerned with the impacts of high energy costs on low and moderate income households in Multnomah County. According to the Oregon Department of Energy, 24% of Multnomah County households are energy burdened. Practically speaking that means that those households are making choices about which bills to pay, and between turning on a heater or an air conditioner and other vital household needs like healthcare, rent and food. High performance building codes, combined with utility justice measures like bill assistance and low income rates, are vital to our communities well being.

Multnomah County focuses their efforts across a wide array of energy and climate initiatives. Can you tell us about your staff and some of your more compelling work you have recently done?

The Office of Sustainability team is small, but mighty. We root our work in the overall mission of the county, which is to address the root causes of injustice in our community. Two areas of work that come to mind are our regulatory interventions, and climate planning work.

Over the past year, as the pressure of extreme weather related to the climate crisis, and COVID-19 have rocked our community, Office of Sustainability Staff has been pushing for rate payer protections at the Public Utility Commission. Energy is vital to a person's survival and ability to thrive. But, that has been even more true during the pandemic when kids have been learning from home and people's incomes have been crushed by unemployment. Along with a big coalition, we were successful in arguing for a moratorium on shutoffs and are excited about a new rule-making process that will revamp shutoff protections. We believe that a transition to 100% clean energy cannot be just if people can’t access the energy they need to survive and thrive.

We have also launched a process to explore what the future of climate planning will look like in Multnomah County. We are calling this process, Climate Justice by Design. This is a partnership with the City of Portland and community based organizations like the Coalition of Communities of Color. This design inspired process is predicated on the idea that we can accomplish more when communities experiencing the worst impacts of the climate crisis plan with the government, and we generate bottom up solutions.