Rising Tides and Coastal Resilience with Janelle Kellman

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Sep 11

Janelle Kellman is the former mayor of Sausalito, an active member of the Sausalito City Council, and the founder and CEO of the Center for Sea Rise Solutions. Janelle's career spans environmental and policy roles, including leadership positions at the Environmental Protection Agency, PG&E, and advisory roles for organizations like Project Drawdown, Marin Clean Energy, and San Francisco Baykeeper. She chaired the Sausalito Planning Commission from 2016 to 2020, before joining the City Council in 2020.

In this episode, Janelle discusses recent initiatives she's been prioritizing, what coastal resilience means, and how she collaborates with neighboring cities and coastal cities around the world to prepare for the inevitability of rising sea levels.

On top of that, Janelle is an ultra-marathoner and a two-sport Division I athlete with degrees from Yale, Oxford, and Stanford. She also makes an exciting announcement at the end of the episode about her political future in California. You'll have to listen to the end to hear what it is!

Get connected:
Janelle Kellman LinkedIn
Cody Simms X / LinkedIn
MCJ Podcast / Collective / Instagram

*You can also reach us via email at info@mcjcollective.com, where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on Aug 11, 2023 (Published on Sep 11, 2023)

In this episode, we cover:

[04:06]: Janelle's background in sports and leadership
[08:39]: Navigating the challenges of 2020 as a mayor
[10:45]: Origins of Center for Sea Rise Solutions and climate risks in Northern California
[16:14]: Distinction between "sustainability" and "resilience"
[19:34]: Key priorities and needs around sea level rise resilience
[24:32]: Similarities between wildfire and sea level rise resilience
[26:18]: Janelle's international collaborations and knowledge sharing on sea level rise
[28:30]: International conferences like COP vs working with subnational leaders around the world
[31:14]: Janelle's tips on getting involved local government, climate work, and finding your "ikigai"
[39:01]: Natural overlap between outdoor athletes and climate activism
[41:17]: An exciting announcement from Janelle on her political future
[44:26]: How folks can follow and connect with Janelle
[45:07]: Shinrin-yoku, Friluftsliv and other concepts

Resources mentioned:

Toxic Tides, UC Berkeley Sustainability And Health Equity Lab
Katrina: A History, 1915–2015, by Andy Horowitz
Gnar Country: Growing Old, Staying Rad by Steven Kolter

Cody Simms (00:00):
Today's guest on My Climate Journey is Janelle Kellman, former mayor of Sausalito, an active member of the Sausalito City Council, and the founder and CEO of the Center for Sea Rise Solutions, an NGO focused on coastal resiliency. As the saying goes, all politics is local, and Janelle is working to drive change in a city of just over 7,000 people, that sits over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. We talk about what initiatives she's been prioritizing, what coastal resilience means, and how she collaborates with neighboring cities and with other coastal cities around the world to develop plans for the inevitability of coming higher water.
(00:41):
Janelle has worked at the intersection of the environment and policy for most of her career. She was the chairwoman of the City of Sausalito from 2002 to 2008, worked at the US Environmental Protection Agency, at PG&E, and she chaired the Sausalito Planning Commission from 2016 to 2020, before joining the City Council in 2020. During that time, she's also served on the regional task force for the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission as an advisor to Project Drawdown, on the board of directors of Marin Clean Energy, and on the board of advisors for San Francisco Baykeeper.
(01:19):
On top of that, she's an ultra-marathoner and a two-sport Division I athlete, and holds degrees from Yale, Oxford, and Stanford. Janelle makes an exciting announcement at the end of the episode about her political future in California that I'm not going to spoil right now. You'll have to listen all the way through to get to it. But before we start, I'm Cody Simms.
Yin Lu (01:41):
I'm Yin Lu.
Jason Jacobs (01:43):
And I'm Jason Jacobs. Welcome to My Climate Journey.
Yin Lu (01:49):
This show is a growing body of knowledge focused on climate change and potential solutions.
Cody Simms (01:54):
In this podcast, we traverse disciplines, industries, and opinions to better understand and make sense of the formidable problem of climate change, and all the ways people like you and I can help. Janelle, welcome to the show.
Janelle Kellman (02:10):
Hey, Cody. Thanks for having me. Much appreciated.
Cody Simms (02:12):
Janelle, I'm so excited to have this conversation because you are working on the front lines of climate change resilience with respect to sea level, and you're doing it in a local government context. I've been wanting to explore the intersection of local government and how climate change issues come to bear. Wow, here we are.
Janelle Kellman (02:35):
Here we are. I will tell you Cody, I grew up on the East Coast. When I was growing up there was a politician named Tip O'Neill. Tip O'Neill said, "All politics are local." So at the end of the day, that's where the big decisions happen, at the local level.
Cody Simms (02:47):
Well, Janelle, I mean, starting all the way back, it looks like you have this stellar academic background of Yale, Oxford, Stanford Law, and then you jumped right into local politics pretty soon thereafter in Sausalito, where you live. Which, for folks who aren't familiar, I guess, Sausalito is what's on the other end of the Golden Gate Bridge, for the most part is how I think about it. Maybe explain a little bit about how you decided to jump straight into local politics coming out of school, and then let's trace the evolution of your career toward where you now sit today.
Janelle Kellman (03:20):
Awesome. Thanks, Cody. Well, first let me just clarify. If you go to San Francisco and it's super foggy, and it's cold, and you get on the Golden Gate Bridge and you can't see more than 10 feet in front of you, and then you finally make it over and you see this paradise, this oasis on the waterfront, that's Sausalito. That's where we are. We're the first city right over the Golden Gate Bridge. It's amazing. Last year I served as the mayor of Sausalito. It's amazing, no matter where I go in the world, people seem to know it. So that's pretty cool.
Cody Simms (03:48):
Janelle, you'll notice over my left shoulder here is my Proof Lab skateboard, which I got-
Janelle Kellman (03:52):
I did. I see that.
Cody Simms (03:53):
... because I lived in Mill Valley for a year. So I'm a short-lived Marin County resident myself.
Janelle Kellman (03:58):
That's rad. Well, I would say, you can't see it, but I'm wearing Vans high tops like a true non-native but adopted Californian, so.
Cody Simms (04:04):
I love it.
Janelle Kellman (04:06):
Well, Cody, I'm happy to dive in. I should warn you as I did in our warmup that everything I do as an adult I think was shaped by my time as a team sport athlete growing up. So I never actually want to be a politician. I always wanted to find ways to be a leader. It just so happens that democracy allows you to do that in different ways, and one of those ways is to run for office.
Cody Simms (04:26):
I saw you were a two-sport DI athlete in college. What did you play?
Janelle Kellman (04:30):
I grew up in Pennsylvania, which had some interesting sports, one of which was field hockey. I was recruited to play field hockey at Yale. I played all four years, but I also learned to play lacrosse when I was in college, and then ended up playing two years of varsity lacrosse. The truth is I actually ... I see you have Kansas Jayhawks and you have basketball stickers behind you. I really wanted to play basketball, but I wasn't fast enough or quick enough. I had an opportunity to play DI. I went for it in field hockey.
Cody Simms (04:56):
Well, my partner Jason, the founder of MCJ, he's a huge ice hockey player, but I'm sure you and he could talk about the similarities and differences of field hockey and ice hockey all day long, for sure. So you did these two DI sports. You also are a super intense ultra-marathoner, as far as I can tell, from your background too. Explain more about that.
Janelle Kellman (05:15):
Yeah. Everything that I did as a kid was about playing outside and working with other people in terms of a team environment. In high school, I played soccer and basketball and field hockey, and then softball. And then in college I played two sports. In grad school, I learned to row. I got to play a little bit of basketball in grad school as well. And then I became a competitive cyclist. If you living in the Bay Area, you live in California, there's a lot of cyclists on the road. I did that for about 10 years. Absolutely loved it. Had a bad crash, broke my pelvis, and thought, "Okay, I need to work on some bone mass density here," and became a runner. Like all good Type A people, you don't just run a little. If you're going to run, you're going to run a lot. So I run the Alps, I run rim to rim to rim, the Grand Canyon, I've run across Zion National Park. That's what an ultra-marathoner does. We find longer things, longer than a marathon, normally on trails, and we go for it.
Cody Simms (06:06):
Wow. All right. I am feeling incredibly athletically insignificant right now, but in awe of all that you do because holy cow. I like to do a two to three mile run every now and again, but I cannot imagine a 26 plus. That's awesome.
Janelle Kellman (06:20):
You know what it is, Cody, though, you get into your flow. There's all like flow state. I'm going to plug a book, Gnar Country. If you've ever read it, it's all about hitting your flow state in skiing and endurance sports. That's what it is.
Cody Simms (06:30):
So you went from being the chairwoman of the City of Sausalito, to working at the US Environmental Protection Agency, to working at PG&E, and then to coming full circle back and engaging deeply in local politics in Sausalito and Marin County, with a big focus on sea level rise resiliency issues, and taking the time to be the mayor of Sausalito. Maybe walk us through this whole journey that you've been on. And then we'll spend a bunch of time today talking about what it's like to operate in local politics, what the climate resiliency issues are that you're working on today, and where you see all that going forward.
Janelle Kellman (07:08):
I love this question because it's literally my climate journey. So I see why you guys invited me today. I describe myself quickly as an environmental and land use lawyer, turned entrepreneur, turned local elected official. I said earlier I grew up on the East Coast, but I came out to Stanford for law school. Couldn't believe that you could go to school in such a beautiful location. Was enamored and knew I wanted to do environmental work. So I wanted to stay out here because of a lot of the environmental laws that were really very interesting and creative and innovative. I spent a little bit of time in San Diego, but came back north for a job and settled in Sausalito. Within the first, I think six months, there used to be a local paper. The local paper said there were something like 28 vacancies on various boards and commissions.
(07:54):
I grew up in a household where my father was very philanthropic, very active. He was the president of the synagogue, and the president of the ham radio club, and all the things that you did in those days. So, for me, when I saw this, I thought, "Okay, I've got to do something. I'm here in this community, I need to contribute." So I put my hat in the ring and got asked to be on the Sausalito Planning Commission. I spent two terms, so six years on the Planning Commission. Then termed out. Went and did some career building, launched a startup, and then got re-engaged on some new projects. They said, "Oh, you're still around, come back onto the Planning Commission." They plugged me in at a time when we started to work on something called the General Plan, and that is a 25 year planning document for communities in California.
(08:39):
We didn't have any long-term planning around coastal resilience, sustainability, disaster preparedness as it related to climate risk. I just couldn't believe that we didn't have this already baked in. I had the opportunity to start adding my voice to that, but as I did more and more work, I realized there was more work to be done. We were coming up on an election year in 2020. It was a big election year. It was a presidential election year. So I had some folks suggest, and I accepted, the challenge to run for city council. So I did. I ran on an economic resilience, climate risk and preparedness, a disaster preparedness, and a housing platform. Got the opportunity to serve as the vice mayor my first year. And then I was the mayor last year. Just really been probably some of the most interesting work I've ever done in my life.
Cody Simms (09:28):
As the mayor of Sausalito coming out of COVID, I can't even imagine ... There was no playbook for what you were trying to navigate through at that time, I'm guessing. Much like there is no playbook necessarily for how to navigate some of the climate disasters that the world is going through right now. I mean, you look at what's happening in Maui and Hawaii, just this week, with the wildfires, it's just awful. How did you learn how to do it?
Janelle Kellman (09:54):
Yeah. Well, first let me just take a moment to just say, "I'm really thinking about the people of Hawaii, and particularly in Maui." That's just a terrible example of what the changing climate can lead. Unfortunately, I think we're in for many, many more of these types of natural disasters. So my heart is really with them and my friends and family over there.
(10:12):
The thing about doing this type of work is there is no playbook, which means you get to make it up as you go along. You get to connect with mentors and learn from other people, collaborate, find those other practitioners that you can be a part of. That, for me, is a very natural way of behaving as a team sport athlete. Always looking for people who I can learn from, who I can collaborate with, I can partner with. At the same time, in some aspects, it's literally a clean slate in terms of the things that you can do and the activities you can try to promote.
(10:45):
It is one of the reasons that I launched an NGO called the Center for Sea Rise Solutions at the same time that I got elected. Because even as an environmental attorney in a community that has well-educated, experienced people working on coastal resilience and ocean health, we still didn't know exactly how to start planning for our community. I thought, "Well, what do you do around the country, around the world where you don't have these resources?" So I wanted to be able to package some of the learnings we were doing, and be able to connect with and help other communities that didn't have the types of resources that we have.
Cody Simms (11:18):
Well, let's dive into the Center for Sea Rise solutions a bit. We can come back to how to navigate and operate city government because I do want to spend some time on that. But the Center for Sea Rise Solutions, where does ... I mean, Sausalito is a coastal community. It's right on the water. Have you already been seeing signs of issues related to sea level rise, related to access to beachfront, et cetera? I think we've seen pictures of homes in coastal California that are all of a sudden starting to be challenged in terms of even erosion sort of wiping them away almost. Maybe explain a little bit about what caused you to specifically look at focusing on this issue, and then let's talk about the work that you all do.
Janelle Kellman (11:59):
A lot of it had to come down to disaster preparedness, equity, and long-term infrastructure planning. From the disaster preparedness angle, I took office at a time when wildfires were really beginning to ravage Northern California. I remember waking up one morning, it was in 2018, 2019, maybe, Cody, you were here, and Santa Rosa and Glen Ellen were on fire. It was so bad and the smoke was so thick, I thought Sausalito was on fire. It was that prevalent in the air quality that you just thought everything was burning. You didn't really know.
(12:31):
The way that Sausalito, from a geographic perspective, is oriented, you come across the Golden Gate Bridge on one side is the Bay, Richardson Bay, and on the other side is the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Should that recreation area burn, the fire would come over the freeway, cascading down the hillside into Sausalito. Meaning that the one roadway we have in and out is the ingress and egress in a disaster. That roadway could get flooded. I say it could get flooded because areas closer to the water are already flooding. We have king tides, storm surges. We have what's called subsidence, which is much of our waterfront, like in San Francisco, much of our waterfront is built on fill. So it's sinking, but the water levels are rising.
(13:14):
And we have aging infrastructure. So sometimes our pump systems don't work because they're not electric pumps, they're gravity pumps. As something falls below sea level, as you can imagine, you're no longer pumping water out, you're now actually gathering that water. So it was really about public safety and, "What are we going to do? How do we plan long-term? What do we do when it's terrible infrastructure? How do we do this in an equitable fashion, to make sure that we're not putting people in harm's way?"
Cody Simms (13:39):
Are there specific elements in Northern California that are unique to the Northern California landscape? When I think of sea level issues in the US, obviously, first thing that tends to come to mind for me is South Florida. I'm curious what similarities you have from South Florida, and from a preparedness perspective, where the Bay Area and Northern California is relative to work that's being done in South Florida today, within the context of the United States.
Janelle Kellman (14:07):
That's a really interesting question, Cody, because sea level rise and ocean health is a very geographically contextualized issue. To give you that example, South Florida and Sausalito are both low-lying areas where a lot of the basic infrastructure leads. Now, certainly Sausalito is a hillside community, but our infrastructure is in the low-lying areas. Our sanitation conveyances, our electrical lines, most of that major infrastructure is where it's flat.
(14:31):
In South Florida they have hurricanes. Those are true disasters and the true meaning of the insurance world. It's unanticipated. It's an act of God, a force majeure. It comes in. It wreaks havoc. It creates destruction. And then it leaves, and now you have flooding and all sorts of damage. In Northern California, it's more incremental. Flood after flood after flood, the corrosive effects of saltwater eating away at your infrastructure. Flooding that starts off as being a nuisance, and then all of a sudden, it's worse and worse. You lived in Mill Valley, which is actually one city north. You probably recall that the main bike path thoroughfare, because it's built literally into a marsh land and a preserve, would flood on a regular basis. So these incremental flooding patterns are actually happening more frequently, with greater intensity, because the storm intensity is also ramping up as we're seeing a changing climate.
Cody Simms (15:24):
One of the things that I think was an aha to me about sea level rise is we think of ... we see pictures and think back to things like Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans where you have stormwater that is eight feet high and putting buildings underwater. But it seems like in reality, for many communities, their first experience with sea level rise is less to do with the kind of things you can see with your own eyes, and it's more to do with your sewage issues backing up and groundwater sort of seep through basements and things like that. Not that you have basements in Northern California. But maybe explain a little bit about ... you talked about roadway flooding, but are there other areas that are currently challenges to residents today or that you expect to grow in the decade or two to come?
Janelle Kellman (16:14):
That's such a great point. Let me start with the macro, which is, we are beginning to understand, those of us who work in the climate space, that there's a difference between sustainability and resilience. Where sustainability is the opportunity or how we interact in a balanced manner with the earth and its ecosystem and environment, but resilience is our ability or our infrastructure's ability to bounce back from an impact. "How resilient are we if something happens to us? Can we come back? Can our sanitation infrastructure come back if it's impacted or inundated?" Those two things is a really important distinction because it's not enough just to think about, "Are we being sustainable?" But, "How do we respond in the case of an emergency?"
(16:53):
You're very right and spot on that many of the impacts that we're seeing from climate change, specifically sea level rise, are of the more incremental behind the scenes. There is some amazing work out of UC Berkeley by a professor named Dr. Kristina Hill. She has developed some research to show that a precursor to above-ground flooding, so we can also see it by the naked eye, is subsurface contamination and groundwater up swells. So if you have some toxics within an old shipyard, you may see some of them start to come to the surface. They published a report out of UC Berkeley called Toxic Tides, where you can look at this on a geographic basis. This has just tremendous impacts for BIPOC communities when you're thinking about how are we handling racial justice, environmental justice in the face of a changing climate?
(17:41):
Another issue that you don't see but is happening is if you have rising seawater or rising tides and it gets into, let's say, some of your groundwater system or your drainage. The infiltration of salt water into your pipes can lead to a moldy environment within buildings. That, of course, is very toxic, but you can't see it right away. So understanding, "Is my infrastructure resilient? Is it having infiltration of water?" is actually really, really important.
Cody Simms (18:11):
I mean, how much does this comes back to work you did 15 plus years ago when you were at the EPA working on the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act? I don't know how much you were anticipating these current challenges at the time, when you were working on that legislation, or if your working on the legislation sort of almost got to the point where you were able to look backward and see how things are coming full circle for yourself.
Janelle Kellman (18:33):
Yeah. God, I love that idea. I would say definitely my career has been a layer cake. I didn't know I needed all those layers, but man, I'm so much smarter and so much more informed because of all of those different jobs. Right out of law school, I clerked for a federal judge. Then I worked at two different law firms. Then I worked at EPA Region 9, as you mentioned, doing a lot of water, a lot of endangered species work. And then I got recruited to go over to our local utility to work primarily on the environmental due diligence around renewable energy projects that were coming online, to see if species were going to be impacted, to see what other resources might be impacted.
(19:07):
All of those lessons and all of those little pieces, you become a jack of all trades, master of none for a very long time. And then one day you wake up and you go, "Oh, my God, I think I know how to put these pieces together." This is really interesting and really powerful. I think that's partly how I see serving my community in public office is, "Wow, I've been doing this now for 25 plus years, a quarter century, shouldn't I help others with this? How do I move this at scale?"
Cody Simms (19:34):
With all of that background, and you talked about the difference between resiliency and sustainability, when it comes to sea level resiliency in particular, in the context of the Bay Area, I've now been around climate long enough to know there are no silver bullets, but what are the key priorities? I mean, when I think of sea level resiliency, I think of things people say don't do, like, "Don't build a sea wall because it's just going to cause further erosion," but I don't know what cities should actually do. So what are the key priorities and the things that coastal communities need to do to be more resilient?
Janelle Kellman (20:06):
A lot of it has to do with planning. The number one threshold element of planning is understanding where your vulnerabilities are. So conducting these vulnerabilities assessments is a really big deal. "What's going to flood first? Are my hospitals at risk? Are my main thoroughfares at risk?" Really, one of the highlights for me as the mayor last year was, I became so passionate about this that I ended up convincing our, then, Assemblyman Levine, to earmark a million dollars for us. So we got in a million dollar allocation to the city of Sausalito to plan our vulnerability around sea level rise. That was huge for our community to understand, that if you start to think about it in a coherent fashion, and you present the case, that you can bring in funding, you can start that process. It's not one of those insurmountable, "It's so hard, it's so overwhelming, I don't even want to talk about it." Now people are actually ready to talk about it, and okay talking about it, because we've had this opportunity to see that planning is relevant to us.
(20:59):
So then it becomes, "Okay, well, where can we have the most impact? What's most important?" Most of the time it's infrastructure. We want to make sure that you have safe drinking water, that you have sanitation, that you're not going to see some type of sewage output or something happen like that. That's where we start. That's the most important part of it. And then, of course, community engagement. "What does the community understand about the problem? How do we get members of the community to back this and support it?"
(21:22):
In Stinson Beach, which is a coastal community, we're a bay community, they're looking at managed retreat. Managed retreat is an acknowledgement that there's nothing that you can do to protect yourselves from rising seas that are about to flood your home. The only option you have in that instance is to move away from that area. So they're working very, very hard, it's in my county, Marin County, to figure out, "How do we facilitate managed retreat? What does that look like? How do we do it in an equitable fashion?"
Cody Simms (21:51):
That's the sort of thing where you could imagine, I don't know that these are the solutions, but you could imagine policies in that regard, where maybe the government even comes up with funding to help landowners or people who are starting to lose their land to maybe, in some way, get some kind of insurance or reciprocation for that. Because, again, from a justice perspective, it certainly wasn't their fault that the land starts to go away. I could imagine, right? Whereas it sounds like, in Sausalito, what you're trying to do is understand, "Are there changes you need to make to how your water supply gets to people? Are there changes you need to make to the sewage and how sewage lines are run to avoid areas that could be at high risk for leakage or contamination?" Am I understanding correctly?
Janelle Kellman (22:35):
That's part of it, but the bigger part of it is more existential of, "How do we live in balance with nature?" You mentioned Hurricane Katrina earlier. There's a wonderful book by a Harvard historian named Andy Horowitz called Katrina. It's basically that Katrina was 150 years in the making. All of the work done around the levees, all of the work done removing the natural wave attenuation mechanisms, the marsh areas led to these disasters over and over again. The city of New Orleans, unfortunately, has had many, many floods. Katrina just happened to be one of the largest ever experienced and really broadcast. Part of our planning is not just, "Is our infrastructure resilient, but what are some nature-based solutions? How can we deploy what are called artificial oyster reefs for wave attenuation? Can we restore habitat, marshland habitat, daylight creeks, and live more in balance with nature in a way that helps absorb some of these impacts?"
Yin Lu (23:30):
Hey, everyone. I'm Yin, a partner at MCJ Collective, here to take a quick minute to tell you about our MCJ membership community, which was born out of a collective thirst for peer-to-peer learning, and doing that goes beyond just listening to the podcast.
(23:43):
We started in 2019 and have grown to thousands of members globally. Each week we're inspired by people who join with different backgrounds and points of view. What we all share is a deep curiosity to learn and a bias to action around ways to accelerate solutions to climate change. Some awesome initiatives have come out of the community. A number of founding teams have met, several nonprofits have been established, and a bunch of hiring has been done. Many early stage investments have been made, as well as ongoing events and programming like monthly women in climate meetups, idea jam sessions for early stage founders, climate book club, art workshops and more. Whether you've been in the climate space for a while or just embarking on your journey, having a community to support you is important. If you want to learn more, head over to mcjcollective.com and click on the members tab at the top. Thanks, and enjoy the rest of the show.
Cody Simms (24:32):
Wildfire, obviously, has grown from a resiliency and adaptation perspective. Within the state of California, Governor Newsom has awarded, gosh, over a hundred million dollars, I think, toward wildfire resiliency that is now making its way into various state agencies, as well as local and regional agencies, to help with forest thinning, to help with planning fire breaks, a number of those issues. Are you seeing the state start to take similar approach on sea level or do you feel like sea level is further behind top of mindedness right now?
Janelle Kellman (25:07):
That's an interesting question. I would say that in many respects, wildfires ... I mean, they were so devastating. The Paradise Fire, the fire we had last year in South Lake Tahoe really, probably, is the top natural disaster in the minds of people in the state of California. But I'll say, a couple months ago, two of the largest insurance giants pulled out of the California marketplace. Saying that wildfire risk and the soaring cost of construction was just too much. So it's changing the dynamics of where the state might come in, what are the financial resources for rebuilding, what happens to the insurance industry and the concept of climate risk when you can't insure it.
(25:47):
I think sea level rise is rapidly becoming accepted and acknowledged as the next big issue. Flooding, when it does happen, is impossible to ignore, but it's some of these more incremental changes that people can kind of brush off more easily, "Oh, yeah, we have a high tide. I get it. That's why this area is inaccessible for two days. Not a big deal." But once you start to see that things are inaccessible for longer duration or maybe have some lasting impacts, then you begin to spend a little bit more time thinking about it.
Cody Simms (26:18):
How much collaboration do you do with other parts of the world, potentially, that are also experiencing, or anticipating, I should say, challenges? Indonesia comes to mind. I think the forecasts say Jakarta is probably the global city most at risk for sea level rise in the next 20, 30 years. Is there a global community of learning and sharing starting to emerge around these issues?
Janelle Kellman (26:41):
There is. In fact, I would've told you last year was the most interesting year of my lifetime career, this year is set to top it. I do a significant amount of what's called subnational climate diplomacy. You have the federal level, you have your embassies, your ambassadors and our federal policy, they kind of all talk to one another. But then in the middle layer, there's a whole bunch of us who are regional leaders. We're mayors, we're ministers, we're supervisors, and we all talk. So over the last two years, I've spent a lot of time in France and Italy and Portugal learning from a lot of those experiences across different countries.
(27:17):
In fact, two weeks ago I was in Venice, Italy, and I was asked to come and give a talk alongside the mayor of Biarritz, France, the deputy mayor of Porto, Portugal, and then someone from Nigeria, the resilience officer. Learning from one another and seeing what's happening while we're sitting in Venice, Italy, and I think UNESCO, a couple of weeks ago, just said this was one of the most endangered natural heritage sites in the world. It's amazing, Saint Mark's Basilica and that whole plaza completely flood. They're trying to raise it. "How do they do it? What's the engineering? What's the technical know-how?" They have a retractable sea wall. It's called the MOSE project. It costs $6 billion. It'll probably only be relevant for another 50 to 60 years. That's a crazy ROI.
Cody Simms (28:02):
Wow.
Janelle Kellman (28:02):
So yes, we are learning from one another.
Cody Simms (28:05):
Singapore, too, I think is funding huge seawall-related things around the city also, if I understand correctly.
Janelle Kellman (28:11):
Yes. A lot of this engineering has to be shared. So I'm an active participant in global communities of practice where we're sharing thoughts and lessons and ideas with other practitioners. But then, also, taking the opportunity to go to things like the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, and being able to share from people around the world and really learn from them.
Cody Simms (28:30):
When it comes to resilience and climate justice in general, I'm curious, if you could wave a magic wand to help with international cooperation, what you would want to see. You look at the energy transition. We have the COP conferences and a lot that the UN is doing to understand how different countries have carbon emission budgets, and countries' net zero commitments, and holding each other accountable to all of that. That's great. That has to happen. The better job everyone does there, the less of an issue resiliency becomes. But the reality of it is, resiliency is going to be an issue everywhere no matter how good of a job everyone does, just because the carbon budget's already baked in. What would you like to see happen in terms of international cooperation around all of this? And funding.
Janelle Kellman (29:17):
Yeah. I'm biased, but I think that working at the subnational level is super effective. I've never been to COP, personally. It's on my bucket list. But my friends who have gone tell me it is really exhausting and that the changes in the agreements are really difficult to implement. In contrast, I could call up five other mayors around the world, and we could commit to taking three actions. Chances are, we have a 90% chance we're going to get those three actions done, because of the way these decisions are made at the local level. But you raised an important question, how do we get the funding to make that happen?
(29:55):
There's a lot of amazing funding coming out of the federal government here, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure and Jobs Act. But the competitive grant process does make it really difficult for communities that are side by side, when they should be working together to plan. Because water or climate doesn't know a boundary, it makes it harder for us to anticipate. So I would say more regional planning, but with some type of governance structure that allows for obtaining financing in a meaningful fashion. Being able to translate best available science into easily understandable documents.
(30:29):
I joke that my NGO will never produce a white paper because I don't want to read one. Don't give me something that says, "Climate policy for elected officials," and then hand me a 30-page, nine point font. That is not for me. "One page, five bullets, 14 point font. Got it. Now I can use it." Some of these things are just, like, "How do you figure out ways to work together?" So financing, best available science, and then community engagement. "How do we educate? How do we make sure our youth understands what's happening?" Because that's where a lot of the driver is, kids will bring things home. In the state of California, we have a massive and well-developed community college system. What a great opportunity to engage the future of the state of California along these issues.
Cody Simms (31:14):
Well, great. Let's double click from international, subnational, all the way down to super local. What are the big takeaways you had from your time as mayor, and from your current time on city council, about how to get stuff done locally?
Janelle Kellman (31:28):
Well, you know what? Cody, there's no substitute for hard work. People always want, "What's the hack? How do I make it done?" You roll up your sleeves and you really, really dig in. That's number one. The number two lesson is teamwork. I mean, everything I do is about, "How do you make sure you identify people who are better at something than you are, and then have them join your team so that you are stronger together?" Those are the existential ways of looking at it.
(31:53):
In Sausalito, we had some major issues that were quite unexpected. We had a homeless encampment. We had a multi-year structural deficit. We had a very high housing mandate through the development of our housing element. And of course we have climate risk and flooding. So my takeaway is none of these issues can be evaluated in isolation. Everything is a climate issue. Everything is an equity issue. So now what we need is leadership that has the courage to understand that the big critical concerns for local communities, as well as statewide, require a climate lens because that is going to just add a wrinkle that we haven't seen before.
Cody Simms (32:38):
For folks who are motivated to help locally, but maybe haven't gone all in and said ... I'm a kid of the '80s so I reference Back to the Future, I'm sorry, but Mayor Goldie Wilson, who's like, "Mayor, someday I'm going to be mayor."
Janelle Kellman (32:52):
Yeah. Yeah.
Cody Simms (32:52):
They haven't gone all in and said, "I'm going to go be the mayor," but they want to get involved in their community and they care about climate. What advice do you have for folks?
Janelle Kellman (33:01):
Yeah, I mean, there's lots of ways to volunteer. Educate yourself about what is happening and what is going on. There are so many public meetings where you can learn and meet other like-minded people. And then I think it comes down, and I'm going to insert one of my favorite concepts, comes down to your ikigai. What is your purpose? Where are you good at something that the world needs, that you can get paid for, that you could get engaged in?
Cody Simms (33:25):
Ikigai? Wait, what is that?
Janelle Kellman (33:26):
It's the Japanese philosophy about finding your sense of purpose. If you take these four quadrants about what you're good at, what the world needs, what you get paid for, and where you can actually be of best use, and begin to overlap them, you find your passion and your purpose. That is where you spend your time and don't even realize that time is passing because you're so committed to it. So I think people should not be afraid to get started in learning. That's one of the things about climate, there's a lot of anxiety. I think if you can think about it less as anxiety and more as curiosity, you can find your path to your sense of purpose.
Cody Simms (34:03):
Well, wow, that is certainly the MCJ ethos bundled up in a word I've never heard of, so that's amazing.
Janelle Kellman (34:09):
Ikigai. Yeah, I'm a huge fan.
Cody Simms (34:10):
Maybe give some examples then of, in your time, whether it was as mayor or on the city council, where a concerned citizen or group of citizens came to you with a thing that they really cared about, and were then effective at helping to mobilize action around it in some way, shape or form.
Janelle Kellman (34:30):
Yeah, I mean, there's so many incredible examples of that. I'll do one that has nothing to do with the climate, which is, in Sausalito, we had our first ever Pride this year. We're close proximity to San Francisco, but we'd never had an LGBTQ celebration. I thought, "Okay, well, if we really value diversity, equity and inclusion in our community, and it's Pride month, how can we not sort of lead by example?"
(34:53):
I put this out to a group of citizens. I said, "Guys, I think this is really important. I'd like to see this happen." We came together. We put the first ever Pride on. It was extremely well received. We had over, probably, 1,500 people come to Sausalito to celebrate. But the thing that I want to mention is that part of this was the painting of rainbow crosswalks downtown. At a time when I think people are looking for hope and optimism, I can't tell you how many calls I got from people saying, "I know I normally call you to complain about a pothole or something, but man, I really love those rainbow crosswalks. They really make me feel like I'm a part of something big in this community." That's one of my most recent examples, but there are so many others.
(35:36):
We have an organization called Sausalito Beautiful. Their mandate is to beautify public spaces. They have really evolved to also be something of a sustainability and climate effort. They're very concerned about our passive solar cooling. "Where are our trees? Are we doing non-native species? What are we doing to be able to absorb water flow? What are our options when it comes to different ways to handle a drought condition?" When people come together over a shared purpose and a shared vision, it can be very, very powerful. I love seeing that in our community.
Cody Simms (36:11):
I love that. I now live in LA. I don't live in Marin County anymore, but I did somehow manage to get on a mailing list from the city of Los Angeles, I think Parks Department, where once a year I get a survey of the street trees that LA is considering buying more of for streets around Los Angeles. I have to admit, I always check the box for the native species as much as I can. It's super cool when local government tries to involve the citizenry. I think as citizens, it's still hard. You have to look for it. You have to look for ways to get involved. But I guess my advice to anybody is if there's an area you really care about, figure out a way to try to get active around it because it can make a difference.
Janelle Kellman (36:51):
Listen, the four rules of ikigai, what you love, that's your passion, what the world needs, that's your mission, what you're good at, that's, I guess, your job, your vocation, and what you can get paid for, that becomes your profession. Finding an overlap of those.
(37:07):
I think I mentioned briefly that Sausalito has one of the last remaining working waterfronts in all of the United States. We were very active during World War II. We made 93 ships for the Pacific Theater. I'm talking 300 foot ships. The Bechtel Corporation had come in and they had basically developed the whole shipyard. Now we have this really beautiful history of invention and innovation and fabrication.
(37:30):
One of the things I did on council was I launched a blue economy task force, and an ecosystem, an innovation zone, to say, "Okay, you want to be a climate leader? Do it in your backyard." We have a history of ship building. Okay. Ships create a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. What can we do to help lead towards decarbonization? Now we're building out an innovation zone. We launched a 501(c)(3). It's called SeaFutures.org. See the future, but S-E-A. The idea is, "How can we contribute to Ocean health in our backyard by leveraging these local resources?"
Cody Simms (38:03):
Oh, I love it. Janelle, you'll have to go back into the archives and listen to the My Climate Journey episode we did with Dr. Julie Pullen of Propeller, which is a venture capital firm that focuses specifically on ocean-related issues and the intersection with climate change. So they're looking for for-profit solutions that restore ocean health and leverage the ocean's ability to try to be one of the largest carbon sinks in the world. They're doing some incredible work and incredible investments there.
Janelle Kellman (38:32):
Yeah, I think so highly of Propeller. I know a couple of the principles there. The ocean is our friend, and we don't treat our friend very well at all. It is the largest carbon sink for us, and yet, full of plastics, full of sewage, full of pollution. So I think really doubling down on ocean health is a huge part of it. That's why I always talk about my sea level rise work as coastal adaptation and ocean health because they really are inextricably linked. I don't want to create a silo in my own work, so I try to think about them, sort of connecting the dots.
Cody Simms (39:01):
I just also recorded an episode with the executive director of Protect Our Winters. I don't know if that'll have aired by the time your episode airs or not, but they're an organization focused on connecting the outdoors community, mostly focused on outdoor winter adventure sports, with climate policy issues. I wonder, it feels like there could be a similar organization for the ocean athletic enthusiast community, in helping them get more active in some way, shape or form. Is there anything you know of that is doing that? Because boy, I'm sure a lot of listeners would love to plug into something like that. I mean, I know World Surf League has done some sustainability work. In fact, one of the Propeller partners, Reece Pacheco, used to lead sustainability work at World Surf League. I'm curious if you've come across anything.
Janelle Kellman (39:46):
I feel like you're teasing me right now. I feel like it was a conversation you and I had. Somebody introduced me to an organization that's literally environmental athletes. I can't remember the name of it, but I'll shoot it to you, maybe we'll put it in the show notes. But that was the whole concept was ... Because, as athletes, were outside all the time. I mean, look at the work that guys like Kelly Slater have done.
Cody Simms (40:04):
For sure.
Janelle Kellman (40:04):
Give him a shout out. Ocean protection, we have to start thinking about it. It's interesting, I mentioned the UN Ocean Conference. I was at Lisbon last year, but the next one's going to be in Nice, France. The year before, in 2024, in Paris, is the Olympics. I see them as two great opportunities to talk about climate, environmental issues on a world stage. We need to be linking those dialogues together because if you have international communities of athletes ... I mean, athletes are the folks who are out there. They know. They see the change of climate, "Hey, the ice is different, the water is different, the surf is different." I think it's a fascinating opportunity for us.
Cody Simms (40:40):
Yeah. We had a polar explorer, Will Steger, on the show, who led one of the first, actually, the first, I think, person to have taken a dog sled trip across both the North Pole and the South Pole. He was, I think only the fourth human in history to have visited both at the time he did it. He recounted things he's seen changing with his own eyes in a way that is frankly terrifying. Good episode also in the archives for folks to go listen to. Feels like when it comes to the ocean, there should be an organization, if there is one, folks weigh in on Twitter or LinkedIn, or wherever you're hearing the episode, and let us know what it might be, that connects ocean athletes.
Janelle Kellman (41:13):
I think it needs to exist. Yeah, it must exist.
Cody Simms (41:17):
The last thing I want to ask you about is, we've talked about the work you do locally, we've talked about how you engage locally at the international level, but it sounds like maybe you have your sight set on a different level of government. Maybe there's something there you want to share.
Janelle Kellman (41:31):
I appreciate that opportunity. We are a couple weeks away from officially announcing that I'm going to be running for lieutenant governor of the state of California. The reason I'm running for that position is because it's a really exciting climate role. People don't talk about it enough, but I was sharing with you earlier that the lieutenant governor in California alternates as the chair of the State Lands Commission, and that's the entity that handles our oil and gas leases, as well as a lot of our tidelands, which is right along the bay or along with the waterfront, serves on the Ocean Protection Council, serves on the California Coastal Commission, and, also is actively involved as a voting member of the regions in higher education, and leads international trade delegations.
(42:15):
The work that I've been doing, literally, again, the last 25 plus years, traveling around the world, talking about subnational climate diplomacy, doing the real work on the ground in my community, and knowing that the state of California is obviously made up of cities just like mine, it seemed like a logical way to take everything that I had learned and really try to help more people in scale. And also take my deep environmental background, with a recognition that we need visionary leadership that recognizes that if you want more jobs, you want more affordable housing, and you want to ensure that there's equity and economic resilience, you have to understand what's happening with climate. You have to understand it. You have to understand the nuances around it and why it matters.
Cody Simms (42:59):
That is super interesting news. It feels like you're on the front end of a wave that we're going to see more and more of in the coming years, which is climate as a platform that candidates are running on in some way, shape or form. I mean, one could argue Biden, after he won the Democratic nomination last cycle, shifted his whole campaign focus to really lean into climate change as his message. But it sounds like for you, this will be a big part of your platform. Explain to listeners who maybe aren't as familiar how the lieutenant governorship is chosen. This is not like the VP in a presidential election, this is its own standalone elected official, yes?
Janelle Kellman (43:39):
That's right. The lieutenant governor runs completely separately from the governor. Our current governor is termed out. So now our current lieutenant governor, who's done an incredible job on a lot of these climate issues, is running for governor and vacating the seat. Lieutenant governor works on higher education, economic development, state lands, coastal protection. Really, really interesting areas. But I do want to add one thing, I'm not a climate candidate. I think I am a common sense solution, pragmatic problem solver candidate, who understands that these things are interconnected. I understand them because I worked on them at the local level. If something happens in Sacramento, you don't always know how it trickles down to the local level. I can tell you. I can tell you the impact of a lot of these laws around housing or around economic development really pan out.
Cody Simms (44:26):
Well, thanks for the clarification. Super exciting. Are there ways that folks, who are listening, who want to follow along with you on your journey should do so?
Janelle Kellman (44:34):
Sure. I would absolutely love that. It's corny, but it's janellekellman.com is the website. If you want to get involved in a campaign, you want to talk about climate issues and how they should be a guiding force for us in a lot of our hard decisions, give me a shout. I love connecting with new people. Apparently, I've been told, full disclosure, that I have a knack for getting people to volunteer. Because we're all just part of the same team, so let's just go on a journey together. Here we are, our climate journey, for real.
Cody Simms (45:01):
Well, Janelle, anything I should have asked or that we should have touched on that we didn't get a chance to talk about today?
Janelle Kellman (45:07):
I'm going to go existential on you. I got to talk to you about ikigai, but just something to consider in our climate journey as we think about our sense of purpose, in other cultures, they have these beautiful words that encompass the relationship with nature and the environment and climate. The Japanese, they also have a phrase, Shinrin-yoku, which means forest bathing. What it also means is this interconnectedness between us and the environment. There's lots of research on how trees actually talk to one another.
(45:35):
The Norwegians have a phrase, Friluftsliv, which talks about what it means to be in and of the mountain space, and what that does for you as an individual and a culture. And yet, in our language, it takes a lot of words to explain how and why we should pay attention to climate issues. So I would just urge people to really connect with that need and that purpose. Figure out what motivates you. But if you feel anxiety, channel it into curiosity, because you'll find there are other people who want to go on this journey with you.
Cody Simms (46:04):
What a nice thought to end on. Janelle, I appreciate your time today. Certainly, good luck in the year plus ahead as you embark on your next endeavor.
Janelle Kellman (46:13):
Right on Cody. Thank you. Next time you're in the area, we'll go back to Proof Lab and see what we can buy.
Cody Simms (46:18):
I love it. All right. Thanks, Janelle.
Janelle Kellman (46:20):
Thanks, Cody. Take it easy.
Jason Jacobs (46:21):
Thanks again for joining us on the My Climate Journey podcast.
Cody Simms (46:26):
At MCJ Collective, we're all about powering collective innovation for climate solutions by breaking down silos and unleashing problem-solving capacity.
Jason Jacobs (46:35):
If you'd like to learn more about MCJ Collective, visit us at mcjcollective.com. And if you have a guest suggestion, let us know that via Twitter @mcjpod.
Yin Lu (46:48):
For weekly climate op-eds, jobs, community events, and investment announcements from our MCJ venture funds, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter on our website.
Cody Simms (46:57):
Thanks, and see you next episode.