Welcome to the October 2025 edition of the Sustainability Brief! It’s been an exciting season of progress for the Office of Sustainability at OC Waste & Recycling. We had the pleasure of hosting special visitors for a behind-the-scenes look at our landfill operations, and we’re proud to share that we were awarded a new grant to support our ongoing environmental justice initiatives. Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, we’re eagerly anticipating the approval of our Climate Action Plan (CAP) that will shape the next part of our journey.
Sincerely,
Tara Tisopulos
Deputy Director, Office of Sustainability
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We are honored to announce that the County of Orange has been selected as the 2025-2026 Environmental Justice Project by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) California. The $10,000 in award funding, along with support from USGBC California’s extensive network of sustainability professionals, will allow us to advance the OC Energy Audits and Outreach to Mobile Homes Communities Project. The project, which focuses on providing energy audits, education, and resources to low- and moderate-income (LMI) households in Orange County, will help residents replace older appliances with energy-efficient options and explore the possibility of deploying solar energy, microgrids, and other state-of-the-art technologies.
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Sustain SoCal’s 16th Annual Energy Event: Energy in Perspective. In an invigorating panel discussion, moderated by Orange County Supervisor, Vice Chair Katrina Foley, Deputy Director of Sustainability Tara Tisopulos shared her insights about the “Affordable Energy to Mobile Home Parks” initiative in Orange County alongside her project Co-Chairs (left to right) A.J. Perkins, Island Innovation and Amy Lahav, Valhala Energy Solutions.
As part of our continued commitment to mitigate climate change and protect the natural environment, we are finalizing updates to our Final CAP. These modifications reflect the latest data, community feedback, and evolving best practices. Listed below are the changes that have been made thus far.
- The emissions inventory has been thoroughly reviewed and cross-checked, resulting in a minor refinement from the previous calculation. The community emissions inventory has been corrected to account for the previous discrepancy of -1%. The municipal emissions inventory exhibited no noticeable change.
- The Final CAP now includes a Vulnerability Assessment Study.
- The structure of the measures will now clearly indicate if it is either a Community “C” or Municipal “M” measure.
- Community measures are based on incentives and outreach only and will not have a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) analysis conducted at this time.
- Based on the feedback we received from the public, our CAP target years are now set at 2030, 2035, 2040, and 2045.
- Four core measures were identified that will get the County to its greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals.
- A cost-effectiveness analysis has been conducted for these four core measures.
Note: these core measures will shift and evolve with technology, funding opportunities and measure refinement. The County is committed to bringing the CAP back to the Board of Supervisors every other year for a status update but will continue to go to the Board with funding opportunities, grant submittals and status checks more often, if necessary.
On October 7, 2025, OC Waste & Recycling was thrilled to have the City of Buena Park join us for a tour of the Olinda Alpha Landfill in Brea. Thank you to Councilmember Carlos Franco, Sustainability Officer Lotus Thai, and the entire Sustainability Commission for taking the time to learn more about our operations. We hope to collaborate soon!
OC Waste & Recycling is excited to welcome Sheen Sidhu to our sustainability team as the new Environmental Sustainability Analyst. Prior to joining us, Sheen worked in cleantech on advancing second-life battery applications and spent two years in the California State Legislature working for Former State Senator Josh Newman. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Public Policy with a concentration in Environmental and Energy Policy from the University of Southern California. In her new role, she will support our CAP-related efforts, outreach, and implementation. Please join me in welcoming Sheen to her new role in the County.
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November 28, 2025 – Invest Clean Grant Deadline to South Coast AQMD
December 2, 2025 – [NEW] Climate Action Plan adoption date to the OC Board of Supervisors
*Subject to change. Please confirm the date from the meeting agenda.
We’re looking to spearhead a Green Collaborative, a series of quarterly meetings to update cities, nonprofits, and community groups on emerging grant opportunities and legislative impacts. Share your interest and thoughts with us!
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