Chris Read is the Sustainability Manager at the City of San Luis Obispo and is co-chair of Green Cities California. Mr. Read is committed to working with the community to create a carbon-neutral, equitable, and prosperous city. Mr. Read has worked with and for local governments for nearly 15 years and is deeply driven to address the causes and impacts of climate change while improving the community. More importantly, Mr. Read’s third and fourth-grade girls basketball team, the Recycle Bins, led by his daughter Lila, just won the Estero Bay recreational league basketball tournament.

Merrian Borgeson is one of California’s leading policy experts working to create an affordable and reliable zero-emissions energy system. She has expertise in renewable energy, market transformation, financing, building electrification, and regulatory policy. Borgeson specializes in designing and improving policies in partnership with diverse coalitions to achieve significant emissions reductions from buildings, transportation, and the power sector. Prior to joining NRDC, she worked as a team leader at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She also served as the director of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia and as the managing director (and later the board chair) of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. She has served on the boards of environmental, women’s health, social change, and philanthropic organizations. Borgeson holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, a master’s from the University of California, Berkeley, Energy and Resources Group, and an MBA from Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. She is based in San Francisco.