March 2025 A New Season of Hope

MARC MY WORDS: Celebrating Clean Air and Lung Health

Warmer days, flowers blooming, birds tweeting, and insects buzzing. These are the signs that Spring has sprung.  Spring is a season of renewal and hope, and it is also when Breathe SoCal’s team members are out and about across the region hosting community events and workshops. 

Springtime is also when we come together to celebrate the incredible work of those who have made a difference when it comes to clean air, sustainability, and lung health.

Breathe SoCal has been hosting the Breath of Life Awards approximately every other year since 1999. This event continues to be a meaningful celebration of dedication and achievement in these everchanging times. This year, we will be recognizing four honorees at the Breath of Life Awards event on May 13^th at the SLS Hotel Beverly Hills.  The event will bring  together leaders in their fields who have paved the way for a more sustainable, inclusive, innovative, and inspiring Southern California.  

The Community Impact Award will recognize the City of Beverly Hills which has shown its dedication to protecting the public health of its residents and visitors by being a trailblazer in addressing tobacco use. In 2019, the Beverly Hills City Council unanimously approved an historic ban on the sale of tobacco products in their city. 

No one has demonstrated the term civic leader more than Richard Katz.  His long career as a public servant and leader at the state and local levels makes him an obvious choice for the Civic Leader Award. Over the course of his long career, he has made a huge difference for air quality in the region, particularly in his advocacy for mass transit, clean technology, and clean energy. Now, as President of the Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners, Mr. Katz is overseeing the agency’s phase out of the use of coal power which will be replaced with green hydrogen. 

When it comes to innovation, WattEV, a Los Angeles headquartered start-up, is a prime example.  The company is a leader in implementing and promoting the truck-as-a-service (TAAS) model to make it easier for businesses to transition from highly polluting diesel freight trucks to zero-emission battery-electric trucks.

Their business model presents numerous community benefits including local job creation and revenue generation as well as immediate reductions in greenhouse gases, ozone, diesel emissions, PM2.5, and other harmful pollutants, as well as additional environmental benefits related to fewer pollution impacts on groundwater, stormwater and soil.

Finally, the we are thrilled that the Breath of Life Award will be presented to Cliff Gladstein, one of the most sought after thought leaders within the environmental and energy communities—offering his clients, the media, and policymakers, unparalleled experience, insight, and perspective on critical issues at the very heart of our transportation and energy systems. Cliff has led the way forward for several decades, starting when the  clean energy and clean technology industries were in their infancy.  When we look to the future we see leaders like Cliff forging the way. 

I invite you to learn more about these incredible and worthy honorees, and to join us on May 13th to celebrate them. For info and tickets, visit the Breath of Life Awards webpage. Don’t wait long, because early-bird ticket prices are available only through April 22nd.  Prices will rise after that date. 

Until then, we have some wonderful Spring events all across the region.  The events listed below are a testament to the great work Breathe Southern California and its partners are doing together.  

I urge you to enjoy Spring and join us for some of these events.  For springtime is not only time to renew our sense of hope and possibility, but also to get out and have fun.

In health,

Marc Carrel

President & CEO

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