San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced his plans to make San Francisco one of the leaders in the new Green Economy.  His plan includes a comprehensive look from clean energy, transportation, buildings and environmental justice.

The new forward on the Mayor's climate initiatives is now available for download and review.  Overall, the plan that the Mayor presents is, in my opinion, a very doable list of initiatives that would put San Francisco on the map as a leader in Green.  The forward, contains a surprising amount of specific initiatives (not generalities) that I believe could generate very real progress.  Also, is contains the city's accomplishments from 2004 -2008 and it is something that everyone should read and keep in mind.  Remember going Green is something that happens over time and San Francisco has done an excellent job in the past 4 years.

The forward contains an overview of the initiatives broken out into 7 categories of action including

1. CLIMATE ACTION
   
2. RENEWABLE & EFFICIENT ENERGY
   
3. CLEAN TRANSPORTATION
   
4. GREEN BUILDING
   
5. URBAN FOREST
   
6. ZERO WASTE
   
7. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
   

Climate Action
Mayor Newsom proposes to work on several initiatives regarding Climate Action.  The headliners include a commitment to get to 20% below 1990 levels of carbon emissions by 2012, create a carbon trading system for San Francisco, developing a framework for a Carbon Tax as an alternative to payroll taxes and putting in place several infrastructure components to ensure that green initiatives are a part of the cities legislative agenda on an ongoing basis.

My Read.  I think the Mayor's climate action initiatives are strong and ahead of most other mayors in the United States (see my other post on what 800 other mayors are doing.)  I think the two things I would say here is that I would have liked to see even stronger initiatives and I will be keeping my eyes open to see if any of these initiatives make progress.

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
The highlights here include a new Solar Bond issue that would further reduce the cost and other initiatives that would make it easier for SF residents to install solar panels on their homes.  This initiative, which I support, would represent a tipping point that would cause many people to make the leap and invest in solar.  Based on data that I have seen this type of initiative could double the amount of installs in SF in a very short time.  The only criticism I would have regarding this plan, is that I would love to see it have some hooks in it to include other clean energy solutions like wind power.  In addition to the solar initiatives, the Mayor is also present a case here for putting certain things in place that make the "Greeness" of a house listed as part of its features in MLS housing web sites - thus theoretically adding value to the home's value.  Other plans in this section include incentive programs for CleanTech companies and other programs that create incentives for businesses to do Green business in SF.

My Read.  If I could characterize the Mayor's approach here is that his team has clearly identified that business will be an important driver in making the city Green.  By offering incentives for businesses and people alike, I think we will have a good chance of getting tot he tipping point of Green.  So what's my criticism - I think that these plans are very strong, but as with any good proposal, the details need to show up. That being said the Mayor has already come through with more details on the Solar bond issue and so far it looks like a solid plan - whether or not any of the Supervisors will fight it, I cannot say.

Clean Transportation
Ok. So here are the basics of the initiatives.  The Mayor wants to get 9,325 solo drivers to walk to work, 9325 to bike to work, 16,800 to carpool to work and more than 100,000 to switch to public transit.  To do this the plan calls for new transportation projects including the Transbay Terminal and Central Subway, expanding SF Go, work on the Bike Plan, creating bicycle sharing options, designate more parking for car sharing and a host of other carrot and stick initiatives all designed to get more people to use public transit.

My Read.   Of all of the areas, transportation concerns me the most.  Not so much because I don't think out public transportation systems can go Green - as they are already among the "Greenest" in the country.  It is that I don't exactly know how we are going to get 100,000 more people to use it.  I use MUNI every day and as all of us who do use it, know that it get pretty packed in the mornings and at around 5pm.  What will happen if we add 100,000 people to the system?

Green Building
In the Green Building section of the forward don''t expect miracles.  The initiatives in this section mainly revolve around ensuring municipal buildings are Green, that Green permits become streamlined and incorporating Green building principles in the permitting process.  Why aren't there more substantial initiatives in this section?  Because I think there may not be much else to do here.

My Read.  Remember, most of San Francisco, especially down town, has been built out.  Therefore the real progress will come from existing buildings making changes to become more Green - and that requires money. Money that building owners may not have regardless of what the Mayor can do.  Over the last few years, much of the ownership of buildings in down town San Francisco has changed hands.  Many of these new owners ran their calcs based on growth rates in rents that may not be happening.  If this is the case, I really don't expect to see large budgets put into making existing buildings green. That being said there is a glimmer of hope.  Some companies who are renting may now be required by their board of directors to rent from a Green building owner - thus if Green becomes a required feature for tenants, then building owners will build out Green features to attract higher rates from tenants.  If Mayor Newsom can somehow get the attention of the Boards of companies to give them an incentive to rent from Green buildings, then this area could make some progress.

Urban Forest
One of the areas that was included in the forward was a goal to plant and maintain 25,000 new trees in San Francisco by 2012, offsetting 2,5000,000 pounds of Co2 annually.

My Read.  Good, but I think we can do better.  One of the studies the city should take a look at is one that is being conducted in LA.  The study focuses not only on how many trees get planted but where the trees get planted.  It turns out that trees not only can offset carbon emissions but they can provide an important way to capture and filter more water shed.  Now, I know that doesn't seem like a huge deal for San Francisco, it is bigger than you think.  I would like to see the city combine a tree planting initiative with an initiative to insal porous sidewalks and potentially streets that enable rain to be absorbed and then filtered by the trees rather than flow into gutters unfiltered.

Zero Waste
In terms of Zero Waste, synonym for recycling, San Francisco is already considered to be a world leader and Mayor Newsom's proposal clearly indicates that he would like to expand our lead.  Currently San Francisco is diverting nearly 69% of our waste from landfills to other facility for recycling and composting.  WOW! that is progress and that is impressive.

My Read.  The only thing that could possible make San Francisco's program any better is more involvement from businesses and building owners to come up with a gold standard, that if reached, the city gives benefits.  Maybe this is already in the works. 

Environmental Justice
The Environmental Justice initiatives revolve around ensuring that their is fair treatment and meaningful involvement in the Green economy for all people regardless of race, ethnicity, income or education level.

My Read.  I don't really have anything negative to say about this section.  The only thing I would say is that it will be interesting to see how we apply the benefits and the pain of going green across the different socio economic areas of San Francisco.  That being said, I have some interesting ideas that I might share with the Mayor's office.  I will give an update if appropriate. 

Posted by Steve Newcomb on February 11, 2008 01:32 PM | Permalink