San Francisco
Overview
SF Department of Environment
San Francisco is home to some of the world's most innovative environmental legislation and initiatives.
The mission of San Francisco's Environment Department is to improve, enhance, and preserve the environment, and to promote San Francisco's long-term wellbeing.
The Environment Department does this by developing innovative, practical and wide-ranging environmental programs, fostering groundbreaking legislation, and connecting the public to environmental resources by providing access to comprehensive and easy-to-use information on a wide range of sustainable practices.
Whitepaper
In addition to our historic function of providing environmental policy direction for the Mayor and Board of Supervisors, the Department delivers service programs for San Francisco residents and businesses including recycling, toxics reduction, environmental justice grants, and energy efficiency.
Some of the Department's ambitious-but deliverable-environmental goals include attaining 75 percent recycling by 2010, and curbing San Francisco's greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
Green Strategy
Climate Action Program
Global warming is an impending crisis, the first signs of which are already evident. For San Francisco, the results could be devastating. We are a coastal city, surrounded on three sides by water, so projected rises in sea level could threaten coastal wetlands, infrastructure and property. A three-foot rise in sea level would put the airport, Treasure Island and the Giants' stadium totally or partially under water, and would compromise major regional infrastructure such as Highway 101.
It is imperative for governments to do everything within their jurisdiction to address the challenge of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global warming. Achieving these reductions will require small behavioral adjustments as well as more significant changes in the areas of transportation, solid waste management, urban forestry, as well as energy efficiency and renewable energy.
San Francisco has already set greenhouse gas reduction goals through the Climate Action Plan (20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012), and has programs in several departments that have an impact on attaining these goals. In the Environment Department, these include the Carbon Neutrality Program, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Clean Air Transportation, Urban Forest, and Recycling.
SF Department of Environment Strategic Plan 2008-2010 (PDF)
The role of Connected Urban Development
SF Department of Environment is delivering on its strategic plan through its engagement with the CUD program. The role of technology is seen by the city of San Francisco as an important contributor to sustainable city of the future.
Clean Technology
Technology that's cleaner, greener, and inherently more efficient is the wave of the future, and San Francisco is poised to catch that wave. Acting on an initiative presented in 2004, Mayor Gavin Newsom established the Clean Tech Advisory Council (CTAC) in 2005 to set the clean tech agenda. Its goal is to establish the city as a leader in innovative environmental solutions by:
- Supporting industries that promote a cleaner, healthier environment and reduce dependence on fossil fuels;
- Expanding investment in, and markets for, clean technologies;
- Creating high-skill, high-wage job opportunities in these industries for working San Franciscans.
SF Municipal Transportation Agency (Muni)
The SFMTA's Muni is one of America's oldest public transit agencies, the largest in the Bay Area and seventh largest system in the United States. It currently carries more than 200 million riders annually. Operating historic streetcars, modern light rail vehicles, diesel buses, alternative fuel vehicles, electric trolley coaches and the world famous cable cars, Muni's fleet is among the most diverse in the world.
Muni Hybrid Buses
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has the goal of reducing its fleet greenhouse gas emissions to thirty percent below 1990 levels by the year 2012 and becoming 100 percent emission-free by 2020.
www.sfmta.com/hybrid
Connected Urban Development related Programs in San Francisco
The Connected Bus
SFMTA/Muni announces its service schedule for the Connected Bus pilot project. The Connected Bus enhances the customer experience and increases operational efficiency through the use of state-of-the-art technology.
The Connected Bus improves the customer experience by providing wireless Internet access and interactive displays of real-time information along the route, including the status of connecting routes at key transfer points. In addition, it provides Muni operations with a running "health" check on the bus of the mileage, fuel use, internal bus systems, passenger loading, and maintenance schedules to improve efficiency and reliability of the fleet. Instant "emergency" links from the touchscreen monitors to the bus operator and the police may one day provide added security features.
The Connected Bus is provided through a partnership between the SFMTA and Cisco Systems.
For further information about the pilot from June to September 2008 on the streets of San Francisco, please refer to the SFMTA scheduling information for the Connected Bus, SFMTA Connected Bus Pilot. Also, there is a users survey currently being conducted by Cisco & SFMTA.
See Connected Bus in San Francisco on this website for further information.