>> i would be remiss if i did not recognize the hard work and dedication of all of the walgreen folks that have been here. thank you for your hard work and dedication in addition to the people from the corporate office. i am sure that would be a

successful venture. thank you.

>> good afternoon. thank you so much for being here. it is really an honor to work with the department of environment on the san francisco home improvement program. we hope it becomes they hit this program in the city. we really are here to talk about the financial, as well as the environmental benefits of going green. in san francisco, as well as across the country, what we forget is often our home and the real estate that we own is normally the most valuable piece of wealth that we have in our family. but we also for get that real- estate and buildings also have some of the largest carbon

footprint in san francisco, as well as across the country single-family homes are almost 22% of the carbon footprint. in my understanding, we have actually been miscounting the carbon footprint, and we actually undervalued the carbon footprint of real estate in those homes. we're here today to talk about how you can go green with doing some very simple things. some improvement items did you can get a rebate of up to $7,000 just by putting in new water heaters, and doing ventilation, and we have margaret here, who is a homeowner and a contractor, just to tell you really how easy it is. it is so important when we're looking at our home. our home is one of the most valuable things we have to continue to invest in. many of these minor investments will make huge returns on investment and a huge savings down the road.

on average -- most of you know that i am a huge solar advocate and i have solar panels on my home. the return on solar is even more than the return on energy efficiency. energy efficiency often times will return your investment in three years. it is so fast and so easy. we're really here to encourage energy improvement. we want you to be part of this. we did in the assessor's office, we have an annual noticed of the best evaluation that went out to every single property owner in the city and the county. over two hundred thousand letters, and each of them got a brochure. there is a copy of the brochure that we mailed out with this wonderful family here, talking about how you can get $7,000 in rebates just by participating in this, just by going ahead and working with solar city and being a part of this.

is it is so important that we take the first step that we can take to become greener in our own lives, because we forget how big an impact just our small little, as on the environment when you add it up with all the people in san francisco. i am honored to be joined by the director of the department. she is going to walk you through the program and talk about the great things they are doing. >> before i talk about the program, i really wanted to thank phil for is leadership on these issues. he has been a champion for solar in san francisco as well as for energy efficiency. we are excited to have partnered with the assessor's office to get this information to homeowners in san francisco. my name is melanie, the director of the san francisco department of the environment. in an effort to help our city's homeowners afford energy efficiency in their homes, my department has partnered with energy of great california to

develop the san francisco home improvement and performance program. this is a program that does offer financial incentives of up to $7,000 for san francisco homeowners, which is an exce looking to do energy efficiency in their homes. as you all know, making home energy improvements will all to save money on electricity bills, as well as gas bills. doing energy efficiency of grades in a home also makes comes more comfortable as well as more healthy. ultimately, as he said, if you do energy efficiency upgrades in your home, it does increase the value of your home. the first up in terms of participating in the sf hip program is to call one of our specially trained contractors who can come out to do an energy assessment, to basically look at what some of the measures are that you could do in your home to see these types of energy savings. this is an apparent factor in

the program, because the more energy that you say, the more money that you can receive, up to $7,000. it is here with the percentage of energy that you can save, connected to the rebate that you can get. some of the projects that contribute to energy efficiency that could be part of your home energy upgrade includes adding insulation, air sealing around windows, walls and crawlspaces, upgrading or installing high efficiency heating and cooling systems, as well as a grading a water heater or a boiler. i did want to urge homeowners to take a vintage of these savings now. we're offering up to $7,000 in rebates for energy efficiency. after august 21, it will go down by about $1,000, so there really is reasons to participate in the next five weeks. ultimately, by helping homeowners make these upgrades, we're working together with the

assessor reporters office to ensure that we can meet our carbon reduction goals here in san francisco. we are working to reduce their carbon emissions in the city by 20% below 1990 levels by the end of next year. that is one of the reasons to put together this program, to aggressively how to do energy efficiency in homes throughout san francisco. ultimately, this program, sf hip is a great example of our commitment to visionary and burn the to programs that help to promote social equity, to protect human health, and to leave their way towards a sustainable future. we're working very hard -- we have more direct -- very hard to get where we are, but to set our goals, we need to keep pushing the envelopes thef hip -- we need to continue pushing the envelope. sf hip will help us to do that. thank you. >> thank you. my name is margaret wilson. i have been a resident of san francisco for eight years.

my husband and i bought a house. we did it with my daughter and her husband, and we share an old victorian with my husband, daughter, son-in-law, and their three children. since we bought the house, we have had a lot of maintenance just to repair damage and stuff. but we have been also very conscientiously trying to do environmental upgrades. and we had been a solar city customer. we put solar on our house two years ago and were able to do so with almost no out-of-pocket expense. and we have seen, you know, basically not a reduction in our energy bill, but flat on our energy bill, and we know that is from solar.

so when i received a flier from solar city that announced the energy audits, i talked to my daughter and we decided that we would go and do that right away. so we replied and a requested the energy audit. we had a team of solar city people come into our house and go through the whole house, through the heating, you know, the windows, the drafting, how we used heating and stuff like that. and as a result of that audit, they designed a program for us that included ceiling cracks and weather stripping, reducing its draft from a fireplace by putting something in to block the draft. replacing in 1950's vintage

heater that i had been told in the past was about 50% effective. they replaced it with a new height efficiency furnace, and in doing that, it also had the asbestos removed from the house. i was delighted to get rid of the asbestos, too. that heating system also allows us to better modulate the temperature in the house because it is a multi-story house. it is very hard to keep both floors comfortable. but the system that puts in allows us to better modulate the temperature and keep the house comfortable. also, as part of the energy audit, they identified a very hazardous situation we had with an old stove that is leading carbon monoxide. we planned on replacing dead in the future, but we have now budgeted to do an immediate replacement of that stove, so

they identified a very hazardous situation, and we now have the opportunity to correct that. so i have been very thrilled with the work that solar city did. they also completed the work in a timely manner. the people were very pleasant but there was absolutely no mess left. i am delighted in the looking forward to our energy savings. so thank you. >> i will just say a few words about how solar city. it is one of the leading full- service solar energy efficiency and now electrical vehicle charging providers in the united states, and we're delighted to be working with s the environment and energy agreed california, providing homeowners with incentives to make it easier for them to make energy efficiency and upgrades to their home. we have about 2000 energy efficiency customers in the u.s. and 15,000 solar projects completed are underway -- or under way. i think margaret wilson as a prime example of a homeowner who

has seen comfort and health benefits, in addition to environmental and monetary savings. d want to tell us about some of the rebates from the program? >> absolutely. in addition to the san francisco home improvement program, there's a program called the energy agreed california program, and it is designed to help all want -- homeowners make energy efficiency improvements to the home and offset the cost. up to four thousand dollars for pg&e utility customers available for doing things that you might want to do already, adding insulation or reducing traps in your home, replacing the water europe -- water healeheater. not only do you save energy and money and reduce your current footprint, but you'll be much more comfortable in your home. >> grade, thank you. again, in san francisco, we're actually a prime target for this program, because the folks who should consider this program the

most are folks who are owning older homes. margaret's home was built in the 1880's. we have a lot of homes built in the 1920's and in 1930's. those homes are prime targets for this program in terms of having a leaky windows and older furnaces and water heaters, all the upgrades we would normally do. in addition to this program, we're also going to be working on a green grade. we are encouraging residents to homeowners to do a certification process through our office, where they can actually get a certification to show that their house has gone green. obviously, when people sell those homes or or refinancing those homes, we anticipate that green homes will obviously be more valuable, just like energy- efficient homes of the more valuable immediately once those improvements are made. let me stop there and see if you have any questions for any of

us. >> when do you begin recording this information? >> i think we're looking at the next few months to do that. >> so they will have to come to the city and that you guys know about the improvements -- collect just like through commercial properties and their certification. we're looking to do something similar for san francisco. >> are other municipalities already doing this or is this considered the best practice? >> i am not aware of that. >> and not just going to be a best practice. no other questions? ok, thank you very much.

>> good morning, everyone. welcome to the beautiful and quiet powell street, here in downtown san francisco. i am the director of public works. i am delighted to see all of you here today. we are here for a special occasion, a special group of folks that i want to introduce before we get going.

starting to your far lesft, border supervisor david chiu. sitting next to him, the mayor of our great city, and elite. -- ed lee. [applause] the chief marketing officer for audi america, organizer of this event. [applause] the man whose design we will be enjoying, walter hood. and finally, the director of the business improvement district. [applause] here in san francisco, on a beautiful, sunny day, it is time to celebrate the innovative spirit of san francisco.

we innovate social policy, housing, the environment, on transportation and technology. we innovate when it comes to the weather. we call this summer, here in san francisco. and when it comes to the public way, it is hard to think about innovation. it was billed years ago and it is hard to change, at least that is what some people think. although much of the public rights of way in san francisco take up 25% of our city, they were built generations ago, in a different time to serve different needs with different sensibilities, largely built for people to pass through, as opposed to being in. we are changing that in the city and we are showing that the environment can change for the better. what we have here today is an

exemplar of that. i will let the other speakers tell you more specifically what we are talking about today, but i want to thank some of the folks, besides those up on the stage, who have been a part of making this happen. i will start with the shepherd of this project from the planning department, andres power. [applause] without his work, no question, from navigating the city bureaucracy, working with the city planner, public, this would not have happened without his efforts. from my department, his counterpart, nick ellser. from the mayor's office of workforce development, the mother of our communities in our town, lisa pegan. and the guy from the mta who

gets all the difficult job of figuring out how all this all works, jerry robbins. those are the folks on the city side. there are a lot of other folks to thank, a lot of other work that went into this. but now, it is my pleasure -- this man was progressive before it was cool to be progressive, and he was innovating in the public rights of way before it was cool. as a public works director, he started addressing alleyways in chinatown, in the tenderloin, making them more attractive and welcoming, improving the public realm all over the city. he has since moved on to bigger and better things but has carried that affect on with

him, forcing collaboration between city departments, the private sector, and this is the epitome of the kind of partnership that edwin lee is bringing to the city. it is my pleasure to introduce to you mayor ed lee. [applause] >> good morning, everybody. welcome to union square. one of my favorite places. you may know this, but two- thirds of our annual visitors make their way down here to union square. that is why 10% of our annual sales tax revenue comes from right here. people love coming here, and why not? why not link the historic cable car stop on market street, and make the experience of making up here -- making it up here and the rest of the city and

experience. one of the things that i love is we get to collaborate between our planning department, mta, department of public works, working with the private sector. working with some fantastic designers, like walter, and his fantastic design studio. and gaining the confidence of the people who protect this gem of the city, the business improvement district in union square. i want to thank everyone for coming together and blessing, with the contribution from audi of america, coming together to make these couple of blocks even better, to modernize it, make it even more welcoming, and to make sure that it is people-friendly in every respect. i want to give a shout out to

all of these departments because we are seldom recognized. collaboration is often behind the scenes, but this is out in front for everybody. i want people to get excited about the friendliness of this street, but you are doing to try to change the feeling here, make sure that the experience invites even more people to enjoy union square, powell street, the cable car experience. i also want to recognize the police department. as we transition this landscape, they are going to keep everyone safe, make sure we all have the opportunity to enjoy it. i want to thank everyone for this collaboration. so happy to be part of this. and also to make sure that we are investing and renewing every part of our city, to make sure that the tourists enjoy this area, and even people like ourselves -- those of us now

live in the city -- will love it even more. this will benefit everybody. i also want to introduce another champion, someone that i have worked with closely this past year, who has led a very positive dialogue. that is our board president, president david chiu. [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor. i want to welcome everyone to what mark twain calls a classic summer day in san francisco. i am proud to be here as part of this announcement, and i am here on behalf of my colleague jane kim, who is stuck in city hall. the two of us have the honor of representing the number one place in san francisco where people come to shop, and hello to everyone on the cable cars, spend time in our incredible

city. this is an announcement of how we build 21st century city -- cities, how we can create communities on very busy dance streets. we know it takes a village to create a parklet. i want to thank the city department for being our partners. dpw, oewd, mta -- these acronyms refer to organizations and thousands of hours done to come up with this. three years ago, when i first came into office, a number of merchants from union square came to me and said, david, we would like to tax ourselves more. we would like to triple the size of the business improvement district. today's announcement is part of

that portion of that amazing vision. i want to thank the in square business improvement district for everything you are doing to make union square one of the best attractions that san francisco has to offer. and of course, in closing, one of the most amazing aspects of this partnership happens to be our partnership with the private sector. we could not do this without the generosity of an amazing car company. i do hope in addition to seeing the audi symbol here, i do hope that we see more of them traveling through the city, so feel free to donate any, if you would like. we look forward to continuing this green, clean, community- based transformation that we are undertaking, here in san francisco. have a wonderful day. >> before i introduce our next

speaker, i want to make sure to recognize the very important person on the stage as well. wayne is our ambassador here. he is in bright red. as you know, the business improvement district has been spared in making sure that not only are people safe, but that they are treated well when they come here. that is what keeps the economy going. as david said earlier, audi is a pretty special company. scott, i want to let you know, too, i am jazzed about that car that i want which appeared in the "ironman" movie. when i saw it i said, i want that kind of car.

not only does audi have great style and a great corporate image, but they are a fantastic partner. let me introduce scott of audi of america. [applause] >> it is a great pleasure for me to be here. i am the chief marketing officer for audi of america. it is crucial for companies, not only to celebrate things, but it is also important to do great things. whether you look at the racetracks up le mans, our electronic research lab, here in palo alto, or on the streets of san francisco, it is important to do great things. of course, the concept that our

design and technology can have far reaching ramifications. we spend billions of dollars in research and development, and i think you see a lot of those elements in this design. when we first started making cars out of aluminum frames, they said we were crazy. it turns out, aluminum is stronger and less weight. i think you will get a good sense of that design here. led lighting. people said it was madness to use them in cars. now you see it in every one of our cars and being imitated everywhere. the beautiful lines of our cars, walter had done a great job recreating that a static. and most importantly, wi-fi. -- recreating that aesthetic.