>> good afternoon. thank you so much for coming. welcome, and thank you for

joining us at the beautiful living room for the california academy of sciences. i am the environmental policy adviser for mayor lee. we are very excited today to be making an announcement about a major carbon reduction milestone that san francisco has met. to make that announcement, i would like to introduce mayor ed lee. [applause] >> thank you. thank you very much, everyone, for being here today. i have some great announcements about milestones for our city's efforts, our city's historic and present efforts to reduce carbon emissions, something that all of us, the department of environment, our city, working with agencies like muni and non- profit organization partners and community advocates, as well as our state and federal government. today, i have two specific announcements. but the one that is exciting to me that i think is probably the most advanced progress that we

made in the city, something that began with my predecessor, gavin newsom, when he was mayor did of the last time he made an announcement about the car been emissions reductions that we had, he was able to announce last year, in 2010, that we had reached the kyoto protocol levels of 7% below our 1990 levels. well, today, after updated analysis and a recognition of the efforts that have been made, we have now reached 12% below the 1990 levels. that is a tremendous, tremendous accomplishment for our city. [applause] thank you very much to all of our partners for doing that. we set a goal, and gavin newsom, again, i really thank him, to get -- because he had this

wonderful vision that i got to adopt and visualize with him as city administrator in prior years, to help create, with the department of environment and all of our partners, a way forward with our communities to get to a larger goal. and that goal for next year is 20% below the 1990 levels. certainly we can achieve that. with today's announcement, going to 12%, knowing what we can do, that gap is definitely achievable. by the way, we have accomplished this goal. while the city's population is increasing -- can you imagine that? we have increased our population from we have increased population to about 805,000 residents. we have increased the use of electricity in our city. we are reducing our carbon emissions. there has got to be a story here

for everybody to understand. we did not do this by simply saying we cannot do this or live this way. we did it with three principles in mind. we did it being smarter, less wasteful, and innovative. those three principles have distinguished our city and partners working together. that is why we are on top of the roof of a building that our academy of sciences. together years ago. we got to help oversee it as the public works director. i want to congratulate the academy of science for being the largest double platinum leed

certified building in the world. we want to announce our carbon reduction accomplishments right here at the pristine and exciting building that has also done its share of contributing to our reduction of the missions. we're going to be talking about how we are able to get to the carbon reductions. it is without a doubt the great partnerships and leaderships we have had. i will say confidently that the lieutenant governor and mayor newsom led the effort with great community leaders like espinola jackson. you have been a wonderful advocate. i have heard you over the years

articulate and very passionate way as the community desired to be less the victims of wasteful use of our energy when we close to the hunters point plant and the other. those two closures contributed greatly to us as a city embracing and being able to accomplish today is gold. we have much more to do. we are very much there. -- been able to accomplish today's cool. we have much more to do. we're very much there. in our recycling and composting goal, we have been hovering around 77% for some time. we made great strides to educate our communities, residents, businesses, restaurants to compost and recycle as much as they can.

today we are at 78%. we are well on our way. it is a modest but very important step forward. every inch and every percentage towards the ultimate goal of 100% recyclable in the city is going to get harder and harder. we have to get that much smarter and smarter about it. we have to bring in that many more partners. today i want to say to you that the department of the environment, the climate team represented here today -- some of them are holding up the great signs to explain our partnership with the city and all the city agencies. i want to thank them for leading the charge. melanie has been so passionate about this and so mindful. she has been in the office talking through all the things we want to continue doing.

i want to recognize and thank the former director who was part of the team in articulating this vision years ago and getting as to where we are today. all of the partners, the city agencies, the community, the ngo's, and private sector partners are important in getting the whole thing together as a focused effort to reduce carbon emissions. i want to recognize the california academy of sciences for a world-class facility and having the largest double platinum leed building in the world. i want to thank former supervisor maxwell. we are reminded of the importance of this by advocates lighke espinola jackson.

this city is continue -- committed to continuing and moving on with the efforts. i want to thank the public utilities commission. having it under the leadership of ed harrington has been wonderful. he is moving forward with rebuilding the water system and making sure that our municipal electrical supply is 100% carbon neutral. i want to recognize the former puc commissioner, dick skar, it is because of his leadership that we have such a dedicated staff and commission. i want to recognize the california independent systems operator. we work closely with them in what we do in making sure we

have a strong partnership to reduce our carbon emissions. we're not just going to be an island in san francisco. we have to share what we do across the state. we need their support and vision about the state. i want to thank all of the partners in the community. our communities are often the ones we do not recognize as much as we should. we are the ones who suffer if we do not get carbon emissions reduced. people come to san francisco and california because our air is cleaner, particularly northern california. i would like to say i take some credit by my own driving and my staffs' driving a chevy volt. but they will remind me that

cars and trucks of increase. they have not done their share in reducing carbon emissions. i commend today to the staff that i will be working with joanna being the lead. if you cannot get people out of cars, you can change the cars. i want to make sure that san francisco, oakland, san jose, and the other counties lead the rest of the world. we have car share, zipcar, and other wonderful alternatives to owning a car or a second car. if you are going to own a car, let's make the car been neutral. we're going to do that anymore dedicated way. -- if you are going to own a car, let's make a carbon neutral car. we will tell president obama he can come in here and get rid of the suv's if he would like.

[laughter] these are very important goals our city has created. we are committed to reducing our carbon emissions. we're committed to the 100% recycling goal of our city. thank you very much. [applause] >> we would not have been able to meet this goal without the strong support and constant urging at the top of the city. thank you for your support and pushing us all the time to meet this goal. the department that has really led the effort to push the city to meet these goals and work with partners to reach the goal of 12% below the 1990 levels is the department of the environment. to talk a little bit about the details of how we have met the

goal and what we need to do to continue striving to meet our longer-term goals is the director, melanie nutter. >> thank you for all the great work you have done in the mayor's office to enable the city success on addressing climate change. i am thrilled to be here today as a representative of the department of the environment to announce the progress we have made. we have made progress on greenhouse gas reductions and our waste reduction efforts in san francisco. i do want to thiank mayor lee for his incredible leadership and support on stability. sustainability issues. i am sure all of you know the climate change threats we're facing in san francisco being a

city surrounded by water on three sides. under a do nothing scenario, sea level rise could lead up to 90 miles of major bay area roadways as well as our airport as well as many businesses in the area. the impact would not only be environmental, but economic and social as well. cities could face up to $48 billion of infrastructure damage and significant public health impact could occur in san francisco. i do not need to tell all of you that we need to continue to act swiftly and take bold action to address climate change locally. i am so happy to be joining the mayor to a firm -- a firm that san francisco is taking decisive action. we have made great strides by achieving a reduction of 12% below 1990 levels just in 2010.

the department of the environment city-wide assessment shows these reductions are the equivalent of taking 128,000 cars off of the road every year. it is a significant impact. the city has closed polluting power plants. pacific gas and electric is delivering cleaner electricity to san francisco. both of these have played a significant role in the progress that we have made. san francisco has also been on the forefront of adopting and implementing innovative policy programs making an impact. i wanted to spend a few minutes talking about those policies and programs as well as actions that can be taken by residents, businesses, and the city to continue the task. buildings are cleaner and more efficient. local investments are

contributing to the progress in reducing emissions. the energy-watched program -- the energy watch program provides incentives to businesses and multi-family buildings to make upgrades. today we have helped to upgrade almost 4000 properties locally to help them reduce their energy usage and save money on their energy bills. san francisco's go solar program is a rebate program that has been very helpful in treating solar installations to about 2500 systems on homes and businesses locally. this chart shows why it is critical that we continue to address carbon emissions from

the building sector. we're implementing a new ordinance that is a mandate for large commercial buildings to track and report energy use and receive regular energy audits. this is with the goal of inspiring the energy efficiency retrofits of our commercial building sector. i am also excited to announce that we just launched the green finance sf program that will help building owners' access funding for energy efficiency of graves -- upgrads that can be paid back over the life of the building. we're sending west waste to the landfill. we have a great announcement that we've gone from 77% to 78% diversion from the landfill. progress is helping san francisco to reduce our carbon footprint.

the waste sent to landfills produces methane. it is 22% more potent than carbon dioxide the mandatory composting and recycling law diverted tons of waste starting in 2009 that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill. currently, san francisco is still sending 444,000 tons of waste to the land fill. that is the equivalent of killing this building 32 times over with trash -- filling this building 32 times over with trash. we're still spending too much to the landfills. 2/3 of what is spent could be recycled or composted. if everyone in san francisco were diligent about composting and recycling, we could reach 90% day version today. regarding transportation, trucks