>> 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