|
City of Santa Monica News 2010 Sustainable City Report Card Released -
Santa Monica Continues to Make the Grade
|
Sixteen years ago, Santa
Monica adopted the Sustainable City Plan (SCP), a challenging
set of goals to ensure the long term sustainability of our local economy,
environment and quality of life. In
order to track the progress in meeting the SCP goals and to guide future
actions, the city has developed two important tools: the Progress Report, an up to date on-line database that provides
comprehensive data analysis; and the Report Card, a summary
of the data in easy-to-understand grades.
The 2010 Sustainable City Report Card was released today, and needless
to say, Santa Monica continues to make the grade.The 2010 Report Card highlights
improvements in almost every sustainability goal area and notes several
successes over the past year. Some of
the notable successes include the following: - Water Wonders:Water
demand dropped in all seasons for the past three years.
- Solar Success: Solar capacity has more than tripled
since the launch of Solar Santa Monica. There are 183 grid connected solar
projects in the city generating over 1.4 megawatts of
solar electricity
- Market Madness: Sales are up 4% at four thriving farmers markets that
provide fresh, locally grown and organic produce to nearly a million
visitors each year.
- Safer Soap: By not
purchasing antimicrobial hand soap, the city keeps almost 1,000 gallons of
triclosan-containing soap out of the community and the marine environment annually.
- Cool Carpools: Average vehicle
ridership increased from 1.59 last year to 1.64 this year exceeding the
Sustainable City Plan target.
- Biking is Big: Bike lanes on
city streets increased by 11% and the number of people riding to work
increased 13%.
- Pedal Parking: This year the
bike valet program parked more than 25,000 bikes for free at community
events around the city.
- Community Commerce: More than 200
businesses have joined the Buy Local Santa Monica campaign and
demonstrated their commitment to our local community.
- Local Leadership: Twenty one businesses were
recognized for their exceptional commitment to sustainable practices
through the Green Business Certification Program and the Sustainable
Quality Awards.
- Total Trees:
The combined size of the community forest grew 2% this year.
- Housing Hope: The city added
248 units of affordable housing in 2008, nearly 50% of the total new units
completed. An additional 290
affordable housing units were completed in 2009.
- Creating Community: More than 4,000 people and 60
community groups took an active role in shaping the future of Santa Monica
by participating in the update of the Land Use and Circulation Elements.
- Environmental Education: An additional 820 people began
integrating sustainable practices in the urban environment by
participating in the Sustainable Works Community Greening Program bringing
the total participants to more than 5,000.
- Homeless Help: The number of homeless people in Santa
Monica dropped 8% between 2007 and 2009, while the number provided
services rose 7%.
- Safe Streets: Violent Crime dropped to its lowest level since
2003. Gang crime in 2009 was 2/3 of
its 2006 high.
Santa Monica's
sustainability efforts were among the first of their kind in the nation and
have served as a model for a growing number of cities, academic institutions
and businesses. Thanks to the city's
leadership, the adoption of aggressive goals for sustainability and the careful
tracking of progress are now widely practiced throughout the country. "We're using the Report Card and Progress
Report to guide our decision making," said Shannon Parry, Santa
Monica's Sustainable City Program coordinator. "The successes highlighted in the Report Card
show that Santa Monica is actively addressing the challenges to becoming
a sustainable city. Each year we are planting the seeds of change that will
ripen into a more sustainable community for current and future generations."
Dean Kubani, the director of
the city's Office of Sustainability and the Environment, said, "The
Report Card
shows that we are making progress toward becoming a sustainable city. It
also
identifies the challenges that we face in truly realizing our vision for
a
sustainable community. If we are to meet the aggressive goals set forth
in the
Sustainable City Plan, all members of the community need to be educated,
involved and committed to our collective success." The events slated for the coming days are intended to inform and involve the Santa Monica community in all things sustainable.
Visit www.sustainablesm.org, key word sustainability, for additional information. |
