Articles
Santa Monica, California
Over a Decade of Green Community Leadership
In 1994 Santa Monica’s City Council adopted the Sustainable City Program, which marked the beginning of Santa Monica’s formal initiative to address issues related to sustainability in the community. A comprehensive process was begun in 2001 to improve and expand the program, resulting in the eventual development and adoption of Santa Monica’s Sustainable City Plan in February 2003. The plan includes goals and success indicators for the City government and all sectors of the community to conserve and enhance local resources, safeguard human health and the environment, maintain a healthy and diverse economy, and improve the livability and quality of life for all community members in Santa Monica.
What sets Santa Monica apart is not only the breadth and depth of the initiatives but also the attention paid to measurement through success indicators. The designers and implementers of the initiative seemed less interested in the hype of “going green” and more interested in achieving long-term results. While the press and awards have surely followed, Santa Monica’s leaders seem to be their own harshest critics, providing report card “grades” based on indicator results and not on the appeal or publicity of the strategies. And while their grading reflects both acyivity and results, it is clear from their reporting that good effort does not necessarily correspond with achieving the desired results.
Santa Monica was literally the first U.S. city to purchase green power for all of its municipal electricity needs, and has engineered the installation of over 300KW of solar electric capacity community wide. Through its Community Energy Independence Initiative Santa Monica is building toward meeting all of its energy needs in the future through locally produced green power. Over 80 percent of its fleet vehicles are powered by sustainable fuel alternatives, and its Big Blue Bus system was voted recently as the best bus line in the nation and a leader in clean air technology. Santa Monica’s recycling initiative has diverted 67 percent of its waste from landfill, which achieved a 36 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions within the waste sector. The city has the most certified LEED buildings per capita in the nation, and provides grants for LEED certified building projects as well as an expedited plan review process for green building developments.
Santa Monica’s school children benefit from the country’s first local, organic salad bar lunch program. Its local, organic-farmer laden Farmers’ Market recently incorporated Zero Waste strategies including the composting of food scrap residuals and corn-based plates and utensils. Santa Monica’s Toxic Use Reduction program assessed its janitorial cleaning products inventory, eliminated all products with toxic substances and settled on a handful of ecologically benign products to meet its cleaning needs. The latest comprehensive assessment of Santa Monica’s Ecological Footprint™ shows that its resource use has decreased by 167 square miles (or 5.6 percent) from 1990 levels. While these represent only a sampling of Santa Monica’s achievements, rest assured that Santa Monica is not resting on its reputation and will continue to be a model for sustainable community development in the years to come.
To access Santa Monica’s 2007 Report Card, click here.
