Recent Green Haps
October 28, 2009 by greenie
While we were away from this site, San Francisco kept greening it up! Here are just a few green happenings from the past few months.
Wind Power Makes Sense in SF
The Urban Wind Power Task Force released it's report and recommendations on Sept. 21. More about this later, but you can read the full 16 page report for yourself.
More after the break....
Peak Oil - You Are Here
The San Francisco Peak Oil Preparedness Task Force presented it's 125 page report to the Board of Sup's Government Audit and Oversight Committee on Sept. 24. This report, originally prepared in March, needs more attention. Compared to the wind power report, it is a bit of downer, as it has a lot of bad news to deliver. The bottom line is that SF, like the rest of the U.S., is in no way prepared for the coming decline in fossil fuel production. specifically, we are weak in food production, security, and transportation among other important areas. To the report's credit, there were tons of positive and realistic recommendations, mostly in the arena of becoming a more self sustaining region in food production, tranportation and energy. Supervisor Mirkarimi has vowed to seriously follow up on the report, so it's basically all in his hands. Go Ross go. Read the report here.
Green Loans
On Oct. 6, the Board of Supervisors UNANIMOUSLY voted for a green loan program to help people finance energy generation and efficiency projects. They city will pay for the program with tax bonds paid for by the participating owners property tax bills (it's a spiral in a spiral, wheel within a wheel kinda deal.) Special shout out to Supervisor Eric Mar for his relentless work on this important program.
West Coast Green Conference
This year's West Coast Green Conference at Fort Mason in early October was a huge success. The sessions and workshops were filled to brimming and the exhibition space was packed. If you needed products to build, maintain or furnish a green building, they were there. There were a few complaints that the conference is too "mainstream" but that just means more people are becoming aware of the possibilities.
Compost That Banana Peel - Or Else!
San Francisco's comprehensive recycling and composting law went into effect on October 21. For those of us who have been recycling their compost for years, there's no change at all. But for many people, it was a bit of a shock to realize that they are legally required to put their compostable organic waste in a separate bucket every week or possibly face a fine! The reality is that there won't be any composting fines issued for a very long time - there's a long educational period first. The real target of the law are the big compost producers, the restaurants and apartment buildings. In SF, many restaurants already compost, but there are enough who are tardy to the composting party that this law will have a big impact in the long run. (We're already processing 500 tons of food waste a day in this city, wow!) Read everything you would ever want to know about composting in SF at: http://www.sfenvironment.org/our_programs/topics.html?ssi=3&ti=6
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