Regardless of your political inclinations, you have to admit that Mayor McHottie (aka Gavin Newsom) of San Francisco is doing a pretty decent job in promoting “greenness.” In fact, a recent independent study noted that San Francisco has cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent from 1990 levels and is on track to meet its goal of a 20 percent reduction in four years.
That’s pretty impressive if a 20% reduction can really be had in a mere four years.
Below are just some of the ways our city has taken steps to be more green (not all of these are necessarily related to greenhouse gas emissions):
- SF has the largest City-owned solar installation in the country – a 75 kilowatt solar array atop Moscone Center (convention facility)
- 100% of SF’s taxi fleets are to be converted to hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles by 2011
- SF has a new green building ordinance which imposes strict new green building requirements on newly constructed residential and commercial buildings, and renovations to existing buildings – by 2012, it is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 60,000 tons
- Local restaurants are now banned from using Polystyrene foam (Styrofoamâ„¢) disposable food service ware
- In March 2007, SF became the first U.S. city to ban plastic shopping bags
- SF currently has a 70 percent recycling rate. The city’s goal is 75 percent by 2010 and zero waste by 2020
But enough about us – tell me how your city stacks up and what is being done to curb global warming in your neck of the woods.
I won’t write about the vices of smoking (we all know what they are) or the fact that the amount of money people spend smoking could end poverty (I’m exaggerating). I wrote a couple months ago how bad smoking is for the environment. Smoking isn’t just bad when people light up, but rather, it’s environmentally detrimental throughout the entire production supply chain.
In what was an extremely controversial move, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a law last week banning the sale of tobacco products in most pharmacies within city limits. San Francisco, the first city in the U.S. to pass such a ban, hopes this will spur other cities to action. Marin County has already taken notice and is thinking about a similar ban.
San Francisco spokespeople mentioned the law was to promote the idea of health in a pharmacy. They mentioned pharmacies should be places where people go to get healthy. Rite Aid and Walgreens spokespeople expressed concern about limiting customer choice in their stores, and noted people buying cigarettes in their stores could use also pharmacists as a resource to stop smoking. They also mentioned the law lacked basic fairness.
As much as I dislike smoking and as bad as smoking is for the environment, I’m a little torn. I would love for everyone to stop smoking, but I’m not sure bans like this are productive or fair, especially when they seem to single out certain types of retailers. What stops San Francisco from banning potato chips and other products?
As a frequent salad eater, I am always wracked with guilt when I go to my favorite supermarket for salads – Draegers Market in San Mateo – because their salad containers are the clear plastic variety. But man, their croutons are great.
So today, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Whole Foods now offers EATware decomposable containers for their salads! According to the site, EATware containers, which come in a variety of shapes and sizes, decompose in soil in 180 days, and disperse in water in 2 weeks! They also don’t have any laminates or coatings, and yet are oil, water and heat resistant. Pretty awesome.
I’m going to take the container I got with my salad today and stick it in my compost bin, just to see how long it takes before it decomposes. I’m also going to write an email to Dragers, and tell them that until they switch over to something like EATware, my salad business is going to Whole Foods.
Here are some fun pictures – artist Jean Luc Cornec constructed these “Telephone Sheep” using old rotary phones and cords.
It’s a pretty creative way of re-using older materials, and good commentary on the need for us to be more green – reduce, reuse, recycle!
Two months ago, I wrote about the all electric Tesla Roadster, one of the fastest cars on the road. Tesla Motors opened its flagship Los Angeles, California showroom back in early May. The showroom actually features the service center as a main attraction point!
I’m excited to announce Tesla Motors has opened its second showroom, this time in Northern California. This showroom is located at 300 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, just north of Palo Alto and the Stanford Shopping Center. It’s close to where I live, so you can bet I’ll be by for a visit. It’s a 40,000 square foot facility, which Tesla says replicates their Los Angeles store on a much larger scale. From the pictures I’ve seen (some of which are above), I have to admit the store and showroom look like quite an incredible experience. Just like the Los Angeles store, the Menlo Park showroom features open views into the service center, which is currently being used to put final touches on cars for delivery to customers.
The current hours of the store are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00am to 6:00pm and Sunday from 12:00pm to 5:00pm. Test drives are available, but by appointment only. Rumor has it you need to show you’re a serious buyer by putting down a $5,000 deposit on a Roadster before they let you take out one of their babies. Although I’m not quite ready to throw down $100,000 on one, I’m more than ready to check out the showroom and the sweet Roadster! Who knows, maybe I’ll catch someone on a good day, and they may let me take one out (in my dreams)!
Although I’m sure they won’t give you a complimentary tank of gas upon delivery of a Tesla Roadster, I do hope they give you a full charge!
