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How We’re Trying to Do It: Structure of the Effort to Produce and Implement a Plan for San Francisco’s Sustainability  Contents Definition of Sustainability Why are we doing this? How are we tackling this problem? What are we trying to achieve? What is Sustainable San Francisco? Are contributions tax-deductible? Who makes the decisions? Who endorses this effort? How will the plan be drafted? "Sustainability" is a big topic. (What's been left out?) What's the baseline? How will the plan be structured? Sample Matrix Page Who will be involved? How will the city circles work? Meeting Agendas Answers to other frequently asked questions What do you mean by sustainability? Why isn't land use (or housing) part of the plan? Why isn't homelessness (or any other topic part of the plan? Why is environmental justice a separate topic? What about conflict and overlap between circles? General Timeline This paper provides information on the structure of Sustainable San Francisco, its mission and its strategy. Definition of Sustainability Sustainability is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The long-term goal for urban sustainability is to develop a prosperous and healthful urban system which can provide for the physical and other needs of local residents while reversing the trends of increased pollution and environmental degradation now threatening the quality of urban life and the health of the earth's other life-forms. top  Why Are We Doing This? The environmental practices of people in the City of San Francisco are currently such that the quality of human life and the ecological health and biodiversity of the region cannot be sustained for future generations. Air and water pollution cause health problems and damage crops and remaining natural habitat. Solid waste is generated at rates that deplete the resource base and create wasteful use of open space as landfill. Numbers of many of our native and migrating animal species are in decline. Energy use greatly exceeds the amount that can be generated through renewable resources, leading inexorably to the depletion of current energy sources. Polluting automobile use still far exceeds other means of transportation. These are only a few of the areas in which society must reassess its practices to maintain a high quality of life for future human generations and the rest of the ecosphere. top  How Are We Tackling this Problem? Residents of San Francisco have begun a collaborative process to plan for the City's future. What quality of life will we leave for our children and grandchildren? An effort has been organized by the Commission on San Francisco's Environment, the City Planning Department, the nonprofit organization Sustainable City and many others, working together under the name, Sustainable San Francisco, with the mission of drafting and implementing a plan for San Francisco's sustainability. top  What Are We Trying to Achieve? The long-term goal for urban sustainability is to develop a prosperous and healthful urban system which can provide for the physical and other needs of the population while reversing the trends of increasing pollution and environmental degradation now threatening the quality of urban life. In designing our plan, our goals are to: Involve greatest number of social sectors in not only in drafting a plan, but in implementing it, measuring progress, and modifying it in the future. Establish objective measures so that progress can be truly assessed. Produce a plan that will actually be implemented. Publicize results of plan implementation as broadly as possible. top  What is Sustainable San Francisco? Sustainable San Francisco is a collaboration of individuals and organizations; it has no formal existence as an organization, itself. Its efforts are based on work done by the Commission on San Francisco's Environment (an advisory committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors) and organizational work of the Sustainable City (a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization working on San Francisco issues). These two organizations are working closely with the City Planning Department and other city agencies as well as other environmental advocacy organizations and individuals to further environmental planning in San Francisco. Producing a plan for San Francisco's sustainability is one of the tasks with which the Environmental Commission was charged when it was formed, three years ago. While the Commission and other city agencies are active participants, Sustainable San Francisco is a community effort. top  Are Contributions Tax-Deductible? Sustainable City (a 501(c)(3) corporation) acts as fiscal agent for Sustainable San Francisco, making contributions to the sustainability planning effort tax-deductible. Who Makes the Decisions? General direction of the effort is the responsibility of the executive director of Sustainable City, Beryl Magilavy. Strategy decisions are made by consensus of a steering committee, which meets on first and third Tuesdays, at 6:00 p.m. Steering Committee membership is, and will remain, open to all residents of San Francisco with an interest in forwarding the work. Responsibilities of the steering committee are To plan overall strategy and execute details, To raise funds, agree on a working budget and oversee expenditure of project funds (constituent groups may also have their own funding for forwarding the sustainability work), and To act as a liaison between the collaboration and any organizations steering committee members may represent. top  Who Endorses this Effort? There is an expanding group of local leaders and organizations agreeing to act as advisors to Sustainable San Francisco. Duties of advisors are To lend their names as endorsers of the effort. To help identify key stakeholders for participation in City Circles (defined below), To help get the word out among their own constituencies, To contribute money and/or other resources to the effort, and To help with the public hearings in June and outreach over the summer. top  As of this writing, advisors are American Institute of Architects Audubon Society, Inc. Bank of America Charlotte Berk (League of Women Voters) Babette Drefke (Potrero Boosters) Scott Edmonson (EIP & Associates) Esprit Friends of the Urban Forest Lead Poisoning Prevention Project Piero Patri San Francisco Tomorrow Sierra Club Sustainable City Urban Ecology Urban Resource Systems Jacqueline Young Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi Senator Milton Marks CAO William L. Lee President of the Board of Supervisors Kevin Shelley Supervisor Angela Alioto Supervisor Sue Bierman Supervisor Terence Hallinan Supervisor Carole Migden Supervisor Mabel Teng City of San Francisco City Planning Department City of San Francisco Commission on San Francisco's Environment City of San Francisco Bureau of Energy Conservation City of San Francisco Solid Waste Management Program top  How Will the Plan be Drafted? It is important to reiterate that the sustainability plan should be a means, not an end. However, to proceed in a sensible way to change long-standing environmental practices, it's necessary to come up with some goals, actions, and objectives to be achieved. top  "Sustainability" is a Big Topic (What's Been Left Out). Some decisions had to be made about how to address an overarching issue such as environmental sustainability. It was necessary to set some boundaries for what we are attempting to address, and then to break the subject up into manageable pieces. It is our aim to keep this document focused on environmental issues. For that reason, we've chosen to omit such important social aspects as homelessness, crime, and spirituality. We have tried to focus on the physical systems of the planet that normally get short shrift from planners, and the social systems that have a direct impact on these. The topic of land-use has been omitted. This will astonish sustainability planners from other cities. We have chosen not to address land use in this sustainability plan because: The City of San Francisco is surrounded on three sides by water. Except for individual parcel development, it has long been essentially built out in a form that includes vibrant pedestrian neighborhoods and is quite transit-friendly. Transit-related land-use issues are dealt with in that section. Issues such as parks and restoration of remaining natural habitat are contained in those sections. There is already an extensive public participation process in place around land use decisions. We have divided topic of sustainability into the following sections: Agriculture Air Quality Economy and Economic Development Energy, Climate Change and Ozone Depletion Environmental Justice Hazardous Materials Human Health Municipal Expenditures Open Space: Inland Lakes and Streams, Natural Habitat and Biodiversity Open Space: Parks, Public Spaces and the Streetscape Public Information and Education Risk Management (activities of high environmental risk) Solid Waste Transportation Water and Wastewater Several areas, such as economy and public education, have effects on all the other sections. The importance of these in achieving sustainability in the other areas made it essential that they be addressed specifically; not just as one aspect of discussion on each section. top  What's the Baseline? In 1994, the Commission on San Francisco's Environment published a baseline study of San Francisco's current situation, the Environmental State of the City Report. It is available to the general public for $5 from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, 401 Van Ness Avenue, Room 308. Some of the topics listed above were not covered in the State of the City report. This sustainability planning effort has been evolving over time, and the topic list has expanded since the report was done. top  How Will the Plan be Structured? Volunteer San Franciscans spent the early part of 1995 researching sustainability plans from around the world. Building on models found to be successful elsewhere, a format was chosen to maximize the possibility that the plan will be implemented. The plan is intended to be written for a general audience, who have never heard of the concept of sustainability and its associated ideas, and will address activities of the private as well as the public sector. Building primarily on the European Community's Agenda 21 Implementation Plan (for the UK) and work done by Sustainable Seattle, the plan has been structured so that each topic has an introductory section, then is addressed via a matrix that sets out: (Sample Matrix: Agriculture) Broad, long-term social goals Goals are supposed to be very general, and speak to the basic human/ ecosystem needs that are to be addressed. (For instance, this is where one would address people's need to travel and move goods, rather than the need to have an efficient bus system [that's a strategy for getting the travel done].) Specific objectives to be achieved within the next five years. Objectives for the year 2001 should be quantifiable and feasible within a five-year time-frame. They should include objectives for the private sector, including individual residents, as well as objectives for City programs. Objectives that must be reached to achieve a sustainable society, These objectives should represent what it would really take to make the city sustainable. They will probably not look "reasonable," but are included to give perspective to the discussion. Specific actions that will be implemented to move toward sustainability, Actions are steps city government, private companies, and individuals can take to achieve the goals and objectives in the preceding columns. (For instance, this is where to put expanding the bus system.) Some objective indicators, or measures of success in each area. Indicators are meant to be numerical measurements that: Are obvious in what is being measured (for instance, something like "improvement of water quality in the Bay" is too general and one might argue what it could mean), Can be found at low cost given the current information-gathering machinery, Clearly indicate a trend toward or away from sustainability, Are understandable to the general public and easily presented in the media. With the assistance of the City Planning Department, two background documents have been prepared: An Invitation to Public Discussion: What Kind of Future Do We Want? and Possible Goals, Objectives, Actions and Indicators Suggested for Consideration by City Circles They represent the efforts of local sustainability activists, including many people from city agencies, to produce a forward-looking draft that is realistic enough to be implemented. This draft is meant to be a starting point for the deliberations of a broad cross-section of the community to reach agreement on a final plan. The reason for producing such a detailed draft was to "jump-start" the public participation process, making it focused enough that people who have neither the time nor taste for a lengthy series of meetings would be more likely to participate. top  Who Will Be Involved? People involved in drafting the plan are being called "participants." The drafting groups are called "City Circles." It is our primary goal for the drafting process to have secure the participation of Representatives of the business community who have an economic interest in each topic area, The appropriate city departments, and Environmental activists who have a thorough knowledge of the issues being discussed. People from these sectors will be identified and recruited by Sustainable San Francisco. Any interested member of the general public may also participate in the drafting groups. Once the drafting meetings have started, we will pretty much close participation to those who are able to participate from the beginning. It would be too disruptive of the process to have newcomers who would need to be brought up to speed and who might wish to revisit issues on which the City Circle participants had already reached a consensus. For those who can't participate through all four meetings, there will be an opportunity to comment at the meetings' conclusion. Once the plan has been completed by the City Circles, comments from the general public will be solicited at hearings to be co-sponsored by the Stegner Environmental Center of the new Main Library planned for June, 1996. We will also do outreach to the general public with a booth that will be taken to street fairs and other venues throughout the summer. top  How Will the City Circles Work? After opening ceremonies scheduled for January, 1996, to which all participants will be invited, Circles will meet four or five times over the ensuing four months. Meetings will have specific agendas, professional facilitators, and a recorder to take notes and prepare drafts for review between meetings. Participants will have been invited by Circle coordinators. The first Circle meetings have been scheduled over three days in the beginning of February. top  Agendas of the meetings follow. For a detailed description of each meeting, and other technical instructions for those running the meetings, please see the paper, City Circle Meeting Guidelines: Detailed Information for Facilitators, Recorders and Coordinators. Opening Ceremonies January 25 Program 6:30 - 7:00 p.m. 7:00-8:30 Wine and Cheese Speakers Topic Beryl Magilavy, Sustainable San Francisco, Sustainable City, Commission on San Francisco's Environment Welcome. Definition of Sustainability Bill Lee, Chief Administrative Officer, City of San Francisco Current city environmental programs. Need for private participation. Need for involvement of all social sectors. Kevin Shelley, President of the Board of Supervisors The global context. History of the Environmental Commission and the new Environmental Department Beryl Magilavy Background, mission, goals, expected products, timeline of Sustainable San Francisco. Present information on City Circles, their process, how to become involved, describe the spring public event and welcome participation of individuals, organizations, and businesses in the city. City Circle Meetings Meeting 1 Early February 9:30 am - 12:30 pm Work product: Draft goals Set dates of meetings 2, 3 and 4 (tailored to schedules of participants) Set location of remaining meetings Meeting 2 Second week of March Work product: Draft objectives (both sustainability and 5-year) Interum Meeting Of Steering Committee with Coordinators, Facilitators and Recorders Third week of March Meeting 3 Second week of April Work Product Draft actions and start work on indicators Establish subcommittee to research indicators Establish subcommittee to draft introductory text Meeting 4 Second week of May Work Product Draft indicators Approve introduction text. Approve document completed to date. Appoint subcommittee to plan presentation for the June public event. Meeting 5 Early September Work Product Finalize plan. Commit to implementing it. Identify Circle participants who wish to continue participation into the implementation phase. to  Answers to Frequently Asked Question What do you mean by sustainability? "Sustainability" has been defined in different ways by various users. The definition we're using is "development that provides for the needs of the present without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Why isn't land use (or housing) part of the plan? This is a first effort to draft a plan for San Francisco's sustainability. Here in the city, we have an extensive public-participation process around land-use issues. It seemed to us, at this point, that it would not be useful to construct a parallel process. Once the sustainability planning process starts being successfully implemented, perhaps in the future it will be useful to fold in land use issues. Why isn't homelessness (or any other topic) part of the plan? Given the interconnected nature of life on earth, environmental issues can be defined to be everything on the planet. However, in order to focus this effort, which is already very broad, on a small enough number of areas so that real environmental change can be implemented, we have chosen to define "environmental" as being more or less the physical systems of the planet, and the physical health of the people living here. Why is environmental justice a separate topic? Although this issue should be considered as an integral part of all the City Circles, with the tight time-frame of these meetings, it was feared that it would be left by the wayside. We therefore gave it its own topic area. What about conflict and overlap between Circles? It may occur, but we'll leave it to the implementation stage to work out. Implementation will likely be a slow process, there will be time for further negotiations. What happens next? After the plan is finalized, it will be presented to the Environmental Commission and the Board of Supervisors for enactment as policy of the city. At the same time, actions proposed for implementation by many government agencies participating in the planning process are already well within their areas of responsibility. They will presumably begin immediately (or continue) to work toward the five-year objectives. Implementation of the private-sector actions should also begin immediately, and will be the responsibility of participants to push along. It's a bit difficult to be specific at this point about the logistics of the implementation phase, since the new environmental department, which has been formed to ensure the plan's implementation (among other things) won't come into existence until July, 1996 and has not yet been structured. General Timeline Event Time Frame General Format Sustainability Planning Process Opening Ceremonies January 25, 1996 Early evening event with speakers primarily local elected officials. Socializing afterward. City Circle Meetings 1 February 5, 6, 7 See above 2 2nd week of March Circle Leaders Meeting 3rd week of March 3 2nd week of April 4 2nd week of May 5 4th week of May Public Event June 22 (summer solstice) Presentations in morning; festival-like event in afternoon 6 (see note below) Second week of September Document produced November Implementation City Circles Semi-annually, January/June (same or different participants) (or 5th if 2nd May meeting is not required) top