Greenest and Cleanest Big City

 

 

 

Mayor Villaraigosa is committed to making Los Angeles the cleanest and greenest big city in the nation. Through conservation, innovation and determination, Los Angeles is going green.

 

 

Million Trees LA
Renewable Energy Initiative
Green Buildings
Water Wise 

Transportation and Alternative Fueled Fleet
Land Use

Waste

Open Space and Greening

 

 

Million Trees LA

 

 

Mayor Villaraigosa launched the Million Trees LA (MTLA) initiative as part of a larger effort to make Los Angeles greener, cleaner and more beautiful for all to enjoy. Trees are critical to quality of life. They increase air quality by supplying oxygen and by removing pollutants such as ozone, particulate matter, and carbon dioxide from the air, thus also reducing the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Trees can decrease temperature in surrounding areas and reduce the need for air conditioning. They absorb and clean, through their natural processes, polluted urban runoff - the primary cause of ocean pollution. And trees provide aesthetic benefits, improving quality of life and raising property values. Recognizing these benefits, the Mayor has set the goal of planting one million trees.

 

Signature Projects

MTLA has identified areas of the city that have the lowest canopy coverage, based on a study prepared for MTLA by the National Forestry Service, and has launched a concentrated effort to increase the tree population along major transportation corridors in these communities. Signature Projects will transform a highly visible major corridor in Los Angeles from a concrete through a fare into a thriving green corridor. By unpaving portions of the sidewalks and planting trees, MTLA will have an immediate positive impact on surrounding neighborhoods.

 

 

Go to http://www.milliontreesla.org to:

 

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Renewable Energy Initiative

 

In 2005, Mayor Villaraigosa announced his goal of generating 20% of the City's energy sales from renewable sources by 2010 - a central component of the City's Climate Change Action Plan. In just two and a half years, DWP has doubled the amount of energy from renewable sources from 3% to 8% of total generation - well on the way to meeting the Villaraigosa goal. And in January 2008, the Mayor broke ground on Pine Tree Wind Farm which will provide a further 1.4% towards this goal when it opens in 2009.

 

Other projects already in operation or in the pipeline include a wind power contract with PPM Energy that delivers electricity produced by turbines on land leased from Wyoming ranchers to power 39,000 LA homes. In the future, the Terminal Island Renewable Energy Project (TIRE), which broke ground in April 2007, will use depleted underground oil reservoirs to convert bio-solids into renewable green energy while reducing greenhouse gases.

 

 

For more information on the City's renewable energy policy, go to the Department of Water and Power's Renewable Energy: http://ladwp.com/ladwp/cms/ladwp005864.jsp

 

 

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Green Buildings

 

Buildings consume up to two-thirds of the City's electricity in addition to using a significant fraction of water and other natural resources and contributing to toward landfill waste.

 

The City of Los Angeles has a requirement for green municipal buildings and a proposed Private Sector Green Building Program.

 

Upon approval by the City Council, private sector buildings at or above 50,000 square feet will be required to meet the Standard of Sustainability.

 

Municipal buildings are currently subject to a green building standard. The Green municipal buildings program requires all municipal buildings over 7,500 sq feet to meet the LEED Certified level of sustainability. Currently 49 municipal buildings have been or are in the process of being built to meet LEED standards.

 

To help private and public sector buildings meet green standard requirements, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has a menu or services and rebates to help reduce energy consumption. For example, LADWP offers three levels of support for non-residential new construction:

 

 

For existing buildings LADWP offers the following:

 

 

 

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Water Wise

 

Having grown-up in Southern California, Mayor Villaraigosa knows that the area is always under the threat of drought due to dry weather and a lack of ground water or other sustainable water sources. With this in mind, in 2007 Mayor Villaraigosa called on all Angelenos to help with their fair share and conserve water, with a goal of reducing water use by 10% To help with that effort, the Mayor announced the implementation of the Drought Busters Program, designed to educate City residents on how to conserve water.

 

The Mayor has also launched a recycled water initiative. Conserving water is vital to the sustainability of the region. The California State Water Plan (2005) estimates that between 1.2 and 3.1 million acre-feet of water can be supplied statewide through urban water conservation programs and 0.9 to 1.4 million acre-feet can come from recycled municipal water.

 

 

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Transportation and Alternative Fueled Fleet

 

The City was the first to incorporate fuel-cell vehicles into its fleet and owns the nation's largest municipal alternative-fuel refuse truck fleet. The Mayor's strategy is to:

 

 

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Land Use

 

Encouraging a more walkable and vibrant urban area is key to reducing negative environmental impacts. The Mayor's strategy is to:

 

 

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Waste

 

Los Angeles collects refuse, recyclables and yard waste from over 750,000 households, averaging 6,600 tons per day. The City has:

 

• Established the nation's first curbside 'co-mingled' (blue-bin) recycling program.
• A 62% solid waste diversion rate, the highest of any other LARGE American city.
• Established a 70% garbage diversion rate goal by 2015.
• Added multifamily apartments and condos to the blue-bin recycling program.
• Expanded the citywide food recycling program for restaurants to reduce food waste.
• Recruited 305 schools to participate in the LAUSD School recycling program to reduce waste and educate younger generations of the benefits of recycling.

 

 

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Open Space and Greening

 

Much of the City has been paved over. The Mayor's green vision calls for unpaving paradise by:

 

 

 

The Mayor's strategy is to:

 

 

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