Energy and Environment
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Greenest and Cleanest Big City
- Improving public health by enhancing the environment
- "Unpaving paradise" by increasing green space
- Promoting environmental stewardship by the City and Angelenos
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
Mayor Villaraigosa launched the Million Trees LA 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 supplyingoxygen 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.
Before Mayor Villaraigosa took office, the City of Los Angeles planted 10,000 trees each year. Since the kickoff event on September 30, 2006 - Million Trees LA, in conjunction with our partners, is planting and adopting out for private property planting at a rate of 93,800 trees annually; resulting in an almost ten-fold increase.
Go to http://www.milliontreesla.org to:
- Get your free trees!
- Learn more about the initiative
- Contribute to this effort with a donation
- Access reports, press releases, calendar of events, tree distributions and volunteer opportunities
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
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:
- Prescriptive menu of energy efficiency incentives (lighting, refrigeration, chillers, motors)
- Performance incentives based on number of achieved LEED energy efficiency points
- Expedited DWP services (water/electric service planning and construction) for projects achieving LEED certification (Silver or better)
For existing buildings LADWP offers the following:
- Commercial Lighting Efficiency Offer (rebates)
- Refrigeration Program (rebates)
- Chiller Efficiency Program (rebates)
- Custom Program (savings-based incentives for measures not on rebate menus)
- Small Business Direct Install Program (free lighting upgrades for A1 customers, including common areas of apartment complexes that are served on the A1 rate)
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.
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:
- Convert 85% of all city-fleet vehicles powered by alternative fuels by FY 2012-2013.
- Have 100% of all refuse collection trucks and street sweepers converted by 2010.
- Synchronize traffic signals through the Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control System (ATSAC) in order to reduce vehicle travel and idling time.
- Add three more LAX Flyaway Bus service routes to reduce vehicle trips to the area.
Encouraging a more walkable and vibrant urban area is key to reducing negative environmental impacts. The Mayor's strategy is to:
- Partner with public agencies and the private sector to produce plans and market studies for Transit Oriented Developments (TODs) on seven stations along the Goldline Eastside Extension and the new Exposition Light Rail line.
- Convert vacant and underutilized land to mixed-use or TODs in order to reduce automobile usage and dependence.
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.
Much of the City has been paved over. The Mayor's green vision calls for unpaving paradise by:
- Greening the city through the Million Trees LA Initiative.
- Creating more open space in the city.
- Create 35 new parks by 2010, where 50% will be located in high- priority areas.
- Restore buried, filled-in streams to their original above ground locations through Proposition O funds.
- Revitalize the Los Angeles River.