Mayor Newsom Launches EcoMap SF

Mayor Newsom Launches EcoMap SF

(April 22, 2009)

Easy-to-use web tool spurs residents and businesses to adopt climate-friendly behavior



SAN FRANCISCO, CA--In observation of Earth Day, Mayor Gavin Newsom today announced EcoMap San

Francisco, an Internet-based tool that gives San Franciscans the ability to see the

collective results of their individual climate change actions, while also motivating people to make responsible

environmental choices. EcoMap provides information on carbon emissions from transportation, energy and waste,

organized by San Francisco zip codes to create competition among neighborhoods to reduce their carbon footprint.



"EcoMap San Francisco provides residents, businesses and our City with much-needed tools to help reduce San

Francisco's carbon footprint," said Mayor Gavin Newsom. "People will be able to easily track their own efforts, and

see real results to which they contributed."

EcoMap provides communities with information on their progress toward meeting greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction

goals, and with access to the most useful, locally available tools and resources for reducing their carbon footprint.



EcoMap amasses information on a neighborhood level, organized by zip codes, in the following two ways:

• Discover Your City's Neighborhoods: Through this visual display, residents can see their greenhouse gas
  
  contributions in the areas of transportation, energy, and waste. This information empowers neighborhoods to
  
  identify and take specific actions to fight climate change using approaches such as alternative-fuel vehicle
  
  ownership, recycling, and reducing household energy use.
• Take Climate Actions: Citizens can make decisions to help decrease the carbon footprint of their geographic regions, their particular zip code, and their city. They can make these choices by gaining visibility into several key factors, including the effort required to make the change, the associated cost or financial benefit, and the environmental impact of the action. Citizens can then share their climate actions with others via social
  
  networking sites.

The EcoMap pilot is a collaborative effort between San Francisco and Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG). EcoMap was developed as part of a public-private partnership aimed at addressing the unique environmental

problems confronted by urban areas.

"Cities are the world's major source of greenhouse gas emissions, consuming 75 percent of the world's energy," said

Mayor Gavin Newsom. "We are pleased that Cisco selected San Francisco as the first city in the world to launch

EcoMap so we can aggressively reverse that trend."

EcoMap San Francisco will be fully functional by the end of May 2009. Subsequently, Cisco will develop similar

EcoMaps for cities around the world.