Urban Environmental Accords
Energy: Renewable Energy | Energy Efficiency | Climate Change
Action 1 Adopt and implement a policy to increase the use of renewable energy to meet ten per cent of the city’s peak electrical load within seven years.
Action 2 Adopt and implement a policy to reduce the city’s peak electric load by ten per cent within seven years seven years through energy efficiency, shifting the timing of energy demands, and conservation measures.
Action 3 Adopt a citywide green house gas reduction plan that reduces the jurisdictions emissions by twenty five percent by 2030, and which includes a system for accounting and auditing greenhouse gas emissions.
Waste Reduction: Zero Waste | Manufacturer Responsibility | Consumer Responsibility
Action 4 Establish a policy to achieve zero waste to landfills and incinerators by 2040.
Action 5 Adopt a citywide law that reduces the use of a disposable, toxic or non-renewable product category by at least percent in seven years.
Action 6 Implemented “user-friendly” recycling and composting programs, with the goal of reducing by twenty per cent per capita solid waste disposal to landfill and incineration in seven years.
Urban Design: Green Building | Urban Planning | Slums
Action 7 Adopt a policy that mandates a green building rating system standard that applies to all new municipal buildings.
Action 8 Adopt urban planning principles that advance higher density, mixed use, walkable, bikeable and disabled-accessible neighborhoods which coordinate land use and transportation with open space systems for recreation and ecological restoration.
Action 9 Adopt a policy or implement a program that creates environmentally beneficial jobs in slums and/or low-income neighborhoods.
Urban Nature: Parks | Habitat Restoration | Wildlife
Action 10 Ensure that there is an accessible park or recreational open space within half-a-
kilometer of every city resident by 2015.
Action 11 Conduct an inventory of existing canopy coverage in the city; and then
establish a goal based on ecological and community considerations to plant and maintain
canopy coverage in not less than fifty per cent of all available sidewalk plating sites.
Action 12 Pass legislation that protects critical habitat corridors and other key habitat
characteristics (e.g. water features, food bearing plants, shelter for wildlife, use of native
species, etc.) from unsustainable development.
Transportation: Public Transportation | Clean Vehicles | Reducing Congestion
Action 13 Develop and implement a policy which expands affordable public
transportation coverage to within half-a-kilometer of all city residents in ten years.
Action 14 Pass a law or implement a program that eliminates leaded gasoline (where it is
still used); and that phases down sulfur levels in diesel and gasoline fuels, concurrent
with using advanced emission controls on all buses, taxis, and public fleets to reduce
particulate matter and smog-forming emissions from those fleets by fifty per cent in
seven years.
Action 15 Implement a policy to reduce the percentage of commute trips by single
occupancy vehicles by ten per cent in seven years.
Environmental Health: Toxics Reduction | Healthy Food Systems | Clean Air
Action 16 Every year, identify one product, chemicals, or compounds that is used within
the city that represents the greatest risk to human health and adopt a law to provide
incentives to reduce or eliminate its use by the municipal government.
Action 17 Promote the public health and environmental benefits of supporting organic
foods . Ensure that twenty per cent of all city facilities (including schools) serve locally
grown and organic food within seven years.
Action 18 Establish an Air Quality Index (AQI) to measure the level of air pollution and
set the goal of reducing by ten per cent in seven years the number of days categorized in
the AQI range as "unhealthy" to "hazardous."
Water: Water Access & Efficiency | Source Water Conservation | Waste Water
Reduction
Action 19 Develop policies to increase adequate access to safe drinking water, aiming at
access for all by 2015. For cities with potable water consumption greater than 100 liters
per capita per day, adopt and implement policies to reduce consumption by ten per cent
by 2015.
Action 20 Protect the ecological integrity of the city’s primary drinking water sources
(i.e. aquifers, rivers, lakes, wetlands and associated eco-systems).
Action 21 Adopt municipal wastewater management guidelines and reduce the volume of
untreated wastewater discharge by ten per cent in seven years through the expanded use
of recycled water and the implementation of sustainable urban watershed planning
process that includes participants of all affected communities and is based on sound
economic, social, and environmental principles.
