Background

On June 5th 2005 at the World Earth Day summit held in San Francisco, and sponsored by the United Nations Environmental Program, a set of 21 accords known as the Urban Environmental Accords were created and signed by over 50 mayors from around the world. These Accords strategically outlined sustainable future planning and community development for cities by outlining 21 specific accords in seven areas such as waste reduction, urban design and environmental health.

Capitola's Commission on the Environment submitted a resolution to the Capitola City Council to sign the Urban Environmental Accords on behalf of Capitola. Then-mayor Dennis Norton signed the Urban Environmental Accords, committing Capitola City Government to adopt these Accords and committing Capitola's best efforts to achieve the set of 21 accords.

The 21 Urban Environmental Accords

Energy

1. Adopt and implement a policy to increase the use of renewable energy to meet ten percent of the city's peak electric load within seven years.

2. Adopt and implement a policy to reduce the city's peak electric load by ten percent within seven years through energy efficiency, shifting the timing of energy demands, and conservation measures.

3. Adopt a city-wide greenhouse gas reduction plan that reduces the jurisdiction's emissions by twenty-five percent by 2030, and which includes a system for accounting and auditing greenhouse gas emissions.

Waste Reduction

4. Establish a policy to achieve zero waste to landfills and incinerators by 2040.

5. Adopt a citywide law that reduces the use of a disposable, toxic, or non-renewable product category by at least fifty percent in seven years.

6. Implement "user-friendly" recycling and composting programs, with the goal of reducing by twenty percent per capita solid waste disposal to landfill and incineration in seven years.

Urban Design

7. Adopt a policy that mandates a green building rating system standard that applies to all new municipal buildings.

8. Adopt urban planning principles and practices 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 reconstruction.

9. Adopt a policy or implement a program that creates environmentally beneficial jobs in slums and/or low-income neighborhoods.

Urban Nature

10. Ensure that there is an accessible public park or recreational open space within half-a kilometer of every city resident by 2015.

11. Conduct an inventory of existing canopy coverage in your city; and, then establish a goal based on ecological and community considerations to plant and maintain canopy coverage in not less than fifty percent of all available sidewalk planting sites.

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

13. Develop and implement a policy which expands affordable public transportation coverage to within half-a-kilometer of all city residents in ten years.

14. Pass a law or implement a program that eliminates leaded gasoline (where it is still used); 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 percent in seven years.

15. Implement a policy to reduce the percentage of commute trips by single occupancy vehicles by ten percent in seven years.
Environmental Health

16. Every year, identify one product, chemical, or compound that is used within the city that represents the greatest risk to human health and adopt a law and provide incentives to reduce or eliminate its use by the municipal government.

17. Promote the public health and environmental benefits of supporting locally-grown organic foods. Ensure that twenty percent of all city facilities (including schools) serve locally-grown and organic food within seven years.

18. Establish an Air Quality Index (AQI) to measure the level of air pollution and set the goal of reducing by ten percent in seven years the number of days categorized in the AQI range as "unhealthy" or "hazardous."

Water

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 percent by 2015.

20. Protect the ecological integrity of the city's primary drinking water sources (i.e., aquifers, rivers, lakes, wetlands and associated ecosystems).

21. Adopt municipal wastewater management guidelines and reduce the volume of untreated wastewater discharges by 10 percent in seven years through the expanded use of recycled water and the implementation of a sustainable urban watershed planning process that includes participants of all affected communities and is based on sound economic, social, and environmental principles.

What you can do

1. Read more about the Urban Environmental Accords at San Francisco's web site: http://sfenvironment.org/our_policies/overview.html?ssi=15

2. Demand that Capitola's elected officials and staff implement actions to achieve these 21 Accords:
Capitola City Council, 420 Capitola Ave., Capitola CA 95010
Phone: 831.475-7300
Fax: 831.464-8659
Email: citycouncil@ci.capitola.ca.us

3. Attend Commission on the Environment meetings

4. Help on Commission subcommittees by working toward positive environmental action in our collective community