Green Quality Standard

BELIEVING that as Mayors of cities around the globe, we have a unique opportunity to provide leadership to develop truly sustainable urban centers based on culturally and economically appropriate local actions; and

RECALLING that in 1945 the leaders of 50 nations gathered in San Francisco to develop and sign the Charter of the United Nations; and

ACKNOWLEDGING the importance of the obligations and spirit of the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, the 1992 Rio Earth Summit (UNCED), the 1996 Istanbul Conference on Human Settlements, the 2000 Millennium Development Goals, and the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, we see the Urban Environmental Accords described below as a synergistic extension of the efforts to advance sustainability, foster vibrant economies, promote social equity, and protect the planet’s natural systems.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, today on World Environment Day 2005 in San Francisco, we the signatory Mayors have come together to write a new chapter in the history of global cooperation. We commit to promote this collaborative platform and to build an ecologically sustainable, economically dynamic, and socially equitable future for our urban citizens; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call to action our fellow Mayors around the world to sign the Urban Environmental Accords and collaborate with us to implement the Accords; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that by signing these Urban Accords Environmental Accords, we commit ourselves to moving vital issues of sustainability to the top of our legislative agendas. By implementing the Urban Environmental Accords, we aim to realize the right to a clean, healthy, and safe environment for all members of our society; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all of us, as Ambassadors of the Urban Environmental Accords, shall work with all due speed to implement over the next seven years the 21 actions contained in these Accords, recognizing that by working together and sharing best practices, our individual actions can result in a better world for all people and all creatures with whom we share this planet.

Principles & Resources

THE IMPLEMENTATION of the Urban Environmental Accords should be a participatory process that ensures equity and inclusion of all citizen input, with consideration of impacts on all the Earth’s inhabitants. The implementation process of the Accords should treat all citizens equally, without disproportionate influence from any group. Any actions towards implementation of the Accords should be voluntary, and done only after a careful analysis of the best available science surrounding a wide range of alternatives. The selected course of action should reflect the alternatives that pose the least threat to human health and the health of natural systems.

The call to action set forth in the Accords will require significant financial investment by signatory cities. The actions, when effectively implemented, will most often result in cost savings as a result of diminished resource impacts and consumption and improvements in the health and general well-being of city residents. Effective implementation of the Accords will also go a long way to ensuring that socially responsible environmental, labor and human rights practices are practiced by vendors serving municipal government.

The 21 actions that comprise the Accords are organized by urban environmental themes. They are proven first steps toward environmental sustainability. However, to achieve long-term sustainability, cities will have to progressively improve performance in all thematic areas.

Science indicates that without roughly a seventy-five per cent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, the planet’s ecosystems will be dramatically altered from their current state. The seventy-five per cent threshold is an important practical target. To meet this seventy-five per cent 'solution', a combination of low carbon energy sources will need to grow from their current very small market share to major new technology sectors.

The Accords are intended to serve as a progressive learning process toward sustainability. Signatory cities shall work to implement the following Urban Environmental Accords. Between now and the World Environment Day 2012, cities shall work to implement as many of the 21 Actions as possible. The ability of cities to enact local environmental laws and policies differs greatly. However, the success of the Accords will ultimately be judged on the basis of actions taken. Therefore, the Accords can be implemented though programs and activities even where cities lack the requisite legislative authority to adopt laws.

The goal is for cities to pick three actions to adopt each year. In order to recognize the progress of cities to implement the Accords a City Green Star Program shall be created. At the end of the seven years a city that has implemented:

Urban Environmental Accords

DRAFT

Signatory cities shall work to implement the following Urban Environmental Accords.

Each year, cities shall pick three actions out of the following list to adopt as policies or laws.

Issues:

Energy
Renewable Energy | Energy Efficiency | Climate Change

Waste Reduction
Zero Waste | Manufacturer Responsibility | Consumer Responsibility

Urban Design
Green Building | Urban Planning | Slums

Urban Nature
Parks | Habitat Restoration | Wildlife

Transportation
Public Transportation | Clean Vehicles | Reducing Congestion

Environmental Health
Toxics Reduction | Healthy Food Systems | Clean Air

Water
Drinking Water Access | Source Water Conservation | Waste Water Reduction

Energy

Action 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.

Action 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.

Action 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

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 fifty percent in seven years.

Action 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

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 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.

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

Urban Nature

Action 10 Ensure that there is an accessible public 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 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.

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

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); 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.

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

Environmental Health

Action 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.

Action 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.

Action 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

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 percent by 2015.

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

Action 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.