Transcripts For SFGTV Commission On The Environment 20240712

Emergency, the commission on the environment meeting room is closed. Commissioners and Department Staff will be participating in the meeting remotely. This precaution is taken per student to the pursuant to the statewide stay at home order. Public comment will be available on each item on this agenda. Sfgov tv. Com is streaming the number at the top of the screen. When connected dial star three to be added to the queue. Best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. Alternatively you may submit Public Comment in the following ways. Email to the department of commission affairs, if you submit Public Comment via email it will be part of the official file. I will call the roll. [roll call] we have a quorum. President stephenson next agenda item please. Clerk next item is the president s discussion. President stephenson good evening everyone thank you to everyone who made it to this meeting. Let me share some best practices. If they havent already done so i will ask all member of the commission to mute themselves to minimize background noise. You have to remember to unmute yourself in order to comment. There are Staff Members in the background who will be managing the technological functions of the meeting. Again, we ask everyone to be patient as we make these adjustments. Since we expect several Public Comments from the public tonight, well be holding each Public Comment on each agenda item to two minutes. I appreciate the diligence of the staff that facilitated the meeting. Each commissioner who gave their full attention to the digital experience. Were Getting Better about each time we do. Another good news were opened up a policy Committee Meeting in september. Please be on the lookout for more information about that. Personal note, over the past weeks and months, i spent lot of time looking for Silver Lining in all of this covid stuff. When i enjoy a walk or bike ride with my family down a busy street that are nearly traffic free, i try to take a moment to notice the slowness, to reflect on it and feel the gratitude that grabs me these days. Each evening when my family dinner we spent few minutes doing what we call are grateful. Even my 4yearold gets into it. Talking about what she was most grateful for during her day. Despite the difficulties of these times there are Silver Linings. That are found that our mild weather let us spend lot of time outside, were able to site in the park 6 feet away from our friend and laugh over picnic and that our hospitals are staffed with some of the greatest talent in the medical world. When i take the time to look for i notice the quietness and lack of traffic and the things we once took for granted. Noticing these things on a personal level made me think before broadly about our city. Other opportunities that exist now that didnt exist before. Conversations that we can have now that were not available to us before. Can we rethink about how we live and work and travel within our city. My challenge to all of us here on this commission is this, are there opportunities to be found specifically in our environmental work for the city. Does this covid slow down give us a chance to do things that we couldnt have imagined before. If it does, what are those things and what are the first steps we need to take that off. I think one of the best examples can be found within the important topic of Environmental Justice. This is a moment where we can ensure all the work we do as a commission and department, helps nose among us who need it the most. Can we ask ourselves every time and for every decision we make, who does this help first . Until we make sure were trying to assist the neediest among us first. We want to improve not only our ecological home but livelihood of our resident the and businesses through our Climate Action initiative. As city continues to focus on racial equality we as a commission need to do likewise. Im very much looking forward to all the presentations and discussions in tonights meeting. Is there any Public Comment on the president s welcome . Lets open up Public Comment for this item. Members of the public who wish to speak, you should now dial star 3 to be added to the speaker line for this matter. Clerk operations can you let us know if there are any callers ready if they have not already, please press star 3 to be added to the queue. For those already on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until your turn to speak. Operations . We have one caller currently in the queue. Clerk go ahead caller. Hello. My name is barbara im a San Francisco resident in district 6. Its polluting and its dangerous to life property. I work about gas leaks especially in earthquake zones like ours and have experienced of 1989. In addition, i used gas stoves in the past i thought them to be superior to electric. Ive now used an induction stove for several years and its much cleaner and works just as well. Its a fact that electrification reduces Greenhouse Gas emissions by up to 60 compared to mixed fuel construction. It will also result in lower utility bills, something we all want. Finally, eliminating natural gas installations will be safer for families, leaks, fires and associated Health Problems from the pollution. Causes. San francisco will be a leader in driving construction thats all electric across the state. Somebody to be proud of. Im asking the committee to consider the following changes to the ordinance. Eliminate the feasibility exception and make fully electric Ready Construction of flying requirement for new construction. Change the definition of mixed fuel buildings to include commercial and industrial uses of natural gas and make the exception process more transparent through the public and for cases that are strictly in the public interest. Thank you for your consideration and taking up this vital issue for our communitys health, safety and the environment. Clerk thank you. I want to remind callers please keep the substance of your Public Comment to the agenda items thats at hand. This is the president s welcome. Well be commenting on the president s welcome. If you wish to comment on natural gas, i believe that is later on the agenda. Operations are there any other callers in the queue . There are no more callers in the queue. President stephenson thank you. Hearing no callers, Public Comment is now closed. Next agenda item please. Clerk [agenda item read]. President stephenson commiss ioners is there any discussion on the minutes of the june 10th commission on the environment special meeting . All right, do i hear a motion to approve the minutes . Ill move to approve. Second. President stephenson second by commissioner wan. Are there any discussion or changes to the minutes . Is there any Public Comment . Lets open Public Comment. Members of the public who wish to speak on this item can dial star three to be added to the speaker line. Clerk please let us know if there are callers ready. If it they have not already p please press star three to be added in the queue. There are currently no callers in the queue. President stephenson okay. Thank you. Seeing no more Public Comment or discussion, call the roll. [roll call vote] motion passes. President stephenson all right. Next item please. Clerk [agenda item read] next item is general Public Comment. This item is for Public Comment and discussion. President stephenson lets open Public Comment. Members of the public who wish to speak should dial star three to be added to the seeker line for this matter. Clerk please let us know if there are callers ready. We have one caller in the queue. Clerk caller, you have two minutes. Good evening commissioners. Im Richard Rothman im a senior citizen. I have to comment about i worked for the city, communicated with City Department over my lifetime. The staff on the environment is the worst department ever. If you spend a general comment in, if they answer, they dont put their name or the last one i got was from julia, she doesnt give her name or phone. When you call City Department, you should get a Contact Information and somebody to talk to live because these people dont respond to emails. They didnt answer my basic question, which im going to discuss now. Ive been recycling the i use recycle bags when the pandemic started, i started using paper bags and i recycle them to put my dry garbage in. I found out on a newsletter supervisor fewer, that now you have to pay a quarter for a paper bag or take your groceries outside. I did it twice. I went to one large store and where they are set up area was, i was kissing the people coming out. So much for social distancing. The second Corner Grocery store i went to [indiscernible] were in the middle of a pandemic. I think my life is more important than having to pay a quarter for a paper bag. I think this should be suspended for Senior Citizens or suspended period until the mayor says that were going back normal and. [beeping] thank you, caller. Are there any other callers in the cue operation . No more callers in the cue. All right. Thank you, operations. Thank you, charles. The next item is item 5, an update on the departments ongoing Racial Equity hish tive. The speaker is timmy [indiscernible]. This item is for discussion. All right. Director felled, take it away. Thank you. And good evening commissioners and everyone who is listening in. This is really exciting and im excited about todays agenda. And this particular agenda item is near and dear to by heart. You may remember, commissioners, at our last Commission Meeting in june, i stressed the importance of our continued work on Racial Equity in my directors report, i emphasize the work that all of us in the department are doing, in light of the murder of george floyd as well as our ongoing commitment of equity. And clearly, the need for this work is selfevident. Its all around us, covid19 is just the most recent example, traumas that are disproportionately impacting black people, indigenous people, and all people of color. So back in march of tween 18 you may remember that the commission passed a resolution to affirm our commitment to racial inequity. And allot over a year later in october of 2019, the city of San Francisco opened up an office of Racial Equity and also the supervisor, mayor, signed legislation that are mandating changes to City Department and alaska tifts, in order to refine City Departments, on Racial Equity in all the things that they do. In january, we welcomed that feel like hand years ago now but january of this year when, we had our inperson Commission Meeting, we welcomed our Equity Committee leadership and they came to the commission and delivered a presentation. That was talking about the work we were doing to develop a Racial Equity plan. We were vownlded by this critical need right now. And we are committed to examining our role in the department. As staff, and as Community Members of San Francisco so we wanted to bring to you, an update on what we have been doing in the past month and cindy combford, ive asked her to come and present tonight. She manages our climb 8 criminal justice program. Shes going to review with you, some of the work weesk doing on the department, as well as a survey that we have participate in, and qat future of Racial Equity looks like in the next few months for the department. Cindy [indiscernible]. I am the Climate Program manag manager. Debbie, talk about what im going to present today, so im going to start off with some reflection over the last couple of months. Reaffirm our commitment to Racial Equity. Talk about some of our immediate commitments. A survey that we participated in with the office of Racial Equity, and then conclude some next steps. So the San Francisco, department of environment, has reflected on Current Events of covid19 and its disproportionate impacts on American Indian communities, black communities and communities of color. The mores of george floyd, brieona taylor, and countless others, and the under lying government and economic structures that create the platform of these events. We have a responsibility to do better and continue making progress on this critical Racial Equity work. We have also seen an extraordinary mobilization across the country. Every walk of life, every race and every religion vocalizing that this is our time to do something. We see a legacy of white supremacy. Access to nature and other environmental benefits have provided to privileged Community Bus environmental harms continue to disadvantage neighborhoods of color. The environment isnt really about [indiscernible], its about water in michigan and about the air in new delhi. While were not going to solve all of these problems in one day, im proud to work for a department qoz a long history of the Environmental Justice work and we are continuing to grow together. We have so many other dedicated Staff Members that are continuing to address race for the environment. So pursuing Racial Equity say process and its something that we have all been going through together, as a city, as a department. And as a commission there office was founded under the human race comig a city wide gap to close the gaps of racial inequities, found in all fangt ors of city work and to look at our policies through a racial len. This is not something new to our department. Our cole core values is around equity and we have also had Environmental Justice program for over two decades the commission has also adopt aid resolution, affirming our commitment to Racial Equity, and we have been working hard on our Racial Equity plan after the george floyd traj, our director vocalized her commitment to our core values and [indiscernible] our director also identified three immediate next steps when im going to briefly review in the next three slides. Next slide. You may recall from our presentation in january, we provided a summary of our Racial Equity survey, that we administered about a year and a half ago and one of the findings from the survey was staff did not feel comfortable talking to a supervisor about race. And there were many suggestion that is key leereds have needed white [indiscernible] training. Our leadership team, at the department of environment, took a halfday seminar robin deangelo, she offered findings of her work, on analysis of white supremacy, work around whiteness and wight agility. Dr. Diangelo spoke about racism, and the specific ways racism manifests in ways progressive. Via workshops, offered a leadership team, trying for personal reflection which was really an opportunity to identify our complacency with the system of white supremacy. And why i dont want to speak to everyone on our leadership team, i personally walked away from that training next slide. Our next commitment we made was for every staff member to provide mile stoins into their Performance Plan around [indiscernible]. Like many of these other commitments, this is still a work in progress. Several weeks ago, my staff and i developed a template and my team has been pilot pressing work. That may be something within their personal journey or would benefit the Department Around hiring or recruitment and then also one external goal, that would be about engage wct community or around policies. We plan to share it with the rest of the department so everyone can have Racial Equity goals as part of their work plan. Next slide. Our last was training, continuing to make sure that all of our staff is trained on Racial Equity. Well be having staff trainings on our raicialg and social Equity School either next pont or in early september. And also, well be providing on our equity policy, which ill get an opportunity to discuss later in our presentation around the instruction. So that was the summary of our immediate commitment and well continue to develop more as we go through. Several weeks ago, the office on Racial Equity requested all City Departments, fill out a comprehensive survey on Racial Equity leadership and also, our programmatic efforts that support different populations. And also, provide very specific details on these efforts, and thinking was many of our community stakeholders, as well as City Employees believe that San Francisco is conflicted in creating personal laws, policies and institution that is perpetuate racial inequities in our city and to address these concerns. The office of Racial Equity wants the department to supt their engagement and under represented historically, marginalized communities. As the city prepares for its budget hearings in the next couple of weeks and given our mayor and board of supervisorser visoro focus on equity and support for marginalized communities. It also gives our department an opportunity to compile and accept this information. Next slide. So this slide shows some very highlevel key take aways from the surveys. I had the fortunate of compiling the survey, and i was really impressed by the diverse engagement that our department has done. There were over 20 Different Program initiatives that worked with 7 different communities of color and 20 dissent population groups. Some examples of new things that i learned about with our work with chinese daycare communities, providing toxic sleeping matts for children, also, our opportunity to expand through recovery and providing healthy [indiscernible] to San Francisco, and also work ache can American Youth by offering stipe ends to conduct gardening and composting. When we look at the budget adopted by our comitionz. If you remember, our presentation from january. We focused on phase 1. Which is really looking at our internal actions to address Racial Equity, such as measures around hiring, training or recruitment and well be back to present on phase 2 which looks back internally, towards our engagement strait strategy gees, our poltses and programs poo make sure we are promoting Racial Equity. That concludes my prohibittation,. That was great. Thank so much. I really appreciate your time and presentation and all the work the department is doing on behalf of Racial Equity. Commissioners, do you have any questions for cindy . Commissioner o. I do want to make sure we bring up something brought up in the past, Career Pathways department, and leadership pathways for particularly, people of color, staff who have started how to improve upon th that. That is one of our actions in phase 1 report. We are looking at different ways we can implement your suggestions. [indiscernible]. Start figuring out how we can have a better, more diverse [indiscernible]. Do we have request feedback. Is it better now . A little better. I should have gotten my head set figured out before that. Sorry about that. Specifically, around the budget item, when we talk about the Program Amount of work that we do as a department, we can certainly, its not easy. But its possible for us to take the lens of Racial Equity and apply it to the work that we do and make sure that when we get out there, we are always asking the question, who is this helping, whos this hurting. Whats the first step here. How do we make sure were not accidentally, stepping into institutional [indiscernible] et cetera. We can do that as part of the programmatic work. The work internally of the department, the work on ourselves isnt always funded by our grant funds. It isnt always funded through, you know, the work orders that we have from other departments and so it seems like, you know, im sort of struck by the idea that a lot of time when is youre creating womens groups at Big Companies its the women themselves who have to do all the extra volunteer labor to make sure the womens group flourishes and thats unpaid work they are doing above and beyond their own job. It seems like this falls into the same sort of trap of, you know, we need to have some budget, devoted to making sure we can keep this drum beat going and keep the work that were doing for our own staff going, and i just, i dont know if there are answers any to right now, but i want to throw that out there for something we should be considering, as is there a way for us to allocate something towards a more regular basis so we make sure were just not asking people for their own volunteer time to keep the work of the Department Going forward in Racial Equity. So thats an excellent point and your point about metrics and concrete feedback, on how were doing is heard and taken. We arent actually tracking everything from a Racial Equity lens, even if were doing work that way. So what gets measured gets managed, if you will, and feedback so what we are really trying to do is figure out how we institutionalize the work such that it gets trapped better. To your point, commissioner stephenson, its really such a good one. So this training we did with robin di angelo was not free and we had to find departmental funds to pay for it and therefore, it was only offered to Senior Leadership because it wasnt cheap for us and we didnt feel like we could ask for a scholarship because we were coming from government. Thirty two of us took a class oracial oppression, and that was free, in the sense we didnt have to pay for t but we had to take our own staff time. So i think what we will be looking for are what are opportunities where the training itself is not, doesnt have a cost. The cost is very much the Time Commitment that we will donate. So its not volunteer time. When that becomes tricky, is for our staff who are funded by grants, this is where we do need that pot of money to think about how we have among our staff, to get the training so those people do not need to volunteer their time. I of course transformed in the last five week theys never understood was possible because of the work i was doing and throofs personal. And so i think we have to start there. As well as looking at our own structures and so one of the things were doing, were also requiring that every team meeting thats from the Different Program areas, as equities as a standing agenda item and that the responsibility to fill that agenda item is with the team itself. So that they can ask for speakers. They can ask for article that is they want read and cared about so its just a way that were bringing that conversation, and that personal growth into the norm of the way the department operates. So, i guess thats a longwinded answer to something that is really a challenge that you bring up. It would be nice if the city had a way, a Scholarship Program or if the unions had ways that they could help support departments for specific trainings or dhr. It would be great if dhr would have sponsored these trainings. And maybe they will. Thank you. Any other commissioner comments seeing none, lets open it to Public Comment. To make Public Comment, dial 3 to be addd to speaker line. Pleads let us know if there are callers that are ready. Press 3 to be added to the queue. Those on hold tht queue. Please continue to wait until it is your turn to speak. We currently have no callers in the queue. Seeing that theres no Public Comment and no discussion, Public Comment is now closed. Next item, pleads. Item 6. Presentation to highlight the Green Business Program Support during covid19 to Small Businesses, sponsor is debra the direct omplet speaker is kevin green representative. The past few months of course incredibly difficult for our Small Business community. Thousands of Small Businesses, literally, have closed their door for good. Thousands are suffering and stugling to keep their doors open or to stay afloat, to be allowed to stay open. Just as president stephenson suggested, this slowdown time we should ask ourselves what can we be doing to help our small ms . They have always been an area of focus for us. How do we need to pivot our work so that it is particularly helpful in this moment . And we also want to look very particularly at our Green Businesses. That is the cohort of Small Businesses that we have a direct relationship with and its also a cohort of business that is we would like to become larger and so perhaps, in fact, the slowdown is a good moment for other businesses to start thinking about how to green their operations as well. So youre going to be hearing today, from kevin kumataka, who is our Green Business Program Coordinator and he says been thinking a lot about this and hes going to tell you ways that his program, has pivoted. Ways we are supporting and respecting Green Businesses and ways we are trying to focus our energy on resilience and recovery on the business sector in San Francisco. So with that, heres kevin. Great. Can you see me and hear me . Great. And when you have a chance, can you bring up the presentation in. Im bringing it up now. Great. Thank you. Great. Thank you much, commissioner, for give ming this opportunity to speak. Im speaking on behalf of my Green Business team so yeah. This is in the collective work of a team and im happy to share this information. Howarhow Green Program has been pivoting to support Small Businesses for covid19. Go ahead. Next slide. Before we talk about the initiatives of how weesk pivoting ill give a quick overview of our Green Business program. Our Program Helps businesses achieve a wide range of environmental best practices and are in recognition for their accomplishments. So i see our mitionz as twofold. We create a high set of environmental standards. And then we do the verifying with the businesses to make sure we have met those standards so that theyre certified. But were also a Business Assistance program, helping any business in San Francisco become more environmentally friend lee. Next slide we work with 30 other Green Business programs across the state and these programs are either ran at the city level or mostly at the county level. The areas in dark green is where we have existing programs and the areas in white green on the map are where we plan to expand and have Green Business programs. Collectively, we are the Green Business network and we recognize over 4,000 businesses across the state and our focus is on mostly, small to mediumsized businesses. Next slide. Our Small Business community is really struggling. We did see an influx of businesses sign up for the program. Largely, this is because businesses werent able to operate and they have heard about the Green Business program but after we have had initial cmpgzs with many of those businesses, its been difficult for them to follow up because they are facing a number of issues. Many of our businesses had to cease operation completely, like a lot of our hotels. Many of our businesses have had to lay off esms a lot of them are really struggling to pay bills, and the businesses like, a lot of office firms, they are working remotely so they are really struggling to operate with the same efficiency they were running before shelter in place. So as a response, our programs take in three actions. We then promoting information, e had a social Media Campaign and we have also instituted a [indiscernible] program. First, ill talk about some of the Financial Resources that weesk sharing on our facebook page. We have been providing updates on programs like the Payroll Protection Program and the citys Small Business relief fund. As well as Small Business grants, provided by private companies. Next slide. Were also sharing critical information like reopening time line for businesses and what to do if your an employee that tested positive for covid19 and what are some of the resources that are available. Next slide. And our partner, the california Green Business network put on a Webinar Series called Business Recovery and resilience and the webinars of course focused on pivoting your business and loan options and forgiveness. Also, operating beyond crisis management. Negotiating rents, lease strategies and insurance optionses. Ask we also have another webinar coming up on september 16. And this one will be held in spanish and my supervisor will be talking about green cleaning and disinfecting. All right. Next slide. Information has come out in our department, around best practices, around greening and disinfecting. We have shared information like the stat sheet on our facebook page, as well as in our Green Business news letter and during our virtual site individual says. So before we would go into the location of a business to do the voiftionz processes, were all doing this most mostly through the teams Video Conference application. But this information around green cleaning has been really helpful and we have got a lot positive feedback because believeses are really interested on ways they can remain green while making sure that theyre following the best practices on disinfecting next slide. Ask we have also run a romotional ad campaign for our Green Businesses, really letting customers know that our Green Businesses are open and to shop green during shelter in place. 24 businesses participated and it was completely free for all the businesse business the the n the right is from cold hardware, and the business on the right is from catering in the ad campaign, runs through until the end of august, and already, we have generated 1700 clicks from the campaign and 1,600,000 impressions. And beings submitted their highend photos and descriptions of their Current Business services and in the phot oh, we have incredible adventures and one of our Green Business preschools. Next slide. We have offered a Rebate Program to, help businesses stay green, and this is basically a 500 rebate or predate and other cost of the predate program is to help pay for items that would have qualified them to become a certified Green Business and were paying for these items up front, which [indiscernible] ine financial and logistical burden for a business to figure out a qualifying product thats green, that meets our Program Standards and then, waiting for a rebate we asked bees, and there are 19 businesses that participated, what type of items they would want and they can purchase items like copy paper, bticertified to go ware. Led lights. Cleaning products. There was a course for toilet paper, especially in the beginning and we worked one of our Green Businesses to purchase and these items were then shipped to those buildingses that participated once we made this announcement, all the funds were in 24 hours and we got wonderful feedback our promotional ad campaign, they actually took advance of the rebate. For the support, during this extremely difficult time of covid19, business interruption. The 500 Rebate Program, helped us purchase, recycled paper towels and dticompliance togo boxes for our Takeout Service the past couple of mons. We appreciated the social media on facebook, promote being our takeout program as well we hope we can reopen completely soon. Operating the busy green restaurant and brewery, this is from the general manager at thirsty bear brewing company. They are operating just for takeout now and if you havent tried their palle paella, i highly recommend it. Next slide. Another m we were able to help out, is Grace Tabernacle community church, located out in hunters point. I was really excited to work with this business and provide them with some predates. They were part of an existing campaign for our Green Business program, to work with businesses in districts 10 and 11 which the corridor, and excel yore corridor. In the future, this is something our program is going to continue working into the next fiscal year. Helping businesses with predate and rebates a as well as other owner Business Owners and people color. Next slide. Throughout the process, we have been changing our messaging we dont want to be insensitive to the reality of the situation and Say Something liker no, this is a perfect time to get certified businesses are stugling to stay built. They have a lot going on so were focusing on how can we help your business really recover and maintain being a resilient business in San Francisco. And also helping buildingses with leds, that will lower their utility bills. And i will close with an inhave itation. The inhave itation is really f you have be that is you know personally, that can use additional assistance at that time. That are looking to green their operations, stay green during this difficult time please send them our way, were happy to help out. Thats it. Thank you. Thank you for the present aismghtsz commissioners, any comments or questions for kevin. Commissioner, do you have a hand raise friday before if kevin, i appreciate the fact that the messaging is thoughtful and its consistent with our values of department. Certainly, resilience is the big part of the work we do. I think getting out there, there is this part of me that says, theres all these empty businesses that can be complete clee retrofitted right now. Not the time to go out with that kind of a hardcharging insensitive message. I think the way you get it done is fantastic. And the social media took a double hit of getting to support the m and promote them at the same time you helped them with their splice and stay on the green track. I appreciate all the work that you guys are doing all right. If theres no more commissioner comments commissioner stephenson. This is for cefng. Do we have outside members, that want to say a few word . s. Yes. Thank you much for that reminder, charles. Great. Can you all hear me . My name is benny, the owner of lamidy tase tran ecialtion. A restaurant here in San Francisco on berkeley. I want to just quickly take this opportunity to thank you all and kevin in particular. To share very briefly, about my experience thus far. Its been a very rewarding experience to work with the Green Business program and the department of environment. To get our businesses certified. And for us, keeping that momentum through covid19 is a very challenging one. These are times when its easy to cut corners. So i really see a Great Potential for a couple of directions that the the Green Business program can take. Especially most of the our restaurants are operating to go. Its an opportunity to bring awareness we have a great Composting Program in San Francisco want this is really an opportunity to make best use of it. And tied to that is really, encouraging the Green Business program to find new ways to promote Green Business. Ask one thought that came to me is it just came to me while i was linking to kevin. Was linking to kevin. That we are focusing on natural gas in our climate work. Its also important to focus on natural gas for health and safety reasons, and that is a key element of the resolution that is before you tonight because we understand that natural gas in pipelines is very vulnerable. Its vulnerable to earthquakes. Its vulnerable to [indiscernible] the street. When you disturb natural gas, its incredibly explosive and has a long history of spires and loss of life. So thats why over the past 12 months weve come before you with this issue on a number of occasions and in fact with your help the city and the mayor eliminated natural gas in new construction in the municipal sector and also incentivized all Electric Buildings in the private sector as well. And these were signals to the marketplace. These initiatives were ways of the city leading by example and also letting industry know that were serious and that we want to take more steps in this direction. We are not going to be satisfied with where we are. So were not stopping here. Were not stopping with those two items. And our next step, as we promised we would, is to take a look at mandates for all electric for new construction. And the ordinance that we are working on under the leadership of supervisor Raphael Mandelman speaks to that in a very significant way. So youre going to hear a presentation today from supervisor mandelmans office, from jacob, who is a phenomenal advocate and a wonderful partner to the department of the environment. He will be talking about the ordinance and about the supervisors commitment. You will then hear again from cyndy comerford, this time with her hat on as our Climate Program manager, and cyndy is the one leading our efforts on this initiative. She is our point of contact with the supervisors office, with labor organizations, with the department of building inspection, because in order to get this work done, we needed to do it in a very inclusive manner that brought in as many parties as we could and cyndy will talk about that. And she will end her presentation back where she started tonight, which is talking about equity and how we think about equity when we look at this particular program. So with that, i will turn it over to jacob. Thank you so much, debbie. Can you all hear me . Yes, we can. Great. All right. Thank you, charles. Thank you so much for that introduction and good evening, commissioners. My name is jacob and im supervisor in raphaels office and really pleased to be joining us this evening on his behalf to speak about the ordinance. You know, as director, we know that natural gas is a major source of our Carbon Emissions in San Francisco, not only is it more than 40 of our citywide emissions coming from natural gas, its 80 of the emissions that are coming from our buildings in San Francisco. I think you all probably know as well that methane, which is the primary component of natural gas, is more than 80 times more potent as a Greenhouse Gas than carbon dioxide. So those are just a few of the reasons why building electrification as a particular measure is a critical component to achieving the ambitious Climate Action controls that our city has adopted including the mayors commitment to zero emissions by 2050 and to allelectric construction by the end of this decade. Natural gas is also something that introduces a lot of health and safety risks in our communities, as director raphael mentioned. We are coming up very soon on the 10year anniversary of the tragic explosion in san bruno in 2010 that leveled an entire neighborhood and actually killed three people. And more recently weve had the gas explosion here in San Francisco out on geary last year that burned several buildings as well. We all know that a major earthquake, fires caused by natural gaslines, poses a major hazard, and its also true that damaged gas lines take longer than electric service to restore in the event of an emergency. So switching over to electric service in our buildings also makes our city more resilient in the future in the face of future emergencies. Thats all in addition to some of the Everyday Health impacts that cyndy will talk about as well to residents and workers especially, people who are working in commercial kitchens with open flames, those Health Impacts are associated with increased incidence of asthma and respiratory illness as well as the risk of Carbon Monoxide exposure and of course fire. All of those reasons are why it has been a priority for the supervisor to work on building electrification. Last april, we passed unanimously, the board of supervisors, a resolution to declare a Climate Emergency in San Francisco which committed San Francisco to doing our part to limiting Global Warming emissions to below 1. 5 celsius, the level we know we have to avoid, we have to keep in order in order to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change. We advanced. We moved on from that to pass an ordinance last year that requires natural gas buildings to achieve a Higher Energy efficiency standard and also approve the ordinance that the director mentioned requiring all electric construction in our municipal projects as well earlier this year. Todays ordinance is going to take the next step to ban natural gas from all new Construction Projects starting for those that apply next year. The ordinance does cyndy will get into some of the details here, but i want to be clear, this applies to permit applications coming into the Building Department starting in january 1st of 2021, and there are limited exceptions where all electric construction is not technically feasible. This would cover about 60 of the Current Development pipeline and also will leave time for applicants who havent yet filed to plan accordingly but without disrupting projects that are already in our development pipeline. While this is definitely a big change, we are confident, based on the great work of your staff and the months of Stakeholder Engagement and conversations with city partners, Affordable Housing builders, representatives from the labor community, housing and mixed use developers, architects, engineers, advocates and others, weve really become confident that allelectric construction is not only technically achievable but also Cost Effective and an efficiency step to meeting our climate goals and protecting our city from future hazards. We have to note that this conversation is taking place during the incredible uncertainty posed by covid19, and while it is certainly difficult to focus on a whole lot else right now, i think one lesson that weve learned from this pandemic is that when a crisis hits, it is the steps that we took or failed to take in advance that determine how well we are able to respond. I think everyone on this commission knows that the Climate Crisis is not going away, and it will be a bold step to take today. Yes . Sorry. I thought i heard someone there. So it will be the bold steps we take today that makes a difference in the future. To wrap up against on behalf of the supervisor, i would like to thank everyone that participated that helped to get us to this point, to the environmental advocates and Community Organizations who led the call to action and worked for those throughout the entire process, and to all of our city Agency Partners at dbi, planning, Mayors Office of housing and others for their support and Technical Expertise in developing this ordinance. And of course i have to thank and really commend truly director raphael and your staff here at the department of the environment, cyndy comerford, barry hooper, charles sheehan, and joseph. Your work has been excellent and the dedication to convening this engagement process, the ongoing outreach, untangling the many technical considerations that are at play and really shepherding this ordinance through the process every step of the way has just been a tremendous asset to the city. So thank you all so much. I look forward to the discussion today and want to make sure that you all know this is just one step in the public review process. We went to the Building Inspection Commission earlier this month for an informational presentation, and we had a generally positive discussion with the understanding we needed to finalize some of the provisions around those exceptions that will be provided before we go back to the Building Inspection Commission at their august 19th meeting for recommendation. After that point, we would move on to the Land Use Committee of the board and then hoping to get to the full board of supervisors in september. With that, commissioners, thank you all so much for your time. I will turn it over to cyndy to walk us through the proposal and well be here of course for any success and discussion. Thank you so much. Thank you, jacob, for that introduction. That was wonderful. Good evening again, commissioners. My name is cyndy comerford. Im the Climate Program manager. Diedre, if you could bring up the presentation, please . Just give me a minute, please . Sure. Before i start i just want to again thank all the Department Staff that has worked on this, specifically barry hooper, charles sheehan, and i also want to thank Elizabeth Felter for doing the Equity Analysis on the legislation. Next slide. So for todays objectives, ill just briefly touch on the health, safety, resilience and climate context. Weve heard a little bit about that in our introductory presentation, so i wont spend a lot of time on that. But i will review in detail our stakeholder process and our outreach. Ill go through the key tenets of the legislation. Ill talk a little bit about the impacts, particularly around the Cost Effectiveness and the impacts to our housing pipeline, and then well talk a little bit about the implementation and the equity. Next slide. So the context for this legislation is really around health, safety, resilience, and climate. All four of them together. This legislation provides an update to the San Francisco building code, which we are able to make amendments under the purview of the health and safety code. And the objective of this proposed legislation is to really recognize these health, safety, resilience and climate impacts of mixed fuel buildings and ensure that new construction does not exacerbate any of these impacts. Next slide. So weve heard a lot in the introductory remarks about these impacts, so i wont spend a lot of time on it. But generally we know natural gas is bad for our health. Theres various acute and chronic Health Impacts around exposure to natural gas. We know that natural gas impacts safety and resilience. We are coming on the anniversary of san bruno. But on average in the united states, gas or Oil Pipelines catch fire every four days, result in injuries every five days, theres an explosion every 11 days, and leads to a fatality every 26 days. We know that we are in earthquake country here in San Francisco, and that the ability to restore our utility service, its estimated to be about a week after a 7. 9 earthquake for electricity, and almost 6 months for natural gas. And lastly, for low income communities and communities of color who are more likely to suffer some of the Health Impacts, such as asthma due to poor indoor air quality, zero emission homes are an important opportunity to deliver social equity benefits. Next slide. And so weve heard a lot about the climate impacts of natural gas. We know that about 44 of our climate pollution comes from buildings and thats dominated by natural gas. So 82 of building emissions stem from the use of gas, which is mostly from space heating and cooling, hot water, cooking, and other uses. Next slide. So im going to the next section im going to discuss our stakeholder outreach process on the development of this ordinance. Next slide. So our mayor has committed to net zero emissions by 2050, and this includes all New Buildings being net zero emissions by 2030 and all existing buildings being net zero emissions by 2050. And to accomplish this goal, we embarked on launching the mayors zero emission Building Task force. To make sure that we had inclusive and diverse engagement that really helped guide the city on the development of this ordinance. So as you can see from this slide, the zero emission task force had multiple [indiscernible] and today were only going to focus on the new Construction Work Group and the deliverables from that working group. There are other working groups that looked at existing buildings, but at this point you dont have any policy outcomes around existing buildings and we still have much, much more work to come. There are a lot of challenges around our existing building infrastructure, and thats something well be working on for years to come. So just to reiterate, the ordinance were talking about today will only focus on newly constructed buildings. It doesnt apply to renovations or major alterations. So this slide kind of shows the structure of the task force, and the new construction working group, which formally met three times, but we also had many sub Committee Meetings and the working group really brought together participants from key perspectives, and this included community and neighborhood advocacy group, affording housing developers, commercial and residential owners and developers, investors, design professionals, environmental advocates, work force and labor representatives, and also our City Departments. We also had an executive steering Committee Meeting committee in which we reported the findings from our work group, which was also a publicprivate steering committee. So today im going to talk about the deliverables from this work group around the new construction ordinance and the task force report. Next slide. So i know this slide might be hard to read but it really is just to exemplify an overview and the breadth of our outreach efforts. Our outreach efforts not only centered about getting the ordinance done, but really about establishing expectations for longterm partnerships. We made a really goodfaith effort to build trust with our stakeholders and really identify opportunities for the city to be a partner in this process. So we had a partnership agency, dbi has been with us every step of the way and has also spent many hours developing this ordinance. So i want to express my gratitude to both james zahn and mosan sheikh for all the time they have spent on this work. In addition to our new Construction Group working, we had various workshops and expos, we have met with Affordable Housingfa developers, the golden gate restaurant association, and all together we had over 15 convenings and were able to interact with over 750 people on the development of this ordinance. Next slide. So this slide just summarizes the new Construction Work Group feedback that we heard, specifically around the ordinance development. So around timing, applicability, implementation, and equity of the ordinance. And so the first thing we heard is that we need to act now. Delaying this type of policy would not make the transition earlier. We know that zero emission technologies are available and Cost Effective, and when buildings continue to put fossil fuel systems in new construction, it will eventually just become a liability for the owner. We heard over and over again that health and resilience are reallyq paramount to equity, d so many concerns about the need for the city to really remove fossil fuels from buildings. We also heard that our stakeholders want help making smart decisions, that our participants would benefit from a clear warning, clear messages, and they wanted the city to be a partner in this work. And lastly that Workforce Development and stakeholder education are really necessary to the success of this ordinance. Zero emission buildings are a significant shift in design and construction, and successful implementation is going to require the city to invest in resources and outreach and education and to support workforce training. Next slide. This slide is just to let you know, although in addition to all the outreach in San Francisco around allElectric Buildings, this is also a statewide, if not nationalwide movement. One of the top questions we got, you know, is the grid, the grid capacity there . And pg e was also a stakeholder in this process. They have publicly supported this new ordinance, and they have expressed that they do not want to continue to invest in gas infrastructure. In addition to pg e, we have probably close to 30 cities around california that have already passed ordinances that either restrict or eliminate the use of natural gas in buildings. And lastly, we have the state as a partner. Both the California Public Utility Commission and California Energy commission is starting to plan for a fossil fuelfree future. Next slide. So the next portion of this presentation im going to dive in to kind of the meat of the actual legislation and the ordinance. Next slide. So, again, just to reiterate, this amendment is not an energy code. We have the local authority under the California Health and safety code. And so well be amending both section 106 a and 202 of the building code. There are key sections to note one, the project will apply the ordinance will apply to projects applying for initial Building Permits after january 1st, 2021. And this is to ensure that the building operations, which include heating, cooling, water heating, cooking, clothes drying, must be all electric. Once we have allElectric Buildings, no permits will be issued to convert allElectric Buildings into mixed fuel buildings. So you cant get a permit for natural gas post occupancy. Lets go to the next slide. For projects that include a commercial food service establishment, such as a restaurant, mixed fuel Building Permits may continue to be accepted to january 1st, 2022, provided the gas piping is exclusively for the cooking equipment. We heard earlier in kevins presentation the impact of covid19 on the Restaurant Industry, and as we worked with them and the golden gate restaurant association, our outreach was really curtailed because of this pandemic, and we want to continue to provide more outreach and education over the next year and a half to make sure were setting up the Restaurant Industry for success. So getting into the last two key components of the ordinance, there is an exception process. So in the rare case its needed, mixed fuel permits may be issued upon findings that allelectric construction is either physically or technically infeasible or a specific area or system of the building. And lastly, if a mixed fuel Building Permit is issue, that building must be as electricready as possible, and make sure that it complies with all other provisions of the building and electrical code. For those who arent familiar with the term electric ready, that means the building would have to be prewired to can you still hear me . Yes, we can. We can hear you, cyndy. Sorry, something happened. I cant see the slides anymore. I think i have them memorized. I can keep going. So just electric ready means that a mixed that a building would have to be prewired so it can convert from a mixed fuel building to an Electric Building in the future. So, next slide. Thats the impact slide . Yeah. If you can just give me one second. Im not sure what happened, but all of a sudden the web browser closed, but if you can still hear me, maybe if i just pull up a copy of that presentation, i can see it. Okay. I have it on my computer. So lets keep going. Apologies. So next lets talk about impact. So im going to talk about the cost impacts of this ordinance and then also talk about the impacts to development. So, next slide. So this slide here illustrates data from three different public Cost Effectiveness studies from the state codes and standards. In it it shows that generally allElectric Buildings cost less, and in many scenarios, the Construction Costs are less, which is depicted on the change in Construction Cost column and also the negative numbers represent a reduction in costs from the first cost, and the elimination of the natural gas infrastructure. And then the column on the right, which i believe is labelled lifetime net present value, kind of shows the cost savings over the last time of the building compared to mixed fuel building. So generally while we see reductions in costs in these studies, weve had an opportunity to review some real life examples, and generally we think that the ordinance is cost neutral and does provide some cost savings. And if we go to the next slide, we can see an example of an actual building thats being built and we can look at some of the cost benefits that have been realized. So this is 100 Affordable Housing development thats being built on treasure island. Its called the maseo may apartments. We can see key