Earth Day: How the SFMTA Leads on Climate Action

Did you know that that Earth Day was born in San Francisco?

It is true! San Francisco activist John McConnell first introduced the idea of a global holiday called "Earth Day" at the 1969 UNESCO Conference on the Environment. In 1970, Mayor Joseph Alioto made San Francisco the first city to celebrate Earth Day.

Just three years later, San Francisco passed our Transit First policy, prioritizing sustainable and active transportation. Providing sustainable transportation has been a critical charge of the SFMTA  ever since.  Earth Day gives all of us a chance to reflect on our impact on the environment.

Making Transportation More Sustainable:

In 2017, San Francisco accomplished two significant climate goals. First, San Francisco reduced its annual greenhouse gas emissions by 28 percent below 1990 levels. Second, more than 52 percent of all trips in and to San Francisco used transit, bicycling and walking.  

The MTA continues to make significant strides to protect the environment:

• Muni accounts for just two percent of the City's transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions
• Muni has the largest fleet of zero-emission buses in the US and is the cleanest fleet in California
• Every time one of our bike projects get one person to pedal rather than drive to work, it can reduce emissions by up to 1.9 tons of CO2 annually

Projects at our facilities have helped to improve the sustainability of SFMTA operations through reduced energy and water consumption as well as waste diversion. However, the picture isn’t all rosy. The transportation sector remains San Francisco’s largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As of 2015, transportation sector emissions are approximately 46 percent of San Francisco’s emissions, 91 percent of which are associated with private cars and trucks, and emissions from the transportation sector are growing. 

That means that San Francisco has more work to do.

A Climate Action Leader:

The climate is changing in profound ways and all of us have a responsibility to act.

Because the SFMTA manages all aspects of San Francisco’s surface transportation, the agency can take bold, coordinated steps to help San Francisco fight climate change. In 2017, the SFMTA Board of Directors adopted a new Transportation Sector Climate Action Strategy to do just that.

The Transportation Sector Climate Action Strategy identifies key actions in two program areas (Climate Mitigation and Climate Adaptation) to be implemented over the next two years. These actions are not only critical to climate action but can also help to build a healthy, resilient and equitable city by:

• Improving public health through the reduction of harmful air pollutants by prioritizing transit and active transportation modes;
• Reducing economic costs associated with congestion,
• Improving safety for all consistent with the city’s Vision Zero policy;
• Promoting dense, affordable and environmentally sustainable development;
• Providing safe, reliable, efficient and affordable transit for all
• Building a more resilient transportation system in the face of a changing climate system.

New Climate Action Website:

Every day, almost every part of the agency contributes to our efforts to move people in ways that reduce our impact on the environment. A new section of our website has been launched to highlight that work.  Check out sfmta.com/sustainability-and-climate-action to learn facts about climate change and our efforts to combat it ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit that San Francisco will host in September of 2018.

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