The City of Palo Alto’s sustainability efforts are well integrated in its many departments and are supported by staff, management, and city leadership.

Palo Alto has documented significant accomplishments — their energy and water efficiency programs alone have yielded over $255,000 annual savings and longer term goals, such as green building efforts, are targeted for future resource conservation and economic payback.

The list of programs the City has implemented is truly impressive: a state-of-the-art weather monitoring and irrigation technology which reduced water use at parks and outdoor areas by 20–25%; a retrofit of traffic and office lights; load shedding technologies that have been duplicated by Palo Alto businesses; a less toxic pest management program which reduced structural pesticide use by 80%; an extensive recycling and source reduction program and commitment to purchasing recycled products; an in-house mercury and dioxin elimination strategy; an extensive review of print shop and custodial chemicals resulting in a switch to less-toxic alternatives; and an award-winning commute reduction program are among the accomplishments.

http://www.pafd.org/sustainability
Contact: Julie Weiss
650-329-2117