San Franciscans First to Track Climate Efforts on EcoMap

SAN FRANCISCO, California, April 23, 2009 (ENS) - To celebrate Earth Day, Mayor Gavin Newsom Wednesday introduced EcoMap San Francisco, an online tool that gives city residents the ability to see the collective results of their individual climate change actions.

"You have to think locally if you're going to impact the global environment," Mayor Newsom said at the annual Earth Day Breakfast at City Hall.

A prototype showcase version of the interactive map is online at http://www.urbanecomap.org/. EcoMap San Francisco will be fully functional by the end of May 2009.

The Urban EcoMap project is a part of the Connected Urban Development program and collaboration between the city's Department of the Environment and the Internet Business Solutions Group of San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc.

San Francisco was one of three cities selected by the company to launch the program, with Seoul and Amsterdam working to pilot Urban EcoMap later this year.

The EcoMap will be offered to the general public at the Connected Urban Development conference in Seoul, South Korea on May 21.

EcoMap was developed as part of a public-private partnership aimed at addressing the unique environmental problems confronted by urban areas.

"Cities are the world’s major source of greenhouse gas emissions, consuming 75 percent of the world’s energy," said Mayor Newsom. "We are pleased that Cisco selected San Francisco as the first city in the world to launch EcoMap so we can aggressively reverse that trend."

The San Francisco EcoMap tracks climate efforts by zipcode. (Photo courtesy City of San Francisco)

EcoMap provides information on carbon emissions from transportation, energy and waste, organized by San Francisco zip codes to create competition among neighborhoods to reduce their carbon footprint.

"EcoMap San Francisco provides residents, businesses and our city with much-needed tools to help reduce San Francisco’s carbon footprint," said Mayor Newsom. "People will be able to easily track their own efforts, and see real results to which they contributed."

EcoMap provides communities with information on their progress toward meeting greenhouse gas reduction goals, and with access to the most useful, locally available tools and resources for reducing their carbon footprint.

Residents can see their greenhouse gas contributions in the areas of transportation, energy, and waste.

The mayor says this information will empower neighborhoods to identify and take specific actions to fight climate change using approaches such as alternative-fuel vehicle ownership, recycling, and reducing household energy use.

Citizens can make decisions to help decrease the carbon footprint of their geographic regions, their particular zip code, and their city.

They can make these choices by gaining insight into the effort required to make the change, the associated cost or financial benefit, and the environmental impact of the action.

Citizens can then share their climate actions with others through social networking sites.

After the San Francisco EcoMap is showcased in Seoul, Cisco will develop similar EcoMaps for cities around the world.

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