Orange skyline of San Francisco during extreme fires of 2020

Sustainability and Resilience

Our goal: Eliminate carbon emissions and create resilient, environmentally just communities.

SPUR’s Five-Year Priorities:

• Eliminate the use of fossil fuel in buildings.

Use nature-based solutions to make communities resilient to sea level rise.

Make sure that all people and ecosystems have the water they need to thrive.

• Improve seismic safety of buildings and advance hazard planning and preparedness.

 

Read our policy agenda

computer rendering of a concrete creek channel that has been converted to public space, with a bike path, trees and people sitting on concrete steps in the creek bed,

SPUR Report

Watershed Moments

Climate scientists predict that California will experience longer, more frequent droughts as the climate warms. How can the Bay Area better manage the limited water it has? SPUR, Greenbelt Alliance and Pacific Institute teamed up to highlight six Northern California leaders who are pioneering more sustainable approaches to water use.
City streets and buildings next to waterfront. Wooden poles stick up from the water.

SPUR Report

Water for a Growing Bay Area

The Bay Area is projected to add 2 million jobs and as many as 6.8 million people in the next 50 years. But can we add more jobs and build more housing without using more water? New research from SPUR and the Pacific Institute says yes.

SPUR Report

Safety First: Improving Hazard Resilience in the Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area is both a treasured place and a hazardous environment where flooding, wildfires and earthquakes are common today. As a region exposed to multiple hazards, how can we manage for all of them at the same time?

Ongoing Initiative

The Resilient City

We know that another major earthquake will strike San Francisco — we just don’t know when. Since 2008, SPUR has led a comprehensive effort to retrofit the buildings and infrastructure that sustain city life. Our Resilient City Initiative recommends steps the city should take before, during and after the next big quake.

Black and white photo of a sink faucet running water

Article

Lessons Learned From California’s COVID-19 Water Debt Relief Program

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the State Legislature established the California Water and Wastewater Arrearage Payment Program to provide financial relief for unpaid water bills. But water affordability struggles won’t end with the pandemic. The state will need to build upon its first experiment with water bill assistance to weather ongoing climate change and income inequality. SPUR investigates the success of the $985 million program and looks at lessons learned.

Ongoing Initiative

Ocean Beach Master Plan

Ocean Beach, one of San Francisco’s most treasured landscapes, faces significant challenges. Since 2010, SPUR has led an extensive interagency and public process to develop the Ocean Beach Master Plan, a comprehensive vision to address sea level rise, protect infrastructure, restore coastal ecosystems and improve public access.

Updates and Events


Fossil-Free Bay Area

SPUR Report
Fossil fuel use is causing runaway global climate change, but we still have time to reverse course if the world can transition to renewable sources for almost all energy uses. The Bay Area is uniquely positioned to prototype ways to become fossil-free and model them for urban areas around the world. We propose three big ideas for how to end our dependence on fossil fuels.

Increasing Economic Access to Healthy Foods

News /
Eating fresh fruits and vegetables, is key to health and a high quality of life. But many Bay Area residents struggle to afford these healthy ingredients. SPUR recently hosted a conversation about how to expand access to healthy food by increasing low-income families’ purchasing power in grocery stores and at farmers’ markets.

Can You Make a Living as an Urban Farmer?

News /
In recent years, urban agriculture has been championed as solution to some of cities’ most persistent issues: food insecurity, environmental sustainability and lack of accessible green space. At a recent SPUR forum, three panelists who run urban farming businesses and organizations explored urban agriculture’s potential to provide economic development and jobs, highlighting the challenge of economic sustainability.

Learning from Australia’s “Millennium Drought”

Urbanist Article
Australia’s cities and towns survived their terrible drought, demonstrating world-leading innovation and exceptional examples of urban water planning and management driven by crisis. What can California learn from their actions?

Future-Proof Water for Silicon Valley

Research
Silicon Valley’s historically reliable water supply has been essential to its growth. But the last four years of severe drought have revealed the region’s dependence on statewide water availability. Local leaders see sustained conservation and water recycling as the best solution. To assist these efforts, this paper updates the South Bay data in our 2013 report Future-Proof Water and highlights areas for research and partnerships.

San Francisco’s Schools Adopt a Good Food Framework

News /
Many food service institutions in the Bay Area can point to items on their menu to show that they offer healthy, sustainable and fairly made food. But it’s often unclear how deep that commitment goes across the menu as a whole. San Francisco Unified School District, with its $11 million annual school food budget, just pledged to make that commitment clearer and stronger.