photo of estuary at Crissy Field at sunset

Sustainability and Resilience

We believe: The region should be environmentally just, carbon-neutral,
and resilient to climate change and earthquakes.

Our Goals

• Decarbonize buildings.

• Make the region resilient to sea level rise and other climate-driven natural disasters.

• Improve communities’ resilience to earthquakes.

transect of a bayshore neighborhood with ground water beneath the soil

SPUR Report

Look Out Below

Bay Area cities planning for sea level rise need to address another emerging hazard: groundwater rise. Our case study on East Palo Alto offers recommendations applicable to other vulnerable communities along the San Francisco Bay shore.
illustration of houses plugging into the electricity grid

SPUR Report

Closing the Electrification Affordability Gap

New Bay Area regulations are ushering in a transition from polluting gas furnaces and water heaters to zero-emissions electric heat pumps. SPUR’s action plan shows how to make this transition affordable for low-income households.
photo of Ocean Beach in San Francisco

Initiative

Ocean Beach Master Plan

San Francisco's Ocean Beach faces significant challenges. SPUR led a public process to develop a comprehensive vision to address sea level rise, protect infrastructure, restore coastal ecosystems, and improve public access.
historic photo of houses damaged in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

Initiative

The Resilient City

We know that another major earthquake will strike San Francisco — we just don’t know when. SPUR's Resilient City Initiative recommends steps the city should take before, during, and after the next big quake.

Updates and Events


Averting a Worsening Hunger Crisis Hinges on Making Temporary Benefits Programs Permanent

News /
Recipients of CalFresh food assistance are about to take a big hit: emergency allotments authorized during the COVID-19 pandemic are set to expire just as food costs are at historic highs. SPUR is working to make temporary food access programs permanent and has just launched a statewide project institutionalizing supplemental benefits by making them directly reimbursable to recipients’ EBT cards.

SPUR co-sponsors CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable Supplemental Benefits Expansion (AB 605)

Advocacy Letter
Expanding CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable Supplemental Benefits to be available to hundreds of thousands of households across the state will, in the short-term, help families afford the foods they need to stay healthy and help alleviate some of the economic strain they are facing with SNAP emergency allotments ending. In the long-term, it will position the program to become permanently available to CalFresh families throughout California. It is a “win-win-win” that reduces hunger, improves public health, and boosts California’s agricultural economy.

SPUR Sponsors Bill to Increase Shared Parking (AB 894 - Friedman)

Advocacy Letter
SPUR is sponsoring a bill to require that agencies allow land owners and managers to share underutilized parking and to count such shared parking toward meeting parking requirements. The bill would also require new developments and parking lots funded by public agencies to evaluate shared parking options. If passed, this bill will reduce a common circumstance of costly parking being required in situations where other parking is available nearby.

With Subsidies, Pollution-Preventing Heat Pump Upgrades Can Be Affordable for Low-Income Bay Area Households

News /
Next month, Bay Area regulators will vote on a proposal to phase out appliances that emit toxic nitrogen oxide pollution, setting the stage for a transition away from gas appliances. Will the new standard pose a cost burden to low-income families already struggling to make it in the Bay Area? We looked at the numbers and found that the true net cost of replacing end-of-life gas appliances with energy-efficient electric heat pumps will add up to a cost savings.

Op-Ed: Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria Are a Wake-Up for California. We're Not Prepared for the Big One.

News /
The devastating earthquakes that shook Turkey and Syria last Monday have taken the lives of over 23,000 people. Such a staggering death toll is hard to wrap the mind around and may seem like an impossibility here in California. Yet, the reality is that a similar magnitude earthquake near Los Angeles or San Francisco could lead to thousands of residents injured or killed and many more displaced, temporarily or permanently, from their damaged or destroyed homes.

Op-Ed: Fake Environmental Reviews are Killing Good Housing Projects. Here’s What California Can Do About it.

News /
California needs a lot more housing in its temperate cities. Enough to bring down rents, to house the homeless and to accommodate the climate refugees of the future — people who will have been driven from their homes by wildfire, flooding or intolerable heat. This means neighborhoods have to change, too. Not drastically or overnight, but persistently: more duplexes and fourplex intermixed with single-family homes, more apartments in commercial corridors and larger buildings in high-demand locations near transit.