Bottom Line: Landscaping with California native plants is an ecologically sustainable way to beautify your home or business, save water, cut CO2 emissions, and create wildlife habitat.

Water shortages are increasingly common, and everything that we can do in order to save water makes a difference. Even more substantial than taking shorter showers or collecting wastewater from your kitchen or bathroom is reducing the amount of water you use outside. Gardens and landscaping are very precious but can often involve large, costly amounts of water. Not only do they involve these impositions, but also they are usually done with gas-powered, and polluting equipment. Other benefits of this idea are that it cuts the use of synthetic fertilizers, and reinforces the natural beauty of the native California landscape. There is an easier solution other than spending a fortune on water for an alluring, high maintenance garden - substitute many or all of your plants for native plants! Aside from these plants being gorgeous and easy to take care of, they don’t call for much water. Most California native plants are exquisite and look good year round, but other low water plants can be great too. California has tons of beautiful native plants that require barely any water. You can find the plants at any reputable nursery for a reasonable price. In the end, not only will you have a beautiful, exotic, and fun filled garden, but you will be saving water, the planet, and have a few extra bucks in your pocket!

 

Bottom Line:  Green Teams can make organizations more sustainable and businesses more profitable.

Some employees respond to our current sustainability challenges and opportunities by becoming intrapreneurs, regardless of their role or positions. These intrapreneurs start green teams in their organizations to make them more sustainable and--for businesses--more profitable.

Bottom Line: Your local car wash is actually a much more sustainable solution than washing your car at home.

Why take your car to the wash when you can wash it home for free? Believe it or not, washing your car at home can have much more impact on local water supply and surface water quality than you would think.

Bottom Line: BAWSCA is Partnering with its Member Agencies to Offer Rebates  of up to $150 on Purchases of High-Efficiency Toilets!

The Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency (BAWSCA) is an organization representing the interests of 24 local water suppliers throughout San Mateo, Santa Clara, and parts of Alameda Counties.

Bottom Line: BAWSCA has the tools and know-how to help you save water by creating a beautiful backyard suitable to California’s climate.

Have you ever wondered how your garden might look if you switched to native species -- less care and water needed – or what it would take to compost your own mulch for soil amendment? How do you start thinking about these things? Who can help?

Bottom Line: We are experiencing a statewide drought! Here are some ways to reduce water consumption in your home.

Two consecutive record-dry winters throughout California have resulted in the greatest threat to our water supply in nearly 20 years, prompting the governor to declare a statewide drought. Reduce water consumption in your home. It is especially important to detect, fix and prevent leaks. If you rent, report leaks to your building manager or landlord. Nationwide, more than 1 trillion gallons of water leak from U.S. homes each year!

Bottom Line: Wastewater recycling plants can recycle water using ultraviolet disinfection and use the water to restore wetlands using the hydro geomorphic model (GHM).

The Calera Creek Waste Water Recycling Plant (WWRP) in Pacifica can treat 4 million gallons of sewage per day (up to 20 MGD during storm events) using its innovative treatment techniques. This plant helped pioneer the use of ultraviolet disinfection for wastewater effluent in California. UV treatment allows release of recycled water into wetlands because residual chlorine is not allowed in the permitting process. To minimize visual impact, the entire facility except for the filters and control building are buried in a hillside covered with native plants. Odor control scrubbers pull air from all process areas to neutralize odor-causing gases.

Bottom Line: With water fees rising more than 10% annually and water shortage in California it is prudent and economical to reduce your water usage. With a few simple changes, taking advantage of a number available incentives and rebates it is easy to reduce your water consumption significantly.

In the US the average person uses about 150 gallon per day according to the United Nations 2008 Development Report Update. This is more than twice as much as the average person in Germany, about 8 times more than the average person in China. Note that "an American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than the typical person living in a developing country slum uses in a whole day [1]". The most recent measured data for San Mateo County show an average use of 87.1 gallon per day per person (gpd) [2], with significant differences between Water Districts, ranging from 267 gpd in Hillsborough to less than 50 gpd in South San Francisco. About 68% of the water in San Mateo County is consumed by residential use.

Bottom Line: Green business certification is a marketing asset, cost cutting measure, energy saver, workforce morale booster and overall smart business strategy.The Bay Area Green Business Program is a successful partnership between cities, counties, environmental agencies, and utility companies that assist businesses in transitioning to practices that are environmentally friendly. There is often an upfront time and dollar investment in gaining green business certification, but almost all businesses agree the savings are worth it after a short payback period. The largest cost saving efforts usually include waste reduction and recycling, lighting upgrades, water conservation, and sourcing recycled products. Local colleges and universities may have graduate level students that are willing to help with energy audits and compliance reviews. Once a business satisfies the requirements on the green business checklist, including visits by PG&E and the water agency, the Green Business Coordinator verifies the results.

Bottom Line: Reduce your ecological impact and potential health hazards by drinking tap water instead of bottled water. Bottled water is not necessarily any cleaner or safer than water from the tap.

Health and QualitySan Mateo County Tap water is highly regulated and tested for public safety by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Safe Drinking Water Act authorizes the EPA to enforce health standards for drinking water and requires public notification of water system violations and annual reports to consumers on contaminants found in drinking water. Alternatively, bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which often uses EPA's tap water standards to determine safety. However, the FDA exempts from testing water that is packaged and sold within the same state, which accounts for 60 to 70 percent of all bottled water sold in the United States. Bottled water is not necessarily any cleaner or safer than water from the tap.

Bottom Line: Victory Gardens, which lost popularity after the end of World War II, are making a comeback in San Francisco. Campaigns like Slow Food are energizing the resurgence.

1943 was the first time San Franciscan's planted a Victory Garden in the Civic Center Plaza. It was part of a nation-wide movement to grow food stateside because most food supplies were shipped to the soldiers overseas. Backyard vegetable gardens provided forty one percent of all vegetables consumed in the nation. Fifty-five years later, with help from the arts community, the Civic Center Plaza became the epicenter of a new Victory Garden campaign. Started in 2008, the focus of this new campaign is local food and slow food. Local and slow are really interchangeable terms when it comes to food; the idea is grow nutritious, organic food as close as possible to the consumer.