San Francisco, CA — CleanPowerSF, the City’s local renewable energy program, has won a C40 Cities Bloomberg Philanthropies Award, a prestigious honor that provides international recognition for cities that are demonstrating climate action leadership. San Francisco was one of only seven winners from across the globe who were announced yesterday at the C40 World Mayors Summit in Copenhagen.

“When I first helped to launch CleanPowerSF as a Supervisor, I knew it had the potential to make a transformative change for this City,” said Mayor London N. Breed. “We are seeing significant reductions in emission levels and are well on our way to meeting our climate action goals. We will continue to push forward, working with our allies in the C40 Cities coalition to find new and innovative solutions to the challenge of climate change.”

CleanPowerSF has played a major role in San Francisco’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 36 percent below 1990 levels. The program will also help the City realize its ambitious climate action goals, including reaching 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and reducing net emissions to zero by 2050. Last month, Mayor Breed’s legislation to transition private commercial buildings of 50,000 square feet and larger to 100 percent renewable electricity was enacted into law. Earlier this week, the Board of Supervisors passed legislation requiring electric vehicle charging stations in large commercial parking facilities.

Operated by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), CleanPowerSF launched in 2016 with a mission to provide San Francisco residents and businesses with the choice of having their electricity supplied from clean, renewable sources at competitive rates. Following the largest and most recent enrollment period in April of this year, CleanPowerSF now serves more than 376,000 customers in San Francisco, a 360 percent increase from the prior year. With a 96 percent participation rate, the program is popular among businesses and residents.

“San Francisco is a global leader in sustainability, and we’re honored to be recognized with such a respected award,” said San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan L. Kelley, Jr. “Building on our 100-year legacy of providing clean energy to San Francisco, we launched CleanPowerSF to provide more power options to our residents and businesses, who share our commitment toward a more sustainable future.”

CleanPowerSF was selected as the winner by C40 Cities in “The Future We Want Requires Transformative Change” category. C40 Cities received 195 climate action project submissions this year, which were evaluated on the following criteria: climate action, benefits, innovation, governance, and sharing and scaling. 

C40 Cities connects ninety-four of the world’s leading cities to take bold climate action towards a healthier and more sustainable future. Representing 700 million residents and one quarter of the global economy, mayors of the C40 cities are committed to delivering on the most ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement at the local level.

“Cities worldwide are at the forefront of providing innovative solutions to the climate crisis humanity is facing—demonstrated brilliantly by the inspiring examples showcased in Cities100,” said Mark Watts, Executive Director of C40 Cities.

Along with CleanPowerSF, the SFPUC operates the Hetch Hetchy Regional Power System, which provides 100 percent greenhouse gas free energy to public facilities, such as City Hall, San Francisco International Airport, Muni buses, schools and libraries. Collectively, the two programs meet approximately 80 percent of the electricity demand in San Francisco.

About the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is a department of the City and County of San Francisco. It delivers drinking water to 2.7 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area, collects and treats wastewater for San Francisco, and generates clean power for municipal buildings, residents, and businesses. The SFPUC’s mission is to provide customers with high quality, efficient and reliable water, power, and sewer services in a manner that values environmental and community interests and sustains the resources entrusted to our care. Learn more at www.sfwater.org.

About C40

C40 Cities connects 94 of the world’s leading cities to take bold climate action, leading the way towards a healthier and more sustainable future. Representing 700+ million citizens and one quarter of the global economy, mayors of the C40 cities are committed to delivering on the most ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement at the local level, as well as to cleaning the air we breathe. The current chair of C40 is Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo; and three-term Mayor of New York City Michael R. Bloomberg serves as President of the Board. C40’s work is made possible by our three strategic funders: Bloomberg Philanthropies, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and Realdania. To learn more about the work of C40 and their cities, please visit their website, or follow them on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

###