By Khalida Sarwari
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom today showcased a new Web tool that helps motivate citizens to make responsible environmental choices and enables cities to provide climate change information.
San Francisco is the world’s first city to launch “Urban EcoMap,” a tool that collects information on a local level to motivate climate-friendly behavior.
The map also allows communities to track their progress toward meeting environmental goals, such as the reduction of greenhouse gas, and provides access to available resources for reducing carbon footprint. Information on Urban Ecomap is collected on a neighborhood level and organized by ZIP code.
“You have to think locally if you’re going to impact the global environment,” Newsom said at the annual Earth Day Breakfast hosted at City Hall.
The map provides residents with a visual of areas in their neighborhood in which transportation, energy and waste have contributed to greenhouse gas emissions. The information helps residents understand the effort, costs or financial benefits, and environmental impacts to make better decisions and take alternative approaches to improve the quality of their climate. The community aspect of Urban EcoMap is further enhanced with the integration of social networking Web site Facebook.
The Urban EcoMap pilot 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.
Urban EcoMap allows opportunity for environmental stewardship and a local climate action plan in cities across the world, where 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions are created, Newsom said.
“A global solution requires cities to be involved,” said Jared Blumenfeld, director of the Department of the Environment.
The official launch of Urban EcoMap will take place May 21 in Seoul, South Korea, at which point it will be available for public use.
The pilot can be accessed at http://www.urbanecomap.org/.