Case Study - Santa Monica

Santa Monica is an example of a city that has that has taken the concept of sustainability to heart.

This small beach city is tucked into 8.3 square miles on the edge of the Los Angeles basin, bordered by the city of L.A. on three sides. It's a traditionally very progressive place (nicknamed the Republic of Santa Monica), often compared to Berkeley and Santa Cruz.

In 1994 the city decided that it was approaching environmental improvement in a piecemeal way, and adopted the Sustainable City Program to integrate sustainability into all city functions and improve the quality of life in Santa Monica.

The program set targets and goals for reducing resource consumption reducing waste and pollution generation, safeguarding environmental resources, safeguarding public health, maintaining a healthy and diverse economy and improving the livability of the community and quality of life for residents and visitors.

Theirs has been one of the most successful municpal sustainability programs in the country, and is held up as an international example.

Some accomplishments:

• Citywide water usage was reduced by 6.3% between 1990 and 2000
• Citywide greenhouse gas emissions were cut by 5.2% between 1990 and 1997
• They eveloped an environmentally preferable purchasing program which has been copied throughout the world
• The number of publicly assisted affordable housing units in the city increased by 47% between 1990 and 1998
• The total amount of public open space in the city increased by 10% between 1990 and 2000
• A Community Forester was hired and the number of trees in public spaces in the city increased by almost 12% between 1995 and 2000
• Organic vegetable and drought-tolerant gardens have been planted and a salad bar program provides organic produce at every public school in Santa Monica.

How does a city of only 85,000 people become an international leader? "They have a very educated populace, quite a liberal voting populace," said Allison Quaid of the International Coucil for Local Environmental Initiatives, which helps city governments work toward sustainability. "They have a lot of really good staff people who are commited to always improving the program."

Santa Monica, has also become a wealthy city. The average household income in 2000 was $79,890, and a diverse local economy, including the expanding retail, tourism and entertainment industries in the city, keep the city coffers full. That extra cash allows them to take risks, to try new programs that may have some upfront costs that would be prohibitive to other cities.

One of those was to commit to green building, aiming for each new city building to reach at least the LEED Silver level. Colorado Court, an affordable housing building partly financed by the city, is LEED Gold certified, and the new public saftey facility and public library will both be highly-rated buildings.

Another cutting-edge project was the Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility, or SMURRF, the first of its kind in the world.

The Santa Monica boom has allowed the city to take another controversial action, to require that private developers also start building green. Several guidelines have been set to demand that all new commercial buildings in the city be more energy efficient, use recycled building materials, recycle construction and demolition waste, and manage their urban stormwater runoff on site.

Other cities have been hesitant to place such strict regulations on private builders, for fear they will take their business to another city. For Santa Monica, however, the regulations haven't been a problem.

"In Santa Monica they have a lot of development, they don't need to attract," said Robin Raida of the Community Corporation of Santa Monica, a non-profit builder. "They can afford to be picky."

"They have a lot of regulations for everything in Santa Monica, its difficult enough already to build in Santa Monica, so that one little layer doesn't really hurt," said architect Larry Scarpa.