Beacon Spotlight Awards

I am pleased to report that yesterday the City of Foster City received 4 Beacon Spotlight Awards from the Institute for Local Government. The Institute for Local Government promotes good government at the local level with practical, impartial and easy-to-use resources for California communities.  The Beacon Award Program is a statewide program recognizing cities and counties that are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save energy, and adopt policies and programs that promote sustainability. 

The City of Foster City received the following awards this year:

·         Platinum Level Award for 20% Agency Energy Savings Reductions

·         Gold Level Award for 13% Natural Gas Savings Reductions

·        Gold Level Award in Sustainability Best Practices (achieving at least three in each of 10 categories)

·         Silver Level Award for 8% Community Greenhouse Gas Reductions

What’s great about this award is that it recognizes Foster City’s many accomplishments in a wide variety of aspects of Environmental Sustainability.  Many people have seen the new solar panels at the Foster City Library/Community Center, but they may not know that our commitment to sustainability and energy savings goes well beyond that.

Here are just a few examples of Foster City’s sustainability activities which helped earn those awards:

·         Replaced all traffic and pedestrian signals and street lights with Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology.

·         Implemented energy efficiency upgrades for city buildings.

·       Reduced water consumption by installing low-flow toilets and state of the art irrigation systems, using drought tolerant plants and hardscape, and installing artificial turf in City parks.

·         Offers significant water conservation rebates for EMID customers.

·         Banned single-use carry-out plastic bags and polystyrene disposable food containers.

·         Sponsored community compost giveaways, electronics recycling, and paper shredding.

·         Installed solar voltaic panels at the public library / community center.

·         Purchased fuel efficient and alternate fuel vehicles for city fleet.

·        Took action to enable Foster City property owners to access Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing.

The Beacon Spotlight Award is a cumulative, on-going program and Foster City plans to continue to take actions and promote programs in sustainability until we achieve Platinum (or better!) in all four categories.

I could not be more proud of the City and its staff, its businesses and its residents for all you do to promote sustainability and a “green” way of life here in Foster City. Sustainability is very important, not only in Foster City, and we must continue to do our part by implementing policies and practices which promote sustainability.