Goals
Across all segments of the community:
● Significantly decrease overall community consumption, specifically the consumption of non-local, non-renewable, non-recyclable and non-recycled materials, water, and energy and fuels. The city should take a leadership role in encouraging sustainable procurement, extended producer responsibility and    should explore innovative strategies to become a zero waste city.
● Within renewable limits, encourage the use of local, non-polluting, renewable and recycled resources (water, energy – wind, solar and geothermal – and material resources).

If the city as a whole is to meet its aggressive Sustainable City Plan targets, residents and businesses will have to prioritize resource use reduction.   Solid waste generation exceeds the Sustainable City Plan ceiling and continues to increase. Diversion dropped to 62% of generation, down from a high at 67%, thus reversing a nearly ten year record of improvement.  Water use increased 3% and remains higher than our aggressive target levels. However, water and energy conservation has kept at bay expected increases in resource usage associated with Santa Monica’s strong economy and growth in construction activity.  Energy conservation measures have been successful and energy use in the city remains stable.  The city government continues to purchase 100% renewable power for municipal operations and our commitment to green building resulted in the Main Branch of the Santa Monica Public Library receiving Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. The city continues to be a national leader in modeling sustainable practices with the successful launch of Solar Santa Monica, a bold initiative to install solar panels on Santa Monica’s rooftops and make a big step towards energy independence.  The grade for this area has dropped due to the increases in waste generation and water use and the drop in waste diversion rates.