Thursday, May 21, 2009

Urban EcoMap Lets You Keep Up with The Joneses

San Francisco Urban EcoMap.

How green is your neighborhood? In San Francisco you can compare the environmental efforts of your neighborhood with the efforts of any neighborhood in the city.

San Francisco, the city that proudly boasts of its 72 percent waste diversion rate through recycling also allows you to compare environmental efforts against other areas in the city by checking ZIP codes. Want to know which neighborhoods have the most hybrids, click on the transportation component. Who composts the most? Click on the waste icon.

Surreptitiously peeking out the window has never been more fun. You can spy on your neighbors without having to worry about being caught. As an added benefit you can boast that your neighborhood is better than the average SF neighborhood - yes, there is a median and a goal on the graph - and if your neighborhood is lagging behind you can quietly go about and increase your own environmental efforts in the hope that they will raise your community profile.

You may even be encouraged to rally your community in a joint effort to improve the pounds recycled per household. The San Francisco Urban EcoMap also shows you how to organize a carpool or find the best bicycle route to get to work in a way that benefits both you and the environment.

Launched on Earth Day 2009 , the Urban EcoMap is a collaborative effort between Cisco and San Francisco’s Department of the Environment. The goal of the program is to incite climate change behavior by motivating individual action and creating friendly competition within neighborhoods.

Reduce your carbon footprint by setting your goals, planning your actions and seeing your results. Think beyond your personal actions and encourage your local municipality to incorporate an Urban EcoMap as part of their sustainable development plan.

1 comment:

The Star Group said...

this is a very interesting map.. www.e3bank.com is a green bank that helps people invest in green products. i think they also do something similar to show you how green you are compared to your neighbor's. this awareness is proven to lower peoples energy bill when they are conscious on their surroundings.