A. SUMMARY
San Francisco’s Existing Buildings Energy Performance Ordinance requires owners of non-residential buildings over 10,000 square feet to annually benchmark and disclose energy performance. On behalf of City agencies, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) benchmarks and reports energy use for a portfolio of approximately 500 public facilities buildings. The performance of public facilities can be examined in an interactive report at bit.ly/SFMunicipalBenchmarking, and annual reports from 2011-present are available there as well.

This dataset presents the energy performance and basic characteristics for public facilities that is visualized by the SFPUC’s interactive report.

In addition, energy performance data for non-municipal buildings (i.e. commercial buildings of 10,000 square feet or larger, and multifamily & mixed-use buildings of 50,000 square feet or larger) is available at: bit.ly/ExistingBuildingsReport

B. HOW THE DATASET IS CREATED
In compliance with California Energy Benchmarking Regulations (CA Public Resources Code Section 25402.10 and CCR Title 20 Section 1680), and San Francisco Existing Buildings Energy Ordinance (Environment Code Chapter 20), the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission provides energy benchmarking services on behalf of municipal facilities. Details for public facilities are compiled from city records, and energy usage is compiled from utility records; related metrics such as energy use intensity are calculated from the combination of such records. Data is subjected to quality assurance validation prior to publication. For additional information regarding data sources and assumptions, please review the "Data Sources and Assumptions" page of the Municipal Facilities Energy Benchmarking dashboard: https://bit.ly/SFMunicipalBenchmarking.

C. UPDATE PROCESS
Updated Annually.

This is the plant list used by the SF Plant Finder (http://sfplantfinder.org).

The San Francisco Plant Finder is a resource for gardeners, designers, ecologists and anyone who is interested in greening neighborhoods, enhancing our urban ecology and surviving the drought. The Plant Finder recommends appropriate habitat-building plants for sidewalks, gardens and roofs that are adapted to San Francisco's unique environment and climate.

The plants in the database include California natives and Mediterranean climate exotics. A large subset of the California natives are actually local San Francisco natives. We strongly recommend local natives since they provide the best habitat for local pollinators and other wildlife with whom they have co-evolved. San Francisco natives are the most closely adapted to the climate and environment of the San Francisco peninsula of course, and so they are the best in terms of water and soil conservation, ecosystem health, and overall sustainability.

You can get the geographic ares for plant communities represented in this dataset here: https://data.sfgov.org/d/27u4-a5b3

The purpose of the San Francisco Communitywide Greenhouse Gas Inventory is to measure and track greenhouse gas emissions to determine progress towards meeting the City's climate action goals. The Department of the Environment collects this data from various sources and calculates the emissions per current greenhouse gas protocols. This data supports San Francisco's climate change planning and mitigation strategies.

Note: Greenhouse gas emissions were calculated based on the ICLEI 2012 U.S. Community Protocol Version 1.0. San Francisco inventories are completed in accordance with the ICLEI U.S. Community Protocol (USCP) for Accounting and Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions. The methodology and sectors tracked were third party verified in inventory year 2012. The subsequent inventories are completed according to the guidance of the verifiers. The third-party verification memo for 2010 is available at http://sfenvironment.org/download/2010-community-greenhouse-gas-inventory-3rd-party-verification-memo-march-2013 and for 2012 at http://sfenvironment.org/download/2012-community-greenhouse-gas-inventory-3rd-party-verification-memo-january-2015. In 2015, the City began reporting its emissions to C40 to improve its GHG emissions inventory by using a newer protocol to estimate emissions referred to as the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories (GPC). GPC is a framework unifying emissions inventories globally while incorporating new categories to track. San Francisco has been tracking its emissions since 1990; hence, it continues to use the ICLEI USCP. Today, San Francisco continues to disclose emissions under the GPC framework for reporting purposes to and compliance with the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCOM).

The Environmental Justice Communities Map (“EJ Communities Map”) describes areas of San Francisco that have higher pollution and are predominately low-income. This map is based on CalEnviroScreen, a tool created by CalEPA & OEHHA that maps California communities that are most affected by pollution and other health risks. This EJ Communities Map includes additional local data on pollution and demographics, and was refined during the community engagement process based on public feedback.
“EJ Communities” are defined as the areas facing the top one-third of cumulative environmental and socioeconomic burdens across the City. The EJ Communities include areas of Bayview Hunters Point, Chinatown, Excelsior, Japantown, Mission, Ocean View-Merced Heights-Ingleside, Outer Mission, Potrero Hill, SoMa, Tenderloin, Treasure Island, Visitacion Valley, and Western Addition.

"EJ Communities” are defined as the areas facing the top one-third of cumulative environmental and socioeconomic burdens across the City, with scores 21-30.

Further information is available here: https://sfplanning.org/project/environmental-justice-framework-and-general-plan-policies#ej-communities