Cisco and City of San Francisco Embark on ‘Sustainable 21st Century San Francisco’ Project

San Francisco Climate Change Center
San Francisco Climate Change Center

Cisco today signed an agreement in principal with the city of San Francisco during Mayor Gavin Newsom’s visit to Bangalore to develop a joint vision for a ‘Sustainable 21st Century San Francisco.’ The agreement in principal outlines the potential for Cisco and the city to collaborate in exploring a Living Innovation Laboratory within a new United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Center on the Hunters Point Shipyard in San Francisco, a facility that will address global warming and support social and economic innovation. As part of the understanding, Cisco and the city will also explore drawing on Cisco® Smart+Connected Communities expertise in multiple projects in San Francisco.

The agreement in principal was signed at Cisco’s Globalisation Centre East, an environmentally sustainable campus in Bangalore that serves as a showcase for urban development solutions. The Cisco Smart+Connected Communities initiative is designed to provide cities and communities with smart and connected solutions for utilities, safety and security, connected real estate, transportation, health care, learning, sports venues, and government services.

The City and County of San Francisco is undertaking the development of a number of major sustainable urban development projects, at locations including the Hunters Point Shipyard and Treasure Island (HPS Connected Communities) and in connection with the new Transbay Transit Center. The city envisions revitalizing these underutilized properties into some of the most innovative sustainable urban development projects in North America.

Together, the projects at Hunters Point, Candlestick Point and Treasure Island are expected to create new residential units for 60,000 occupants, generate as many as 30,000 construction jobs and 10,000 permanent employment opportunities. The new UNGC Center on the Hunters Point Shipyard will include offices for the UNGC, a major conference center and incubator space for emerging technology companies with a particular focus on “green tech” businesses.

Facts/Highlights

  • Gavin Newsom, mayor, City and County of San Francisco, met with Cisco executives in Bangalore to tour Cisco’s Smart+Connected campus and view innovative solutions designed to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels, lower carbon emissions, reduce operating costs and provide a more productive working environment.
  • Mayor Newsom and Cisco’s Chief Globalisation Officer and EVP, Cisco Services, Wim Elfrink concluded the tour by signing an agreement in principle designed to further discussions on potential green and cost-efficient solutions for a Sustainable 21st Century San Francisco, as part of the UNGC Center.
  • The agreement in principle between Cisco and the city of San Francisco outlines the possibility for collaboration on the United Nations Global Compact Center in the areas of exploring 21st century technology’s impact on quality of life; studying green and technology innovation toward urban development; and understanding the evolutionary steps needed to embark on these transitions.
  • The Cisco Smart+Connected Communities initiative helps transform physical communities into connected communities that can help realize sustainable economic growth and GDP, enable environmental sustainability through resource management and operational efficiencies, and enhance constituent quality of life.
  • Cisco’s key focus areas for the San Francisco initiatives will be the environment, health care, education, utilities, public safety and security, and urban services, all designed to enhance the “work and play” quality of life for residents, workforce and visitors.
  • The Urban EcoMap initiative is an extension of the Connected Urban Development engagement between Cisco and the City and County of San Francisco, resulting in projects such as the Urban EcoMap and the Connected Bus.
  • The Urban EcoMap collaboration, a central feature of Cisco’s Connected Urban Development program, provides local communities with information on their progress toward meeting greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals and with access to the most useful, locally available tools and resources for reducing their carbon footprint.
  • San Francisco was the first city to launch the global Urban EcoMap on Earth Day 2009. The Urban EcoMap represents a first step toward the vision for a Sustainable 21st Century San Francisco. Urban EcoMap amasses information on a neighborhood level, organized by ZIP codes, in order to help citizens discover their neighborhoods and take climate actions.
  • The Connected Urban Development program was born from Cisco’s commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative to reduce carbon emissions and has been jointly promoted by Cisco and the city since 2006. Further cities are expanding the footprint of the global Urban EcoMap, including the City of Amsterdam which today announced the rollout of the program.

Additional Information about the Hunters Point Shipyard Development Plans:

    • Exceptional urban planning and design, and substantially improved transportation infrastructures.
    • High-quality park and recreation facilities that provide local and regional open space attractions, integrated with new development and the surrounding community.
    • Model sustainability concepts and best practices of sustainable community development incorporated throughout the design and development process.
    • Applied sustainability principles and best practices for the infrastructure plan, including wastewater, storm water, utility and transportation systems, and public open spaces and recreation facilities.
    • Green building construction practices, particularly energy-efficient design for new development.
    • Opportunities to take advantage of renewable energy sources, such as solar power, to encourage residents and workers to be conscious of resource use within the community.

Supporting Quotes

  • Gavin Newsom, mayor, City and County of San Francisco
    “The Hunters Point Shipyard is a prime area for revitalization within San Francisco. We have been waiting for the ideal project to embark on our vision of a ‘Sustainable 21st Century San Francisco’ that showed promise in generating strong economic and employment opportunities for citizens and the surrounding areas while also respecting the use of the land and its resources. In developing this vision with Cisco for the Hunters Point Shipyard, I see this as being easily the most innovative sustainable urban development project in North America. The city of San Francisco is thrilled to be the home to such a progressive initiative and having Cisco as a partner in the UNGC Center will help advance that important project.”
  • Wim Elfrink, chief globalisation officer and executive vice president, Cisco Services
    “Cisco envisages a future where successful communities and cities will run on networked information to help drive broad economic, environmental and social sustainability. We are honored to collaborate with Mayor Newsom and the city of San Francisco to achieve a ‘Sustainable 21st Century San Francisco’. This is a city at the heart of the Silicon Valley IT revolution, one that has been long committed to sustainability, and with leaders committed to transformation; all the right ingredients for building a sustainable city of the future.”

Supporting Resources:

About Cisco Systems
Cisco is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

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