Sustainability & Resiliency

LOS ANGELES - Mayor Eric Garcetti announced today Los Angeles’ progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a shared development agenda unanimously adopted by the United Nations in 2015 to better meet the needs of people, protect the planet, and ensure equitable prosperity. “From the beginning of our journey, I’ve said that these goals cannot be achieved by Los Angeles alone,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti, “Everyone is part of this agenda — cities, nations, civil society, workers, companies. Only through our collective efforts can we build a fair and sustainable future for our world.” To address food insecurity, poverty and [...]

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Eric Garcetti today kicked off a Decade of Action to confront and combat the climate crisis, with the signing of  “L.A.’s Green New Deal: Leading By Example,” his 25th Executive Directive since taking office. Joined by a diverse coalition of elected officials, environmental advocates, business leaders, and young climate activists, the Mayor laid out his vision for a carbon neutral Los Angeles and a firm commitment to environmental justice and equity. L.A.’s Green New Deal leads with bold action to zero out Los Angeles’ main sources of harmful emissions: buildings, transportation, electricity, and trash. Adopting this [...]

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Eric Garcetti today unveiled a new report highlighting Los Angeles’ leadership in pursuing and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations in 2015 to end poverty, protect the planet, and broaden prosperity. By presenting a Voluntary Local Review, L.A. became one of the first cities in the world to uphold a commitment to transparency, publish its data online, and share core progress and ongoing challenges in reaching global targets for gender equity, homelessness, housing, climate action, education, economic growth, and more. “Global development begins with local leadership, and Los Angeles is proud to take the [...]

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Garcetti today announced a new partnership to accelerate L.A.’s pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by members of the United Nations to end poverty, protect the planet, and broaden prosperity. The collaboration with Occidental College, announced today during a speech on the Eagle Rock campus, will look at how the City can incorporate the SDGs into planning and more effectively allocate resources toward meeting these targets. It will also assemble a network of like-minded cities around the globe to share best practices and lessons. “Los Angeles can, should, and will lead in building the [...]

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Eric Garcetti announced today that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) will offer even higher rebates to Angelenos who want to conserve water by removing turf from their yards. Taking advantage of the fall planting season, the turf removal rebate will increase for the next three months from $1.75 to $2 per square foot up to 1,500 square feet, or as much as $375 more per customer. The program expansion is part of Mayor Garcetti’s effort to broaden his successful Save the Drop campaign, and reaffirm his commitment to water conservation. "Last year may [...]

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Eric Garcetti today announced a 20 percent reduction in the city’s per capita water use, meeting an ambitious goal he set less than three years ago in response to California’s punishing drought. The announcement came at an event honoring “Drop Defenders,” Angelenos who have taken extraordinary steps to cut their own water use and encourage others to take aggressive steps to conserve. “I challenged Los Angeles to take the lead in conservation because clean, fresh water is a natural resource like no other — scarce, but available at the turn of a tap and easily wasted if [...]

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Eric Garcetti joined Councilmember Mike Bonin and the Los Angeles Board of Public Works to break ground today on a new underground water treatment facility that will conserve 108,000 gallons of potable water every day by capturing and recycling stormwater for irrigation. The groundbreaking ceremony in Venice marks the start of construction on the Penmar Park Water Quality Improvement Project. As the first facility of its kind in Los Angeles, it will serve as an innovative model for stormwater capture-and-reuse technology that will protect the environment and advance several water conservation goals outlined in Mayor Garcetti’s [...]

LOS ANGELES—Mayor Eric Garcetti today announced a new water meter pilot program that will help the City conserve more water as California continues to endure the most punishing drought in state history. During the month of January, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) outfitted 28 City parks with 100 Smart Water Meters. The parks have begun using the meters to test the broader viability of the new technology. The state-of-the-art Smart Meters offer significant technological advantages over the current industry standard. The new meters detect leaks automatically and capture detailed usage data in 15-minute intervals, which they [...]

EDS: Download “Save the Drop” Phase II creative materials at http://savethedropla.com/media/savethedroplaphaseII.pdf LOS ANGELES—Mayor Eric Garcetti today launched the second phase of the “Save the Drop” water conservation campaign, urging Angelenos to “Capture the Drop” should an expected El Niño deliver heavier-than usual-rainfall in the coming months. It is estimated that an El Niño winter will produce billions of gallons of stormwater run-off. Mayor Garcetti made the announcement at a news conference for “Imagine a Day Without Water,” a national advocacy and education campaign sponsored by the Value of Water Coalition and the U.S. Water Alliance. L.A. served as the west [...]

LOS ANGELES – Mayor Eric Garcetti and California Governor Jerry Brown today joined mayors and governors from across the U.S. and China to sign the U.S.-China Climate Leaders Declaration. The Declaration affirms commitments by cities, states, and provinces to meet emissions targets that exceed national goals established by their respective countries and sets ambitious, verifiable actions to combat climate change while supporting and expanding bilateral cooperation and dialogue “As home to over half the world's population that's responsible for 70% of the planet's greenhouse gas emissions, cities are ground zero in the fight against climate change” said Mayor Garcetti. “With this [...]

LOS ANGELES -  Mayor Eric Garcetti announced today that the City has succeeded in meeting the State’s water conservation goals for the second straight month, achieving a 21 percent reduction in water use in July 2015 compared to the 2013 baseline, and a cumulative reduction of 18 percent since June 2015. "Los Angeles continues to lead our state in crucial water conservation efforts in the face of this historic drought," said Mayor Eric Garcetti. "I want to thank the Angelenos that have helped us exceed these goals by replacing their turf with drought friendly landscaping, increasing their indoor water efficiency and, [...]

LOS ANGELES— Mayor Eric Garcetti today announced that Los Angeles has met and surpassed his first benchmark goal of 10 percent water reduction by July 1, 2015. The City has rallied in response to the historic drought and has achieved a significant milestone in Mayor Garcetti’s water reduction plan as outlined by his Executive Directive No. 5 and in L.A.’s first-ever Sustainable City pLAn. Since the roll out of the Mayor's Executive Directive in October 2014, L.A. residents and businesses leaped to action by altering water use and taking advantage of conservation rebates offered by the Los Angeles Department of Water [...]

TERMINAL ISLAND – On Earth Day and amid this historic drought, Mayor Garcetti today broke ground on the Terminal Island Advanced Water Purification Facility (AWPF) Expansion project. Once completed in 2017, the expanded plant will produce 12 million gallons of purified recycled water daily, more than doubling the current production. Twelve million gallons is equivalent to the amount used by 67,000 Angelenos every day. “Aggressive water conservation is essential to our city's ability to thrive, so we must tackle our drought head-on. We must rethink our relationship with water by both reducing water use and increasing water recycling," said Mayor Eric [...]

EDS: DOWNLOAD CREATIVE AT http://www.lamayor.org/savethedroplapdf LOS ANGELES – Mayor Eric Garcetti today launched a major, citywide water conservation outreach campaign – 'Save the Drop.' With the Mayor's executive directive on water conservation creating strong tools to reduce water use and address the drought, including a $3.75 per square foot rebate for lawn replacement, Mayor Garcetti is now taking the necessary next step to connect Angelenos with those tools through an unprecedented outreach effort. “Because we acted strategically and acted early, we have powerful tools in place to respond to this historic drought. Now, through this unprecedented outreach campaign, we are taking action [...]