The Greenest City in California?
If Dublin isn’t the greenest city in California, it very well could be the greenest city in the Bay Area based on initiatives by private industry as well as our City’s policies for public parks and buildings. Here’s why Dublin may be the greenest city in California:
Private Development
- NPR’s program Day to Day recently recognized Regal Cinemas in Dublin (at Hacienda Crossing) for its installation of waterless urinals. It may sounds sort of funny to highlight urinals, but the 700,000 gallons/year of water saved by Regal Cinema’s 15 urinals is no laughing matter.
- Safeway also opened their very first solar-powered store right here in Dublin. Safeway installed solar panels on top of their Dublin Blvd. store to promote energy sustainability and remove 487,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air – an amount equivalent to 50 passenger cars in a year.
- Lennar’s Sonata at Dublin Ranch is a perfect example of how the integration of sustainable energy features can be used to drive the sale of new homes. Lennar installed their patented SOLARplus program in each home, combining a roof-integrated solar electric system with today’s most innovative energy efficient products. Look for more homebuilders to try and boost demand for their communities by integrating water- and energy-saving products into their homes.
Public Development
The City of Dublin has ordinance (9-04) that mandates green building practices for all large building projects. These practices include the:
- Use of sustainable, recycled or reused building materials when possible;
- Sustainable landscape management techniques; and
- Achievement of a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) “Silver” rating.
The soon-to-be unveiled Shannon Community Center has been designed with sustainable green building standards which will meet a LEED “Silver” rating. Some of the design elements to meet this goal include highly efficient heating and air conditioning, the use of natural lighting, recycled or rapidly renewable resources (e.g., bamboo flooring), and materials that use environmentally friendly production methods.
Dublin also applies a similarly rigorous green building standard to all parks, streets, landscaping, and other maintenance-related items.
The City of Dublin has also distinguished itself from other cities by promoting transit-oriented-development (TOD) around the East and West Dublin BART stations. Not only does this form of development reduce traffic, maximize the use of public transportation, and provide convenience for residents, but it also can yield huge federal government grants. Please click here for an illustration of a $3.4M grant that Dublin won that is now being used for enhancements along Dublin Blvd.
Dublin has truly set itself apart from other cities by embracing and espousing the virtues of green planning and development practices.
9:25 AM on July 14th, 2008
Thanks for posting about Safeway. I was involved in setting up the customer-facing kiosk in the Dublin store which displays interesting info about how much energy the store is saving. I encourage people to check it out if they get the chance. It’s in the store on Dublin Blvd (in West Dublin), near the checkstands towards the deli.
2:18 PM on October 7th, 2008
A step in the right direction but it is offset by having just one High School which requires 1000-1200 plus students at buildout to drive cross town daily. Not the greenest in my opinion.