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Hight
525 Golden Gate Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94102
415.554.3155
sfpuc.gov
November 7, 2025
To: President Joshua Arce
Vice President Steve Leveroni
Commissioner Avni Jamdar
Commissioner Kate H. Stacy
Commissioner Meghan Thurlow
Through: Dennis J. Herrera, General Manager
From: David Behar, Climate Program Director
Re: Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Update
The following presents an update on activities underway at the SFPUC related to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and collaboration. This memorandum provides a high- level overview of key projects underway. It was developed by staff working on the initiatives described below. All these programs are led by teams at the SFPUC, often working across business units. Special thanks for their contributions to this memorandum go to Amod Dhakal, Anna Roche, Catherine Spaulding, Daniel Young, Daniela Brandao, Grace Kay, Ilan Fussman, Jennifer Ly, Joanne Yee, Julie Ortiz, Kieran Yater, Rickie Cleere, Sarah Minick, Willis Logsdon, and the Capital Finance Team (Nikolai Sklaroff, Edward Kwong, Dan Fuchs, and Eric Kwak),
Mitigation
(reducing greenhouse gas emissions to lessen global warming)
Clean Power SF
CleanPowerSF is the City’s community choice aggregation (CCA) program which began operating in 2016 with a mission to provide San Francisco customers with the choice of having their electricity supplied from clean, renewable sources at a competitive price.
CleanPowerSF offers three options for cleaner energy: Green (at least 50% California Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS)-eligible renewable energy and low carbon energy supply), SuperGreen (100% California RPS-eligible renewable energy and zero carbon energy supply), and SuperGreen Saver (100% California RPS-eligible renewable energy and low carbon energy supply at a 20% discounted rate for eligible low-income customers). CleanPowerSF is now serving over 385,000 San Francisco customers, and
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Update November 7, 2025 Page 2 of 13 together with Hetch Hetchy Power, supplies more than 75% of the energy consumed in San Francisco. CleanPowerSF delivered 100% renewable energy to its customers in 2023 – two years ahead of the City’s 2025 Climate Action Plan goal. All of the energy CleanPowerSF provided to its customers came from 100% RPS-eligible or greenhouse gas-free resources, consisting of solar, hydroelectric, geothermal and wind energy.
Power Enterprise Customer Programs
The Power Enterprise provides numerous customer programs to both Hetch Hetchy Power and CleanPowerSF customers. Through rebates, specially designed rates and services, and other incentive structures, these programs help customers use energy efficiently, save money, replace gas appliances for electric ones, and participate in San Francisco’s clean energy future. Customer programs promote local investment, equity in clean energy, and stewardship and conservation of our Hetch Hetchy and other resources.
A new customer program that Power started offering this year is the Water Heater Upgrade Program. This program provides on-bill credits of $50 per month for upgrading from an existing gas water heater to a new heat pump water heater. Not only do heat pump water heaters reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but they also modernize customers’ homes while reducing their exposure to pollution and fire risk. This program’s bill credits last two years for market rate customers or three years for income qualified customers, offering a strong financial incentive to electrify these appliances.
Power also incentivizes transportation electrification and electric vehicle charging through the EV Charge SF Program, which provides rebates and technical assistance to customers considering installing electric vehicle charging in new construction. Earlier this year, EV Charge SF expanded its reach significantly by making existing buildings eligible for the program in addition to new construction. Additionally, Power brought back its very popular Electrify My Ride Program, which provides a $1000 point-of-sale coupon towards eligible electric bike purchases for income- qualified customers. This program, which handed out 1000 coupon reservations on its first day of operation, is connecting residents in the City with a fun, healthy, zero-emission way to get around town.
SFPUC Power’s programs incentivizing building electrification, e-mobility, heat pump water heaters, and demand response are experiencing active participation from various customer groups. Power is continuing to develop more clean energy programs in support of the City’s climate and equity goals and plans to launch new incentives to encourage efficiency, distributed energy resources, load management, as well as transportation and building electrification in the coming years.
Capital Finance is also working with the Department of Environment to identify existing state funding programs for city residents to leverage in electrifying as part of further edits to the Climate Action Plan.
Distributed Energy Resources Projects
SFPUC Power has developed 8.6 megawatts (MW) of onsite solar power capacity on City-owned buildings and facilities. These projects provide power directly to their host buildings as part of the Hetch Hetchy Power program’s electricity service. The SFPUC is also investing in local solar-plus- battery-storage projects. For example, earlier this year, Power completed a resiliency project at the San Francisco Public Library Catalog & Technical Services building which allows it to disconnect from the main grid and operate normally during power outages.
In addition to managing solar installations, Power works with Hetch Hetchy Power customers to increase their energy efficiency with lighting and heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC)
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Update November 7, 2025 Page 3 of 13 upgrade projects. And, as the City strives to decarbonize all buildings, Power has developed fuel switching demonstration retrofits and provided engineering design and contracting services to replace natural gas heating systems with all-electric heat pumps.
Hetch Hetchy Power
For over 100 years, the SFPUC has been generating greenhouse gas-free hydropower as the City’s full-service, publicly owned electric utility. This clean Hetch Hetchy Power energizes municipal services such as MUNI, public schools, and the San Francisco International Airport, and an increasing number of residents and businesses like Transbay Terminal, The Shipyard, Pier 70, and the redeveloped portions of Treasure and Yerba Buena Islands. Hetch Hetchy Power currently provides about 14% of San Francisco’s total electricity demand with clean power.
Direct Pay Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed into law by President Biden was the largest climate action investment in history. The SFPUC, led by the Capital Finance team, was a national first adopter by filing for $744,750 Direct Pay tax refunds for municipally owned solar projects and electric vehicles brought into service in calendar year 2023 and $37,500 for electric vehicles tax credits totaling $37,500. The SFPUC has yet to receive these direct pay tax credits from the federal government. Working in collaboration with other City Departments, the SFPUC filed for calendar 2024 tax credits in the amount of $37,500 for electric vehicles brought into service in calendar year 2024 and expects to file for projects in calendar 2025 and 2026 and beyond as long as the SFPUC has eligible projects.
While the biggest future opportunities of this program are ahead of us over the Act’s 10-year term, including potentially for the Biosolids Digester Facilities Project (BDFP), future solar projects and other projects that may yet be developed over the life of the program, the recently adopted tax bill passed by Congress and signed by the current president has greatly reduced the scale of this program. In particular, the deadlines for solar projects have been accelerated, although other important opportunities have survived the cuts. The Capital Finance team will continue to monitor this and other federal tax credit programs.
Biosolids carbon sequestration
SFPUC produces approximately 58,000 wet tons of biosolids per year. In part to comply with SB 1383, which limits the use of biosolids for alternative daily cover in landfills because of resultant methane emissions in the anaerobic landfill environment, and also in recognition of the value of biosolids as a resource that can improve soil fertility and sequester carbon, all SFPUC biosolids are now used as a fertilizer. The biosolids are either land applied, composted, or converted into liquid fertilizer, and used on Northern California ranches to improve soil health and combat climate change by storing carbon.
Utilization of biogas as a renewable energy source
Biogas is a form of natural gas produced during the treatment of wastewater solids. This carbon- based energy originates from plant material that was consumed by humans as food. It differs from non-renewable fossil sources of carbon in that this carbon was recently captured from the atmosphere by plants. As humans are constantly consuming carbon and excreting it, biogas is a renewable source of gas and can be used to power vehicles, generate heat and electricity, or be injected into the gas grid. SFPUC is developing a project to upgrade the biogas produced at its Southeast Treatment Plant to pipeline-quality renewable natural gas (RNG) and inject it into the City’s gas grid. This will displace fossil fuel-derived natural gas with renewable natural gas, also known as biomethane. The project is currently under construction.
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Update November 7, 2025 Page 4 of 13 Additionally, the Oceanside Treatment Plant is upgrading its biogas handling facility and installing three new 600-kilowatt (kW) generators that will convert biogas into electricity and heat, which will be used to offset energy demands at the treatment plant.
SB 1221 Gas Decommissioning
In 2024, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) initiated a new proceeding to plan for the long-term future of California’s gas system in the face of declining gas demand due to electrification. In the near term, the CPUC is creating a voluntary program for up to 30 zonal electrification pilot projects throughout the State, as required by Senate Bill 1221 (Min, 2024).
These pilots will be located in disadvantaged communities and will enable the decommissioning of aging gas infrastructure. The City’s 2021 Climate Action Plan set a goal to decommission the City’s gas system by 2040. In line with this goal, the SFPUC has been coordinating with other City departments to engage in the CPUC’s long-term gas planning proceeding and hopes to host one of the SB 1221 pilots.
2025 Climate Action Plan Update
The Climate Action Plan (CAP) is San Francisco’s roadmap to achieving its goal of net-zero emissions by 2040. The plan is updated every five years, and the San Francisco Department of the Environment (SFE) initiated the current update in October 2024. Since then, the SFPUC has been engaged in the update of five out of the seven CAP sectors (Energy, Buildings, Transportation, Water Supply, and Healthy Ecosystems).
The SFPUC coordinated with SFE and other City departments to draft an updated plan, emphasizing increased measurability to enable better tracking of progress. This draft plan was then released for public feedback and brought to public outreach events, in which SFPUC staff participated. SFPUC staff also conducted a racial and social equity assessment of the draft plan to ensure the revised plan emphasizes benefits for the most vulnerable and underserved members of our community. The SFPUC is now working to update the plan based on the feedback gathered from public outreach and the equity assessment. The plan is expected to be finalized by the end of 2025, reaffirming San Francisco and the SFPUC’s commitments to achieving its climate goals.
California Community Power
Since its launch, CleanPowerSF has procured over 600 megawatts (MW) of clean energy and over 200 MW of energy storage for its customers. As part of its procurement strategy, in 2021, CleanPowerSF joined California Community Power (CC Power), a Joint Powers Agency comprised of nine Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs) in California, which combines and leverages the buying power of its member CCAs to procure new, cost-effective clean energy.
Through CC Power, CleanPowerSF has been able to procure a few additional resources with longer lead-times like long-duration battery storage and geothermal to help meet its clean energy and reliability goals.
For example, in 2022, CC Power members jointly contracted for the Tumbleweed long duration energy storage contract. The project is a 75 MW lithium-ion battery storage project located in Kern County that is expected to come online in 2026. Also in 2022, CC Power members jointly executed two contracts for geothermal resources that will help deliver baseload renewable generation. This includes the Open Mountain Energy Fish Lake Geothermal Project – a 13 MW project located in Esmeralda County, Nevada – and the Ormat Geothermal Portfolio Project, which includes multiple geothermal facilities with a combined capacity of up to 125 MW located in California and Nevada. Lastly, CC Power has recently issued Requests for Information (RFIs) to explore offshore wind and geothermal energy.
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Update November 7, 2025 Page 5 of 13
Public Power Expansion
The SFPUC has been pursuing public power expansion since 2019. In March of this year, the City reached a major milestone in the ongoing effort to acquire PG&E’s in-city electrical assets with the publication of the draft Environmental Impact Report by City Planning. The draft report provides decision-makers and the public with critical details and insights into potential environmental effects from the project. The SFPUC is also actively engaged in the CPUC’s valuation proceeding, which seeks to independently determine the fair-market value of PG&E’s in-city electrical assets.
By acquiring these assets, all San Francisco residents will receive cleaner, more affordable, and reliable electricity from the SFPUC.
Adaptation
(maintaining resilience in the face of climate change)
Water Conservation Programs
The SFPUC’s Water Resources Division is responsible for implementing a robust water conservation program. These efforts supplement and diversify the SFPUC’s portfolio of water resources, reduce demand on our regional water system, and strengthen our water supply resilience in the face of climate change.
The SFPUC’s conservation program provides a wide range of financial incentives, staff assistance, tools, and education to help all customer and property types be water efficient indoors and out. Offerings include free water-wise evaluations, devices, and guidance materials; rebates for installing water-efficient appliances and equipment; grants for retrofitting large landscapes and irrigation systems; and investment in new water-saving technologies.
The SFPUC also implements local requirements that mandate water efficiency. Together, our voluntary assistance and mandates have resulted in significant reduction of retail water use.
Despite population and job growth, the SFPUC’s per capita water use rate remains among the lowest in California.
Over the past 15 years, we have provided water-saving assistance to thousands of customers. Some highlights include:
• Conducted water-wise evaluations of over 50,000 residential and commercial properties • Incentivized replacement of over 52,000 water-wasting toilets and urinals and more than 29,000 clothes washers
• Notified and helped more than 45,000 customers address high water use and water waste • Provided water-saving incentives and evaluations of over 390 acres of irrigated landscape • Alerted customers to over 150,000 leaks and provided leak detection and repair resources • Distributed over 252,000 water-saving showerheads, aerators and other devices
Long Term Vulnerability Assessment (LTVA) for the Water Enterprise The Water Enterprise assessed long-term vulnerabilities of the Regional Water System to meet water supply through the year 2070 considering a variety of long-term uncertainties. The uncertainties included are climate change, demand, regulations, finance and infrastructure failures. This assessment was done in collaboration with the Water Research Foundation (WRF) and was carried out by the University of Massachusetts (UMass). The report was released in December 2021 by WRF. After UMass identified modeling errors in the LTVA report, WRF issued an errata in December 2024, revising the conclusions from the 2021 document concerning the impacts of potential future instream flow requirements. The Water Enterprise is continuing to work on integrating tools and methodologies for assessing the effects of climate change on RWS water
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Update November 7, 2025 Page 6 of 13 supply reliability and evaluating alternative water supply projects. Current efforts also include evaluating recent climate projections specific to SFPUC’s watersheds, produced by the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project.
Hetch Hetchy Water and Power Forecasting Advancements
The Hetch Hetchy Water and Power (HHWP) Division of Water Enterprise continues to make improvements to existing forecasting methods and tools used to plan reservoir and powerhouse operations. Processes have been developed for assimilation of Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) estimates of distributed snow water equivalent into the USGS Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) hydrologic model. This assimilation has demonstrated consistent improvements to inflow forecast accuracy in terms of prediction of seasonal water supply volumes and streamflow timing. HHWP has begun a project to reconfigure and recalibrate the PRMS model, with the intention to produce a more comprehensive and high-resolution predictive model structure that is better able to capture variations in weather and climate input variables. Such improvements – along with continued cooperation and interaction with agencies like California Department of Water Resources, Scripps Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, and California-Nevada River Forecast Center – will allow for more adaptive operational planning approaches for managing interrelated issues such as climate change, short- and long-term power generation planning, environmental release planning, and coordinated risk management with outside agencies.
Advanced Quantitative Precipitation Information (AQPI) System The SF Bay Advanced Quantitative Precipitation Information (AQPI) System was funded in 2016 by a grant from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and awarded to Sonoma Water and participating Bay Area agencies. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is building the AQPI System and delivering the AQPI end-product to these agencies. The AQPI system when completed will provide six X-Band and one C-Band radars and information systems that will increase the accuracy of weather forecasting and response systems throughout the Bay Area. The SFPUC recently completed construction and installation of one X- band radar in the Peninsula watershed, and the radar will be operational in winter of 2025. The installation of the last remaining C-Band radar is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025.
With these radars in place, improved forecasting will assist water managers, reservoir operators, wastewater plant managers, and flood and emergency crews to respond to extreme water events in a timely fashion. SF Bay AQPI has formed a Local Partner Agency Committee (LPAC) to develop the framework for regional collaboration and agreement.
In addition to completing the construction and installation of the X-band radar the SFPUC is also preparing to utilize the data generated by the radar system. The SFPUC is collaborating with the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC San Diego on this initiative. Scripps is developing multiple forms of precipitation forecast data for various locations across the SFPUC watersheds in the Bay Area. The radar data the SFPUC receives will be imported and merged with other existing sources of weather and hydrologic data for data processing. The SFPUC Water Enterprise is working on developing a modeling platform compatible with the existing hydrologic database and models that can ingest the new weather forecast data and produce inflow forecasts at reservoirs.
This will allow development of a modern inflow forecasting and warning system.
Sea Level Rise and Flood Hazards Working Group (City-wide) SFPUC staff continue to participate in bi-monthly meetings of the City’s Sea Level Rise and Flood Hazards Working Group in an interagency space to keep track of discussion and significant developments on the City’s work on sea level rise, extreme precipitation and related issues that require City-wide coordination. Topics that have been closely coordinated this year include Flood Resilient Building Code, Yosemite Slough Neighborhood Adaptation Plan, Bay Shoreline Adaptation Planning, Resilience Financing Knowledge Exchange, Independent Study on
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Update November 7, 2025 Page 7 of 13 Groundwater via the SFPUC, update of Sea Level Rise Guidance and Checklist for Capital Planning, the Waterfront Resilience Program, and several in-person meetings at adaptation projects within the city to facilitate building improved working relationships between city departments.
Waterfront Resilience Program
The Port’s Waterfront Resilience Program includes coordinated planning and projects to ensure a resilient waterfront in the face of seismic and climate related hazards. In 2025, SFPUC staff participated in the Waterfront Resilience Program at a number of levels. The Wastewater Enterprise acted as lead SFPUC liaison, reporting major issues and decision-points up through SFPUC management and engaging Water, Power, and Infrastructure colleagues.
The San Francisco Waterfront Coastal Flood Study, led by the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Port with input and collaboration from city agencies, is largely complete, having identified, at a planning level, the location, type, and level of protection of the coastal defenses across the 7.5 miles of waterfront managed by the Port. Next steps include working together across departments to advance the design and determine the delivery method for the selected coastal and seismic defenses.
To advance this work, WWE has established both an internal working group and a multi-agency team focused on infrastructure. A primary area of focus has been to refine our understanding of the impacts of proposed coastal defenses on the combined sewer system, which will be significant. Additional areas of focus for the SFPUC in the coming year will include understanding the scope, scale, timing, and cost of utility relocation that may be required for Water, Power, and Sewer utilities that are in the future construction zone. At the policy level, work on governance, funding strategies, and staffing across departments will be key challenges in the coming year.
SFPUC staff also participated in the Waterfront Resilience Program Equity Working Group, providing input on the potential environmental and social impacts of the draft adaptation strategies and advising on the development of an Equity Evaluation Framework, a guiding tool for assessing future engagement, planning, and policy development.
The SFPUC will continue to participate with other agencies to map out the future of infrastructure, utilities, transportation, maritime uses, and urban design of the future waterfront.
ClimateSF
The City’s Guiding Vision for Climate Resilience is to contribute to global efforts to reduce GHG emissions and become more resilient to the unavoidable near- and long-term risks of climate change-related hazards. Climate SF, formalized in February 2020, is a comprehensive multiagency effort to coordinate and oversee the City's existing and future climate resilience actions. The Program is led and coordinated by the Office of Resilience and Capital Planning.
The ClimateSF Charter was updated in January 2025 to clarify its purpose, goals, structure, and workplan. The charter is a signed commitment between its Core Agencies, of which the SFPUC is one, to support the City’s guiding vision for resilience through collective action. The charter provides programmatic structure in the form of program objectives, principles, roles and responsibilities, communications protocols, decision-making processes, and budgets to guide the development and implementation of a supporting workplan.
ClimateSF activities help the city to implement interagency climate plans and projects as well as communicate those activities to stakeholders and the public. This provides accountability to the public and citywide alignment across all its activities. Program goals include better resourcing the City's climate priorities, increasing resilience outcomes associated with citywide projects and
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Update November 7, 2025 Page 8 of 13 programs, and increasing the equitable participation of people and organizations in resilience work.
Current ClimateSF initiatives include supporting the City's major climate planning efforts, securing funding for new initiatives, and developing tools to assess the alignment between capital investments and its climate priorities. This year the Program supported major updates to the City's Hazards and Climate Resilience Plan and Climate Action Plan. It also established interagency working groups to better coordinate grant applications and public engagement. Led by the Planning Department, ClimateSF secured a $1.5 million SB1 grant to conduct comprehensive sea level rise adaptation planning along its Bay shoreline and is currently pursuing Coastal Commission funding for the Pacific coastline.
Ocean Beach Climate Change Adaptation Project
Starting in the late 1990’s the coastal area south of Sloat Boulevard, in front of the Oceanside Treatment Plant (Plant), began experiencing climate-induced erosion. The on-going erosion is threatening the most seaward component of the Plant’s infrastructure – the Lake Merced Tunnel, a fourteen-foot diameter wastewater conveyance and storage facility located under the Upper Great Highway south of Sloat Boulevard.
In support of a comprehensive solution to the erosion problem, the SFPUC and several other CCSF agencies actively participated in the development of the 2012 Ocean Beach Master Plan (OBMP). The OBMP was an interagency effort to develop a sustainable long-term vision for Ocean Beach. The OBMP addresses public access, environmental protection, and infrastructure needs in the context of climate-induced erosion. The OBMP developed six key recommendations that are organized by geographical reaches along Ocean Beach and are designed to be implemented incrementally over a period of decades. The Ocean Beach Climate Change Adaptation Project (Project) is a CCSF project, being led by the SFPUC and addresses two of the six key actions:
1) Removal of the Upper Great Highway between Sloat and Skyline Boulevard, and 2) The introduction of a multipurpose coastal protection/restoration/access system
To implement these two OBMP recommendations, the SFPUC established the Project which includes three phases: 1) Short-term Improvements, 2) Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) Beach Nourishment, and 3) Long-term Improvements. While the Long-term Improvements phase is being developed, the Short-term Improvements which are on-going and ACOE Beach Nourishment, which is completed and placed nearly 400,000 CY of sand at the project location, provide coastal erosion mitigation and protection of critical wastewater treatment infrastructure at Ocean Beach south of Sloat Boulevard to Skyline Boulevard within CCSF.
The Project is one of the first large, cross-agency infrastructure projects being built in San Francisco to address the long-term physical changes needed to combat climate induced sea level rise at Ocean Beach. Recent milestones include passing legislation at the Board of Supervisors to allow closure of the Upper Great Highway between Sloat and Skyline Boulevards. Just north of this project, Prop K, passed by voters in 2024, included an ordinance to amend the Park Code to permanently close another section of the Upper Great Highway just north of the project between Sloat Boulevard and Lincoln Way. Making the space a permanent park will contribute to dune restoration work which will help protect them from rising sea levels.
The project team worked with the California Coastal Commission (CCC) on specific project details and special conditions that were outlined in the Coastal Development Permit that the team received during the November 14, 2024 CCC hearing. The special conditions mandated that the project design be updated to address Coastal Access concerns. The project team is currently
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Update November 7, 2025 Page 9 of 13 working with California Coastal Commission staff on the feasibility of the design changes.
Because of these design changes, the project is now expected to go to construction in late 2027.
Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) Certified and Green Bonds Since 2015, the SFPUC has issued more than $5.8 billion in CBI Certified and self-certified green bonds to finance Water, Wastewater, and Power capital projects that advance climate change mitigation or adaptation, making the SFPUC one of the largest municipal issuers of green labeled bonds in the United States, according to S&P Global Ratings. The SFPUC was an early adopter of Green Bonds and issued its largest green bond to date with the issuance of the $970.83 million 2024 Series A and 2024 Series C Wastewater Bonds in July of 2024, which was quickly followed by the issuance of $467.96 million 2025 Sub-Series A Refunding Water Bonds in April of 2025.
Green bonds are similar in all respects to the PUC’s other bonds except the proceeds must be earmarked for projects that specifically provide environmental benefits. All but $106M of the SFPUC’s green bonds have been certified under criteria developed by the CBI, a non-profit organization established to promote the issuance of green bonds. In 2017, the SFPUC was recognized at CBI’s Annual Conference for issuing the world’s first Water Infrastructure Bond certified under the Climate Bonds Standard, and the SFPUC was awarded Environmental Finance's US Municipal Green Bond of the Year award in 2019 and 2021. The CBI certification is regarded as the platinum standard for certification as it is fully aligned with the Green Bond Principles developed by the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) and is consistent with achieving the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. The CBI certification also requires ongoing reporting to maintain the certification of the bonds including a post-issuance report by a CBI-approved verifier. In 2020, the SFPUC became the first US municipal agency to list a green bond on the London Stock Exchange.
In 2023 the SFPUC issued the most Green Bonds in its history when all three enterprises came to the bonds market in a single year. The Wastewater Enterprise’s 2024 Wastewater Revenue Bonds included the SFPUC’s largest issuance of Green Bonds to date. The team had the opportunity to tout the success of this program at the Morgan Stanley Sustainability Summit in New York in May 2024, the JPMorgan Transportation and Utility Conference 2025, and other municipal investor conferences.
Additionally, the Capital Finance Team, in coordination with External Affairs, is exploring opportunities to evolve the Green Bond Report. Published annually, the Green Bond Report provides detailed information on Green Bond proceed spending, demonstrating the SFPUC’s positive impact on social and environmental outcomes. Since the first publication of the current Green Bond Report format, the green bond marketplace has evolved dramatically, creating opportunities for the SFPUC to improve the Report and build on its leadership in Green Bonds.
For example, the current report focuses only on how green bonds are expended rather than demonstrating all of the positive environmental and social impacts of all of SFPUC’s capital investments.
Climate Finance Working Group
Members of the Capital Finance team participated in the Climate Finance Working Group. Initially convened by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2022, The Climate Finance Working Group as part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Creating Resilient Water Utilities initiative to investigate the impacts of climate change on water utility bond ratings and credit worthiness and which is now focused on climate risk disclosure. The working group brings together subject matter experts from the financial and insurance industries, academia, and water sector utility managers to investigate the impacts of climate change on water utility bond ratings and credit worthiness.
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Update November 7, 2025 Page 10 of 13 The Working Group’s goals are to share information to foster a cross-disciplinary understanding of the effects of climate-related vulnerabilities, how water utilities manage associated risks, and how financial and insurance industries utilize this information when assessing water sector utility credit worthiness. The Working Group recognized that water sector utilities that effectively identify, manage, and disclose climate change risk and resiliency efforts in a responsible manner are more highly rated, broaden the investor base, improve insurance access and pricing, and gain more support from ratepayers. In March 2024, the Working Group published its first report to summarize its activity and identify opportunities for the future. https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2024-02/final-workgroup-report_508-compliant.pdf
The Working Group was working on a follow up report in September of 2024, which members of the Capital Finance team had contributed to, but work stopped in the lead up to the 2024 election and has not continued under the new administration.
Green Infrastructure
Green infrastructure projects divert stormwater from the sewer system while delivering multiple additional benefits to San Franciscans, including increased ecological function and urban habitat, increased bike and pedestrian safety, increased flood resilience, and improved public realm.
SFPUC’s city-wide green infrastructure strategy includes capital projects, incentive programs, and regulation of new and redevelopment projects through the Stormwater Management Ordinance (SMO). Collectively, the SFPUC’s green infrastructure portfolio includes over 530 projects that manage stormwater running off of over 550 acres of impervious surface, totaling over 290,000,000 gallons of stormwater managed per year.
SFPUC has completed 11 capital and partnership-based green infrastructure projects to date and has integrated green infrastructure in the Wastewater Capital Plan to help achieve both stormwater management and flood resilience goals, with over $100 million committed over the next ten years to manage stormwater. SFPUC’s green infrastructure incentive programs, including the Green Infrastructure Grant Program, Green Infrastructure Grants for Homes, and Urban Watershed Stewardship Grant Program are aimed at transforming impervious areas into multi- benefit spaces that manage stormwater and improve San Francisco’s urban spaces. To date, we have granted a total of over $32 million to 87 projects, including 51 projects awarded in Environmental Justice Communities. In the regulatory space, new and redevelopment projects regulated by SFPUC continue to be the most effective catalyst for integrating green infrastructure in our city, with over 460 projects subject to the SMO approved to date.
The current focus of the team is to scale up the implementation of green infrastructure through each of the above programs, as well as through partnerships with other public agencies. In the last year, SFPUC continued to build on partnerships with San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and San Francisco Unified School District to align capital funding and maximize public investment in the delivery of multi-benefit projects. Overall, SFPUC is on track to achieve our long-term goal of managing 1 billion gallons of stormwater each year with green infrastructure by 2050, or 10% of all rain that falls on San Francisco each year.
The Wastewater Enterprise has increased our emphasis on flood resilience using programmatic strategies. For example, working with the Department of Building Inspection, the Planning Department, and the City Administrator’s Office, the SFPUC is leading an effort to incorporate requirements for new construction to build the finished floor above the elevation of the 100-year storm. This would harness the development cycle to ensure that the city becomes more and more flood resilient over time. While this is a standard requirement in FEMA flood zones, the SFPUC is going above and beyond by seeking this level of flood resilience in areas outside of the FEMA map that experience stormwater driven flooding.
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Update November 7, 2025 Page 11 of 13
WWE has also updated the guidelines for our Floodwater Grant Program to increase participation.
The WWE has also begun to incorporate nature-based solutions and watershed planning into our work on flood resilience, expanding outside of the traditional space of water quality protection and peak flow and management of smaller storms.
Yosemite Slough Neighborhood Adaptation Plan (YSNAP)
In Fall 2024, the San Francisco Planning Department began public engagement and interagency coordination for the launch of the Yosemite Slough Neighborhood Adaptation Plan (YSNAP).
YSNAP will recommend sea level rise adaptation strategies to protect Bayview Hunters Point from sea level rise and flooding, specifically in the area immediately surrounding Yosemite Slough between Hunters Point and Candlestick Point. SFPUC participated in the Technical Advisory Committee for YSNAP, providing technical guidance on existing utility infrastructure, stormwater management, and inland flooding issues. In 2025, SF Planning developed shoreline adaptation strategies and led a series of public workshops to solicit public input on proposed adaptation measures, including nature-based solutions and shoreline protection. The final proposed adaptation plan is expected to be complete by the end of 2025.
External Collaboration
Water Utility Climate Alliance (WUCA)
In February 2007, recognizing that climate change represented a growing threat to water utilities, the SFPUC hosted the first national Water Utility Climate Change Summit. The Summit brought together over 200 utility, federal, state, NGO, and other interested parties and out of it WUCA was launched (www.wucaonline.org). WUCA now consists of 12 water utilities serving over 50 million Americans and shares information and plans work on adaptation in monthly conference calls, an active committee structure, and biannual planning meetings. WUCA continues to produce value for the SFPUC and its members and influence the developing climate change adaptation arena.
This past year, WUCA helped fund development of a training program for coastal resilience practitioners discussed below.
In 2025, Water and Wastewater Enterprise and External Affairs staff collaborated on a case study co-led by WUCA highlighting SFPUC climate investments to support disadvantaged communities.
We discussed the role of SF Planning’s Environmental Justice Communities Map in guiding SFPUC infrastructure and program investments in environmental justice communities. The case study highlights SFPUC Water Conservation Program outreach, the Green Infrastructure Grant Program’s prioritization of accessibility and EJ co-benefits, and the integration of equity and inclusion into the SF Climate Action Plan Water Supply Chapter.
Additional WUCA projects included:
1) building on climate modeling approaches developed for the SFPUC to evaluate future precipitation intensity changes under warming to update Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves, in this instance for Philadelphia and New York.
2) initiated a project in conjunction with Brown and Caldwell to develop climate-resilient design guidance strategies for a range of water utility engineering, infrastructure, and capital projects.
3) partnered with The Water Institute to develop a guidebook (due by the end of year) on the application of planning methods that incorporate deep uncertainty, which characterizes long-term adaptation planning, for water utilities.
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Science and Society Research and Writing
Beginning with our efforts to launch and develop WUCA, the SFPUC has for years helped lead efforts to bridge the cultural and knowledge chasms between climate scientists and adaptation practitioners (“practitioners” is a term referring to those who are engaged in the practice of developing or implementing adaptation projects or programs). Better collaboration and communication between these communities is necessary as both science and practice evolve to ensure infrastructure managers and communities right-size their adaptation investments. In 2025, a new paper co-authored by a glaciologist, science philosopher, and SFPUC practitioner was published in the peer-reviewed journal The Cryosphere. Building on past literature, the article draws from state-of-the-art Antarctic research (the biggest source of uncertainty related to global sea level rise) and historic approaches to knowledge development and dissemination to advance the definition of “actionable science,” the WUCA-created term intended to differentiate between curiosity science outputs and information appropriate to underpin adaptation action and investment. The authors suggest that climate change projections supported by multiple lines of scientific evidence and strong confidence that have been well-vetted in the scientific community in an open process constitute actionable science. This article uses a case study examining practitioner “whiplash” in decision guidance documents driven by confusion about the difference, including most problematically in California. The approach suggested can reduce risk of maladaptation, and currently informs CCSF planning (Lipscomb, W., Behar, D., and Morrison, M.A. Sea-level projections, adaptation planning, and actionable science,” 2025. The Cryosphere. https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/19/793/2025/
In addition, SFPUC participates in the California Municipal Utilities Association (CMUA) Environmental Justice Committee, where we contributed to the paper “10 Ideas for Building Collaboration among environmental justice communities, publicly owned electric utilities, and public water agencies.”
(https://www.cmua.org//Files/2022_Policy_Papers/CMUA_Environmental_Justice_Policy_Paper_ April2022.pdf)
Practitioner Exchange for Effective Response to Sea Level Rise (PEERS) Building on past collaborative and thought leadership work, the SFPUC helped lead the launch PEERS in October 2023 and currently serves as chair. The first global community of practice led by practitioners and focused on coastal resilience, PEERS (www.peerscoastal.org ) seeks to
support effective and timely coastal adaptation and resilience by connecting and supporting a global network of practitioners and partners. As with past learning-oriented collaboratives we’ve helped lead, this work directly informs PUC and wider CCSF resilience work. In its first year, PEERS attracted over 600 members in 60 countries, including over 200 in the United States.
PEERS has regional staff working in North America, Europe, Asia, New Zealand/Australia, Pacific Islands, Asia, and Latin American and the Caribbean. Projects underway include:
1) Leading Practices in Coastal Adaptation: with support from Natural Resources Canada and the Geological Survey of Canada and based on interviews with over 200 practitioners in seven regions of the world, PEERS will publish a report by the end of the year on state- of-the-art coastal adaptation practices. This information will benchmark evolving approaches to the novel challenges we face, helping connect far flung coastal communities addressing accelerating coastal flooding risk.
2) Coastal Resilience Practitioner Training Program: With support from WUCA and the Adaptation Sciences division at NOAA, PEERS is developing a training program for coastal managers that draws on state of the art, local-to-global adaptation experience, including the Leading Practices report described above and other literature. The training will be virtual, tailored to seasoned US practitioners, and aided by a Curriculum Advisory
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Update November 7, 2025 Page 13 of 13 Committee made up of leading practitioners from US coastal communities. ICF is leading curriculum development under contract with PEERS.
3) Actionable Science Working Group (ASWG): drawing from the literature and experience indicating a chaotic environment in the use of sea level rise projections, an international Scoping Team developed an ASWG road map for activities to bring leading scientists and practitioners together. The WG seeks to co-produce and disseminate guidance to help practitioners identify actionable information for use in high-stakes adaptation planning.
This project is currently seeking funding for the next stages of work.