Services of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
OUR MISSION: To provide our customers with high-quality, efficient, and reliable water, power and sewer services in a manner that values environmental and community interests and sustains the resources entrusted to our care.
525 Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 554-3155
sfpuc.gov
October 20, 2026
To: President Steve Leveroni
Vice President Kate H. Stacy
Commissioner Joshua Arce
Commissioner Avni Jamdar
C ommissioner Meghan Thurlow
Through: Dennis J. Herrera, General Manager
From: David Behar, Climate Program Director
Steven R. Ritchie, Assistant General Manager, Water Enterprise
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, Becky Aldrete, Grace Kay, Jessica Appel, Joanne Yee, Julie Ortiz, Kieran Yater, Manisha Kothari, Michael Hyams, Sarah Minick, Tim Ramirez, Willis Logsdon, and the Capital Finance Team (Nikolai Sklaroff, Edward Kwong, Dan Fuchs, Eric Kwak, Earl Dunivan, and Rebecca Siegler),
Mitigation
(reducing greenhouse gas emissions to lessen global warming)
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. Hetch Hetchy Power’s clean energy powers 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
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Report October 20, 2026 Page 2 of 16 Yerba Buena Islands. Hetch Hetchy Power currently provides about 20% of San Francisco’s total electricity demand with clean power.
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 390,000 San Francisco customer accounts and supplies more than 55% of the energy consumed in San Francisco. Since its launch, CleanPowerSF has procured over 800 megawatts (MW) of new clean energy and over 400 MW of new energy storage resources for its customers. CleanPowerSF began delivering 100% renewable energy to its customers in 2023 – two years ahead of the City’s Climate Action Plan goal of 2025. All of the energy CleanPowerSF provides to its customers continues to come 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.
This year Power expanded its Electrify Your Home program to include space heating, cooking, and clothes drying in addition to hot water heating. This program provides on-bill credits of $50 per month for upgrading from existing gas appliances to electric ones. Not only does electrification reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but it can also modernize customers’ homes while reducing their exposure to pollution and fire risk. This program’s bill credits lock in customers’ energy savings for two years for market rate customers or three years for income qualified customers installing heat pump water heaters or HVAC systems, three months for induction cooktops and ranges, and six months for heat pump clothes dryers, 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
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Report October 20, 2026 Page 3 of 16 its reach significantly by making existing buildings eligible for the program in addition to new construction. Power relaunched the Electrify My Ride Program, which provides a $1000 point-of sale coupon towards eligible electric bike purchases for income-qualified customers. This program, which has now issued over 4,000 coupons, is connecting residents in the City with a fun, healthy, zero-emission way to get around town.
In September, Power launched two new incentive programs. First, Power launched the Business Savings Program to support small commercial businesses in the food service industry in improving efficiency in their buildings. This program connects eligible customers with licensed contractors who will help them identify energy efficiency measures, such as LED lighting upgrades, refrigeration improvements, advanced controls, and more, to help them save on their energy bills. In addition, Power announced a new incentive for residential customers installing behind-the-meter energy storage. This program carries on GoSolarSF’s legacy of incentivizing local investment in distributed generation and storage, solidifying San Francisco’s position as a statewide leader in this area.
SFPUC Power’s programs across the board 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, workforce development, 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 9.5 megawatts (MW) of onsite solar power capacity on City-owned buildings and facilities, with another 6 MW in development. These projects provide power directly to their host buildings as part of the Hetch Hetchy Power program’s electricity service. For example, earlier this year Power completed an 80 kW solar project on Garfield Pool. The SFPUC is also investing in local solar-plus-battery-storage projects on municipal facilities.
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) 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.
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
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Report October 20, 2026 Page 4 of 16 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. The SFPUC has yet to receive calendar year 2023 filing direct pay tax credits from the federal government. Working in collaboration with other City Departments, the SFPUC filed for calendar year 2024 tax credits in the amount of $37,500 for electric vehicles brought into service in calendar year 2024. The SFPUC is currently working on preparing calendar year 2025 tax credit filing for a total amount of $817,917, which includes $607,917 for two municipally owned solar projects and $210,000 for electric vehicles. The SFPUC expects to file for projects in calendar year 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, last year’s 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.
On August 13, 2026, the SFPUC issued $401.4 million in taxable Wastewater Revenue Bonds, 2026 Series A, to provide additional funding for the Biosolids Digesters Facilities Project, following the issuance of $431.1 million in taxable Wastewater Revenue Bonds, 2024 Series A.
Both Series were issued on a taxable basis to preserve the SFPUC’s ability to maximize potential federal Investment Tax Credits available to the Biosolids Digesters Facilities Project under the Inflation Reduction Act’s Direct Pay provisions.
Biosolids carbon sequestration
SFPUC produces approximately 61,000 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
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Report October 20, 2026 Page 5 of 16 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.
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 enable the decommissioning of aging gas infrastructure, reducing the cost of the system, while achieving GHG reductions. The City’s 2026 Climate Action Plan reaffirmed 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 has been advocating for one of the SB 1221 pilots to be located in San Francisco.
2026 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) released the most recent plan in April of this year. The SFPUC played an active role 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. Moving forward, the SFPUC will be participating in bi-annual progress check-ins with the Mayor’s Office and sector-specific team meetings led by SFE. Many of the CAP actions are mentioned elsewhere in this Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Update. SFPUC is also participating in the implementation of several additional actions. For example, as one of the actions discussed in the CAP Healthy Ecosystems Chapter, Water Enterprise Natural Resources and Lands Management has initiated restoration on approximately four acres of aging non-native forests on SFPUC lands at Clarendon, Glen Canyon and Laguna Honda to native scrub, wetland and oak woodland habitats.
California Community Power
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. The purpose of CC Power is to combine and leverage the buying power of its member CCAs to procure new, cost-effective clean energy at a lower cost or with less risk than members could on their own. Through CC Power, CleanPowerSF has been able to procure new
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Report October 20, 2026 Page 6 of 16 resources with longer lead-times or emerging technologies, like geothermal and long-duration battery storage 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. The Tumbleweed project came online in June 2026 and was the first utility-scale 8- hour storage project to reach commercial operation in California. 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. In 2026 CC Power members jointly contracted for 50 MW of the Hydrostor Willow Rock Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage project. This project is an 8-hour storage project that provides technology diversity to CleanPowerSF’s portfolio and is expected to come online in 2030. Lastly, CC Power has issued Requests for Information (RFIs) to explore offshore wind and geothermal energy. These efforts resulted in executed Geothermal Exploration, Offtake, and Development Engagement Agreements with three geothermal developers to encourage and support clean firm geothermal generation capacity development in California.
Public Power Expansion
The SFPUC has been pursuing public power expansion since 2019. On July 9 of this year, the City reached a major milestone in the ongoing effort to acquire PG&E’s in-city electrical assets with the certification of the draft Environmental Impact Report by the Planning Commission. Then on September 9th the Board of Supervisors unanimously upheld the Final EIR. The 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
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Report October 20, 2026 Page 7 of 16 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 in 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 16 years, we have provided water-saving assistance to thousands of customers.
Some highlights include:
• Conducted water-wise evaluations of over 53,000 residential and commercial properties • Incentivized replacement of over 81,000 water-wasting toilets, urinals and clothes washers • Notified and helped more than 46,000 customers address high water use and water waste • Provided monthly water use reports to over 450 irrigated landscapes • Alerted customers to over 163,000 leaks and provided leak detection and repair resources • Distributed over 253,000 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 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. This report is expected to be finalized by the end of 2026.
Water Supply Diversification
The SFPUC depends on the Tuolumne River watershed for about 85% of the water it delivers to over 2.7 million retail and wholesale customers. Almost 15% comes from runoff collected in local watersheds and less than 1% from groundwater sources. The reliance on surface water supplies, and primarily on a single source, makes the Regional Water System (RWS) vulnerable during droughts.
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Report October 20, 2026 Page 8 of 16 During droughts, the available water supply on the Tuolumne River can be allocated almost entirely to senior water rights holders, leaving limited supplies for the RWS. As a result, the water stored in the RWS reservoirs at the start of a drought is almost the entire supply the SFPUC manages during a drought. Climate change and changing regulatory requirements add uncertainty to how much water will be available, especially in dry years.
The Alternative Water Supply (AWS) Program provides a framework to address these vulnerabilities and uncertainties. It does this by developing new drought-resistant supplies that diversify the SFPUC’s water supply portfolio. Current efforts underway by the SFPUC include the construction and implementation of the San Francisco Groundwater Project, which will add up to 4 million gallons per day (MGD) of groundwater to drinking water supplies in San Francisco, and the Regional Groundwater Storage and Recovery Project, which will bank groundwater in wet years for use in dry years. Additionally, the SFPUC is planning PureWater Peninsula, which can provide 6 MGD of treated water through reservoir augmentation at Crystal Springs Reservoir, and PureWaterSF, which envisions a new, local drinking water supply in San Francisco.
Consistent with its commitment to adaptive management, the SFPUC continues to update its planning as conditions change, and an update to the AWS Plan is underway in FY2026-2027.
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
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Report October 20, 2026 Page 9 of 16 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 was completed in March 2026. With these radars in place, the current focus is on the production and use of new data. The Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, is responsible for processing and disseminating the collected information. The SFPUC is already receiving data from multiple locations across the East Bay and the Peninsula. This expanded data stream is expected to enhance precipitation forecasting and support water managers, reservoir operators, wastewater facilities, and flood and emergency response teams in preparing for and responding to extreme water events more effectively and in a timely manner.
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 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 2026, 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
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Report October 20, 2026 Page 10 of 16 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 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.
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Report October 20, 2026 Page 11 of 16 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 working with California Coastal Commission staff on design changes. Additionally, the
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Report October 20, 2026 Page 12 of 16 creation of Sunset Dunes has necessitated additional design changes that are also being completed. Because of these design change delays, the construction of the project is being coordinated with another Wastewater Enterprise project that falls within the same footprint. To reduce impacts to the area, the construction timing is streamlined which has resulted in an additional 24-month delay. The project is now expected to go to construction in late 2029.
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 investor conferences such as the Environmental Finance Sustainable Dept Conference in September 2026.
The SFPUC did not label the recent 2026 Wastewater Bonds as Green Bonds because Sustainalytics, who was the verifier for the Climate Bonds Initiative Certification, abruptly exited the market earlier in the year and was no longer providing green bond verification services. As the SFPUC was an early adopter of Green Bonds, the withdrawal of Sustainalytics from the market has become an opportunity for the SFPUC to redesign the labeled bond program in light of new market participants and approaches. The SFPUC is engaged in revisiting its green bond
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Report October 20, 2026 Page 13 of 16 strategy based on latest market development and expects to return with labelled bonds in the future.
Inaugural SFPUC Impact Report
In 2026, the Capital Finance team and the External Affairs team, working with colleagues across the Water, Power, and Wastewater enterprises and Infrastructure Division, published the SFPUC’s inaugural Impact Report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025. The report expands on the SFPUC’s previous Green Bond Reports, which focused primarily on how green bond proceeds were spent, to present a broader, agency-wide view of climate mitigation, adaptation, resilience, and other environmental outcomes supported by bonds, rates, and other funding sources.
Municipal bonds allow the SFPUC to undertake essential, multigenerational infrastructure improvements now and repay them over time, avoiding large upfront pressure on customer bills and aligning costs with the generations that benefit. Investors and credit rating agencies evaluate both how much the SFPUC borrows and its ability to repay that debt. The Impact Report provides fuller context for those figures by showing how capital investments can reduce long- term physical, operational, regulatory, and financial risks, strengthen essential services, and help avoid greater future costs. It also connects SFPUC investments to City climate-resilience frameworks and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The report profiles the three enterprises and includes five case studies: Advanced Quantitative Precipitation Information; Alameda Creek and River Stewardship; Wildfire Mitigation; the Headworks Facility; and the Green Infrastructure Grant Program. Together, the case studies demonstrate how the SFPUC is improving forecasting and flood preparedness, protecting watersheds and ecosystems, reducing wildfire risk, modernizing treatment infrastructure to withstand earthquakes and sea level rise, and scaling nature-based stormwater solutions. The report also incorporates the SFPUC Green Bond Program’s use-of-proceeds reporting.
The Capital Finance team, working in collaboration with other teams, plans to publish the Impact Report annually and expand future editions with additional projects, operations, and measurable outcomes from across the agency.
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 focused on climate risk disclosure. The working group brought 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. However, under the current Federal Administration, the EPA is no longer
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Report October 20, 2026 Page 14 of 16 convening this group, although members of the group have been and continue to try to keep the work of the group alive.
The Working Group’s goals had been 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 should be 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 590 projects that manage stormwater running off of over 650 acres of impervious surface, totaling over 340,000,000 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 $35 million to 93 projects, over half of which are in highly or moderately burdened 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 480 projects subject to the SMO approved to date.
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Report October 20, 2026 Page 15 of 16 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 reaches San Francisco’s sewer system 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.
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 Strategy (YSNAS) In Fall 2024, the San Francisco Planning Department began public engagement and interagency coordination for the launch of the Yosemite Slough Neighborhood Adaptation Strategy (YSNAS).
YSNAS recommends 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 YSNAS, providing technical guidance on existing utility infrastructure, stormwater management, and inland flooding issues. SF Planning developed shoreline adaptation strategies, led a series of public workshops to solicit public input on proposed adaptation measures, including nature-based solutions and shoreline protection, and published the proposed strategy in 2026.
Communities of Practice
(collaborative networks to innovate solutions to shared challenges)
Water Utility Climate Alliance (WUCA)
In 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). With the additions this year of El Paso Water and the
Multi-Enterprise Climate Program Report October 20, 2026 Page 16 of 16 Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, WUCA now consists of 14 water utilities serving over 50 million Americans and shares information and 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 and implementation of a training program developed by PEERS for coastal resilience practitioners discussed below.
Practitioner Exchange for Effective Response to Sea Level Rise (PEERS) Building on past collaborative and thought leadership work, the SFPUC helped lead the launch of 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. As of Fall 2026, PEERS has nearly 800 members in 64 countries, including over 200 in the United States.
PEERS has regional staff working in North America, Europe, New Zealand/Australia, Asia, Pacific Islands, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Projects executed in 2026 include:
• Global Leading Practices in Coastal Resilience report: with support from Natural Resources Canada and based on interviews with over 200 practitioners in seven regions of the world, PEERS published a report in early 2026 on state-of-the-art coastal adaptation practices (https://peerscoastal.org/get-involved/leading-practices). This information will be used to benchmark evolving approaches to the novel challenges we face, helping to inform local action and connect far flung coastal communities addressing similar challenges associated with accelerating coastal flood risk.
• Coastal Resilience Practitioner Training: With funding from WUCA and the Adaptation Sciences division at NOAA, PEERS developed a curriculum for training coastal managers that draws on state of the art, local-to-global adaptation experience, including the Leading Practices report described above and other literature. PEERS worked to develop the training with a Curriculum Advisory Committee that included top practitioners the U.S. (including the SFPUC and Port of San Francisco) in a process led by ICF. The training, targeted at seasoned U.S. practitioners, was fully subscribed, including several from the CCSF, and kicked off in October with the first of 8 weekly four-hour sessions (https://peerscoastal.org/coastal-resilience-practitioner-training-modules). Each is led by a skilled expert in section topics, including a team from the Port of SF led by Brad Benson that brought the Waterfront Resilience Program experience to national leaders. The course is intended for replication and expansion in the U.S. and elsewhere and provides CE credits through both the American Institute of Certified Planners and the Association of State Floodplain Managers.