City’s environmental leadership shown through in 2022
From energy production to water conservation to pollution control, Hayward stood out again in 2022 as an environmental leader among Bay Area cities.
Early in the year, Hayward completed a shift of most electricity service in the City to renewable solar and wind energy sources through membership in East Bay Community Energy. The transition—combined with new green building standards, support and use of electric vehicles, and development of the City’s own solar and biogas energy-generation facilities—has put Hayward within reach of its ambitious goal of reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions in the City by 55 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2030.
Then, in April, the City began delivering recycled water for irrigation and commercial uses, turning on the first phase of a system currently supplying approximately 260,000 gallons a day for use at 31 park, school and commercial sites. The system both reduces demand for potable water and cuts the amount of treated wastewater discharged into San Francisco Bay.
Finally, in October, the City installed the latest of its “trash-capture devices,” large-scale mechanisms funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that are being placed into Hayward’s vast storm-water system as a pollution control measure. The devices—along with approximately 630 other smaller pieces of equipment—have helped cut by 85 percent the total amount of litter flowing through the storm-water system into San Francisco Bay.
In November, these efforts landed Hayward on two prestigious national and international environmental leadership lists—one maintained by the U.S. EPA, and the other by CDP, a United Kingdom-based organization through which cities, states, regions, companies and investors disclose their carbon-emission data and climate-protection planning.
