By Felicity Barringer
New York Times

Mayor Gavin Newsom is competitive about many things, garbage included. When the city found out a few weeks ago that it was keeping 70 percent of its disposable waste out of local landfills, he embraced the statistic the way other mayors embrace winning sports teams, improved test scores or declining crime rates. But the city wants more. So Mr. Newsom will soon be sending the city’s Board of Supervisors a proposal that would make the recycling of cans, bottles, paper, yard waste and food scraps mandatory instead of voluntary, on the pain of having garbage pickups suspended.

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By Dave Loos
EnviroWonk

Many of the most progressive environmental policy initiatives seem to origininate in the Bay Area these days, and this one fits the mold. To help San Francisco reach its self-imposed goal of a 75 percent recycling rate by 2010, Newsom announced on Earth Day that city officials are drafting an ordinance that would require all residents and businesses to recycle paper, plastics and aluminum, and to compost all food scraps and yard waste.

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By Karrie Jacobs
Travel + Leisure

San Francisco is green, clean, and organic—the architecture is high-tech and eco-friendly, and the food is excruciatingly fresh and local. Is this the world's first true 21st-century city? I've prepared for my appointment with Mayor Gavin Newsom by stopping at Citizen Cake, a Hayes Valley restaurant where my iced coffee is made with organic milk and my chocolate cream-filled cookies, a sophisticated take on the Oreo, are spiked with fleur de sel. But even the infusion of sugar, caffeine, and sea salt can't help me keep up with the mayor who, despite being trapped behind his enormous traditional wooden desk, is a bundle of nervous energy as he rattles off the ways in which San Francisco is becoming America's premier green city.

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By Cecilia Vega
San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco moved a step closer Wednesday to imposing the country's most stringent green building codes, regulations that would require new large commercial buildings and residential high-rises to contain such environmentally friendly features as solar power, nontoxic paints and plumbing fixtures that decrease water usage. City officials estimate that by 2012, the new green building codes could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60,000 tons and save 220,000 megawatt hours of power and 100 million gallons of drinking water.

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USA Today

San Francisco is joining a list of cities and counties that will be using only 100% recycled paper. Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered all city departments Tuesday to purchase only the recycled office paper for use by the city. San Francisco now joins nine other cities and counties in California, including Berkeley, Los Angeles and San Diego, that also only purchase 100% recycled paper. Before Newsom issued his executive order, San Francisco agencies were required to buy office paper made from at least 30% recycled materials. Officials say by using the recycled paper, the 10 cities and counties will save about 67,000 trees a year.

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By Robert Selna
San Francisco Chronicle

Expanding on a growing list of environmental initiatives in San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom called on leaders of Bay Area cities and counties Thursday to join him in urging automakers to produce plug-in hybrid cars. At a press conference at a southeast San Francisco auto repair shop that converts standard hybrids to plug-ins, Newsom said he would mail letters to Bay Area mayors and other leaders asking them to join him in an offer to buy the autos if the industry will make them.

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By Cecilia Vega
San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is in the nation's capital this week, where he is meeting with some of the biggest names in the Democratic Party to talk up the city's myriad efforts to combat global warming before he heads off to Switzerland to attend the prestigious World Economic Forum. Newsom spent Tuesday on Capitol Hill, where he plugged the city's universal health care program during a meeting with Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and the city's environmental initiatives in a meeting with Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

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Four years ago I stood here at City Hall and said “Thank You” to my friends, family and supporters for electing me mayor of this incredible city. I look back now and realize it has taken the experiences of the last four years to truly appreciate the honor that you gave me that day. I knew it before – but now I’ve lived it. This place, our people, make up the finest city in this nation. There are bigger cities. But there are simply no better cities.  Serving as your mayor is the greatest honor I could ever imagine. In the past four years, I have looked at best practices throughout this nation. And I’ve learned – with both a growing pride and a profound sense of responsibility – that the nation is also looking back to us. Read more »

By David Smith
San Francisco Examiner

Green is the color of choice lately for Mayor Gavin Newsom, who unveiled Wednesday yet another effort to make The City environmentally friendly. Newsom proposed a new green building ordinance that would apply to new commercial and residential development as well as renovations to existing buildings. The green building proposal would impose stringent environmental standards on new construction and renovation to current buildings, according to Newsom. The standards would increase every year through 2012, when The City hopes to have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent of 1990 levels, according to a press release from his office. Read more »

By Lisa Leff
Time Magazine

It doesn't seem like an ideal place to promote solar energy, but foggy San Francisco has come up with an ambitious plan to encourage businesses and homeowners to tap the sun's power for their energy needs. The program announced Tuesday would offer companies and residents government-funded loans and rebates to offset the costs of installing solar panels, city officials said. "There is a perception, a myth in our city, that because of our climate we are not ideally situated for solar," Mayor Gavin Newsom said. "The reality is the climate in the Bay Area, the climate in San Francisco specifically, is ideally situated for solar." Read more »