In January 2009, the City of San Antonio Texas launched Mission Verde focused on the economic opportunities inherent in the transition away from a carbon-intensive economy to a sustainable economy.
10 Initiatives: Mission Verde is pursuing the creation of a sustainable economy in San Antonio through 10 initiatives:
- A 21st Century Energy Infrastructure—generating energy from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal, originated from buildings and homes, stored until needed, and connected with a multi-directional grid.
- A Multi-Tech Venture Capital Fund—building a regional fund headquartered in San Antonio, capitalized at $100 million, and managed by Brooke Private Equity Advisors.
- A Green Jobs Program—collaborating with employers and educators to match training for existing and emerging green and Clean Tech jobs with employer needs.
- A Sustainable Economic Development Strategy—using tax abatements, cluster development strategies, and business attraction and retention programs focused on clean and green technology companies.
- A Green High-Performance Building Code—moving in phases toward a building code for new residential and commercial construction that produces net zero carbon by 2030.
- A Green Retrofit Program—expanding free weatherization combined with a retrofit program paid for with a surcharge on utility bills.
- An Integrated Multi-Modal Transportation System—pursuing and funding light rail, high capacity rail, and multiple transportation options.
- Sustainable Real Estate Development—utilizing real estate investment funds to advance mixed-use, mixed-income, walkable, transit-oriented in-fill neighborhoods.
- A Green One-Stop Sustainability Center—coordinating sustainability efforts, centralizing the location of sustainability groups and helping to facilitate their activities, demonstrating sustainability best practices, and providing comprehensive information services to residents and businesses.
- Leading by Example—addressing energy conservation, resource efficiency, waste reduction, vehicular emission improvements across all City Departments, coordinated by the City Government’s Office of Environmental Policy and its Sustainability Task Force.
Solar Science camp at Mission Verde 2011
This video was shot on July 7th on the grounds of Mission Verde and Su Casa in the heart of San Antonio Texas’ west side. The children who participated were part of San Antonio Youth’s summer camp program. This Solar Science camp was funded by The Small business administration grant and Alamo Colleges. This video was filmed and edited by Dayna DeHoyos for Alamo Colleges.