San Mateo "SMART" goes door to door

Hoping to get ahead in the race to go green, the city of San Mateo put volunteers on foot throughout the North Shoreview neighborhood this weekend surveying residents about their environmental habits and household energy use.

SMART, or San Mateo Acting Responsibly Together, is a phased public outreach campaign kicked off last November. The campaign goal is to promote sustainable practices by educating people on how to change simple, daily behaviors so they can reduce energy use. By doing that, the city meets state mandates to lower carbon emissions by 2020.

The effort was a pilot doing both community education and gathering key energy use data with which to shape next steps to offer incentives for energy efficiency throughout the city. Participating residents gained the opportunity to win a free top of the line home energy audit from Sustainable Spaces (1st place, valued at almost $700) or from HomeZ (2nd and 3rd place valued at almost $300).

This is a good step in the right direction by San Mateo. And word is that development of a commercial and large residential green building ordinance is on the agenda later this year.