The patron saint of the city by the bay must be proud of its incredible environmental achievements. That would be St. Francis of Assisi, of course, who is the patron saint of all things environmental.
The last award to be presented at the National Biodiesel Conference was the Initiative award, given to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. In this largest known city in the world to use B20 fleet-wide, the mayor has had a lot to do with that. In 2006, he issued an Executive Directive designed to increase the pace of municipal use of biodiesel. Today, virtually all of the City’s 1,500 diesel vehicles run on B20.
To top it off, as the conference wrapped up on Wednesday, the National Biodiesel Board celebrated SFGreasecycle, the City of San Francisco’s program to turn waste oil into biodiesel. The innovative program was awarded $1.2 million to break ground for brown-grease-to-biodiesel fuel production, and to build a toolkit that will serve as a blueprint for cities nationwide interested in replicating the program.
St. Francis is smiling down on his city!