As the stewards of San Francisco’s public infrastructure, capital planning stakeholders in San Francisco look for ways to increase the City’s resilience and sustainability via our capital program. Resilience describes the capacity of San Francisco's individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems to survive, adapt, and grow, no matter what kind of chronic stresses and acute shocks they may experience. For San Francisco this means (1) the ability to quickly respond and recovery from a disaster or large shock; (2) the ability to address systemic crises such as lack of economic mobility, inequity, poverty, and housing shortages; and (3) the ability to prepare for and address slow-moving disasters like climate change and sea level rise. 

As a coastal city in a dense metropolitan region, San Francisco faces a wide range of challenges when it comes to promoting sustainability in our infrastructure programs and projects. Sustainability in San Francisco means promoting green building, clean energy, mass transit, urban forestry, and careful planning, as well as preserving our existing assets to reduce the need for additional building. Large resilience investment needs are becoming clearer, including the investments needed to get to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, adapting the waterfront for sea-level rise, and preparing buildings and infrastructure for other climate impacts like extreme precipitation, heat waves, and wildfire smoke. For more information about capital-related efforts supporting these goals, please see Chapter Four: Building Our Future.