Sustainability Program

TNDC is committed to building and providing affordable, sustainable housing that positively impacts tenant's health and the environment. We hold the belief that we should treat the planet with respect and play our role in mitigating climate change through sustainable operations.

Our sustainable housing efforts began in 2008 with each new building meeting or exceeding the Green building standard. Since that time, we have deepened and broadened our commitment to ensure that sustainable building practices and operation principles are reflected across our work and services. We're committed to all new TNDC buildings having Solar PV when feasible, achieve a nationally recognized Green Certification, such as GreenPointRated Platinum or LEED Gold, and will follow FitWel approaches to center tenant health in our designs.

By being mindful of our resource and energy usage, how we design buildings and their proximity to public transit, and ways to lower utility costs for tenants and the organization, TNDC has become a leader in sustainable housing.

This work ties in directly with TNDC's value of Collaboration and Excellence. As sustainability work requires deep collaborations with tenants and Property Managers, Maintenance staff, our Housing Development team, the Urban Agriculture team, and many outside partners. Together, we are reducing our impact on the environment and serving as a local and national model for green development.

Our Sustainability program is housed in the Property Management department.

Innovations

We have three buildings piloting fuel-switching and electrification through heat-pump technology to reduce carbon emissions and support California's de-carbonization initiatives
Majority of our new buildings are all-electric to support our goal of reducing carbon emissions
We're a HomeFree partner, a national initiative supporting affordable housing developers in committing to improving tenant health by using less toxic and healthy building materials.
We're actively looking for ways to reduce embodied carbon emissions and piloting approaches in our new buildings
- Key focus areas are concrete, steel, wood, and insulation

Achievements

In 2021, we became one of 3 multi-family housing organizations who signed onto the Department of Energy's Better Climate Challenge—a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in ten years
In 2019, TNDC won the Better Buildings Challenge Award from the Department of Energy for being the 1st goal achiever in the affordable housing sector to reduce portfolio-wide energy and water usage by 20%
In 2018, TNDC won an Environmental Service Award from the SF Commission for contributing to the well-being of the City

Our Waste Goal for 2029: We are committed to increasing waste diversion by 60% by 2029—compared to our baseline in 2019

We're compliant with the City of San Francisco’s Zero Waste Commitments.All tenants have access to compost and recycling facilities
- Our average diversion rate or rate of reducing landfill waste is 42%!
We actively work with City agencies to create educational opportunities on waste management and sorting for tenants

Our Carbon Goal for 2029: We are committed to reducing our direct greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1) and reducing our indirect greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 2) by 50% by 2029—compared to our baseline in 2019

We have extensively invested in onsite renewable electricity to reduce operating costs and carbon emissions
- Currently, 52% of our buildings have rooftop Solar PV or Solar Thermal systems!
We're prioritizing transitioning buildings with inefficient and carbon-intensive, natural-gas-based systems to electrical power

Sustainable Buildings Map

While all our buildings use 100% clean energy and LED lighting, a selection of our buildings include special recognition for their green designs and use of solar power.

Please note "solar" in this map includes either solar thermal (hot water) or PV (electric solar).