Ever-Green Energy system online at historic Mission Rock Development

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Press Release

Ever-Green will manage the utility systems for San Francisco’s largest mixed-use waterfront neighborhood with aggressive sustainability goals and projections

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Ever-Green Energy announced today that the district energy system for San Francisco’s Mission Rock development is officially online. Managed by Ever-Green Energy, the system heats and cools the residential and commercial buildings within the 28-acre development site. Mission Rock reaches an important milestone as they prepare to welcome their first residential and commercial tenants.

The project partners, which include the San Francisco Giants, Tishman Speyer and the Port of San Francisco, partnered with Minnesota-based Ever-Green Energy to guide the new development toward achieving its target of 100% renewable energy sources for building energy use. These efforts will eliminate or offset the majority of the project’s operational greenhouse gas emissions.

“The Mission Rock development is demonstrating that climate solutions for buildings are feasible and scalable. The San Francisco Giants, the Port of San Francisco and Tishman Speyer have remained steadfast to their sustainability commitments, and it has been an honor to work with them on this project,” said Ever-Green Energy CEO Ken Smith. “It is exciting to see our team apply their expertise and knowledge honed in Minnesota to systems across the country.”

Managed by Ever-Green Energy, Mission Rock Utilities’ district energy system uses a shared energy plant to supply both heating and cooling to the entire development, replacing the need for equipment in each building. At full build-out, the energy and black water recycling systems are estimated to reduce annual energy usage by 24,000 MMBtu, water and non-potable water usage by 18 million gallons per year, sewer discharge by 12 million gallons per year, and CO2 emissions by 1,600 tons per year. The district energy system is designed to eventually use bay water as a geoexchange source to heat and cool the buildings, which, when coupled with renewable electricity, will serve all buildings with carbon-free energy. By replacing conventional cooling towers, the bay water exchange system is expected to conserve millions of gallons of water per year while achieving the city’s goals of reducing water use.

“Mission Rock demonstrates what can be achieved when you adopt aggressive environmental sustainability goals,” said Julian Pancoast, vice president of development for the San Francisco Giants. “The entire project team is excited to realize our vision to create a project that will support community resilience for decades to come.”

In addition to managing district energy system for heating and cooling, Ever-Green worked with developers to create California’s largest private black water treatment plant. When active, it will recycle 64,000 gallons per day of black water. This recycled water will be utilized for non-potable purposes such as irrigation and toilet flushing.

“Mission Rock has presented opportunities to establish elevated standards throughout the development process. From employing a more diverse workforce for the design and construction, to following through on impactful sustainable infrastructure and wellbeing targets, our team is thrilled to see Phase 1 take shape and deliver on these commitments,” said Maggie Kadin, Managing Director of Development for Tishman Speyer.

Beyond the creation of Mission Rock Utilities, the project team adopted other features to meet its sustainability and climate resiliency goals. This includes raising the center of the site to accommodate a projection of 66 inches of sea level rise and adaptive management strategies to address localized shoreline flooding and changes in future sea level rise forecasts. Shoreline open spaces will include drought and saline tolerant species in landscape plantings to make them resilient to climate change impacts.

Mission Rock’s district energy system is one of several across the country that Ever-Green Energy is helping to develop and manage for cities, higher education institutions, and developers who are looking for stable and efficient utilities that can meet aggressive sustainability and carbon neutrality goals.

For more information about Ever-Green’s work at Mission Rock, visit our project profile page

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Karissa Kostka