The Construction Source America

4 | City of San Antonio The City of San Antonio has emerged as a national model of how to build collabora- tions, develop programs and effectively im- plement solutions that result in beneficial changes in terms of conservation of energy, improved air & water quality, and substan- tial cost savings that strengthen its economic stability, and not only for the long term, but here and now. Mayor Julián Castro says San Antonio “has a long, proactive history of pursuing sustainable development” which he cred- its to beginning some 13 years ago with the leadership of former Mayor Howard Peak. At that time, San Antonio voters approved a 1/8-cent sales tax to purchase and preserve property over the recharge zone of the city’s primary source of drinking water, known as the Edwards Aquifer. Since that time, voters have re-authorized the sales tax twice, effec- tively preserving some 20,000 acres of sensi- tive land. In 2009, another initiative known as the Mission Verde Plan was spurred to being through the leadership of Mayor Phil Hardberger. Castro says with “Mission Verde’s core tenets of advanced energy in- frastructure, clean technology development, green jobs, sustainable buildings, integrated