In this tight economy your city may be looking for new ways to more efficiently spend your financial resources and attract green jobs, while making your community more livable. You might want to take a look at what San Francisco is doing.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom recently unveiled GreenFinanceSF, a $150 million program modeled on Berkeley’s PACE program. This program will help green the city’s homes and businesses by financing the installation of solar panels, energy efficiency retrofits, and water conservation improvements. The program will reduce the carbon footprint of the city, conserve water, and create a greener environment for its citizens.According to Grist blogger Todd Woody, “It’s the latest and largest iteration of the Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, model pioneered by the city of Berkeley across the Bay and now spreading across the country.” Other major California cities and counties plan to offer municipal funding in the near future.

The PACE model was developed by Cisco DeVries when he was chief of staff to Berkeley’s city mayor. He has since co-founded Renewable Funding to help cities and counties in California and other communities create green funding initiatives. Best of all, there is no cost to participating cities.

While PACE uses land-secured municipal finance, two characteristics make the program unique: 1) property owner participation is 100% voluntary and only those property owners who choose to participate repay the bond, 2) the bond proceeds pay for preapproved clean energy and, in some cases, water improvement on participating properties.

It may be time for your city to evaluate the benefits of bringing a PACE style program to your area.