SA2020 San Antonio Green Dividend

CEOs for Cities created the city dividend concept to catalyze collaborative economic progress in cities and regions. A city dividend is the economic benefit resulting from investing resources to successfully achieve a measurable, actionable goal toward your city’s and metro region’s economic progress. The objective of city dividends is to provide quantitative estimates of the economic benefits that metropolitan regions and cities could achieve by improving their performance on specific priority issues.

This report explores the Green Dividend. The Green Dividend considers the savings that a person can achieve by driving one less mile per day. Detailed methodology on how each dividend is calculated and associated data sources is included in Appendix A.

Green Dividend

The Green Dividend estimates the savings that will accrue to individuals if they drive less. With the understanding that change can result from small actions, this dividend is based on the concept that if each person decreases the amount they drive by one mile each day whether by biking, walking, carpooling, or using transit, less money has to be allocated to gas, vehicle maintenance, vehicle insurance, and related costs. In addition, cars are a major source of air pollution. Therefore, driving less reduces air pollution and carbon emissions.