SMUD and the Sacramento Tree Foundation recently celebrated 25 years of partnership with the planting of a ceremonial willow oak at the southeast corner of SMUD’s Headquarters building. The partnership—known as the Sacramento Shade program—has delivered more than half a million free shade trees to residences and businesses since 1990.

“The Sacramento Shade program has been helping our customers cool their homes and save money for more than two and a half decades,” said Sacramento Shade program manager Misha Sarkovich. “We’re very proud to have helped Sacramento become the ‘city of trees.’”

Sacramento Shade provides a wide variety of benefits to homeowners and the community:

• Shade trees can reduce home cooling costs up to 40 percent after five years of growth. 
• Shade trees help reduce the community’s peak electricity demand. This allows SMUD to purchase less power on the open market, helping keep rates affordable and improving grid reliability. 
• The cumulative effect of the trees planted since 1990 has reduced Sacramento’s annual electricity use by about 15 gigawatt-hours. That’s enough energy to power approximately 20,000 homes. 
• Shade trees help reduce atmospheric carbon as well as the urban heat-island effect.

“I really believe that the past 25 years of the Sacramento Shade program represent the most positive, impactful and beloved community benefit program Sacramento County has ever experienced,” said Ray Tretheway, executive director of the Sacramento Tree Foundation.

SMUD was the first utility in the nation to establish a large-scale, utility-funded tree planting program. SMUD has also won the Tree Line USA award 14 years in a row. Tree Line USA is a national program recognizing utilities for practices that protect and enhance America’s urban forests.