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City of Monrovia Honored for ‘Commitment to Sustainability’
Arcadia Weekly Feb 23, 2012
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The City of Monrovia has achieved “Silver” status as a California Green Community for its commitment to sustainability. Monrovia is one of only four cities to be honored by California Green Communities for its efforts.
Representatives from the Environmental Media Association (EMA), Southern California Edison (SCE) and Green Seal – founding partners in California Green Communities presented the honor to the Monrovia City Council at its meeting on Tuesday, February 21.
“We created California Green Communities to showcase what cities are doing to improve the quality of life for their residents,” said EMA President Debbie Levin. “Monrovia is a leader among southern California cities who are modeling sustainable practices for others.”
California Green Communities is a community-based effort that encourages cities to adopt environmentally sound practices involving energy efficiency, waste reduction, water conservation, renewable and alternative fuels, efficient transportation and other activities. Cities develop unique action plans to identify projects and activities they will implement to reach Silver, Gold and Platinum status in the program.
To reach the Silver level, Monrovia completed over 10 new environmental projects over the past year including a new Green Building Ordinance and new programs offered by the Water 4 Life conservation program. Through increased public education and free water audits completed by the City’s Utilities staff, Monrovia is conserving an additional 10.7% of water. Such conservation not only helps to protect the City’s water supply, which is produced from local wells, but pumping less water from the City’s wells and uphill to hillside reservoirs saves energy as well. In addition to efficiency and conservation retrofits to the City’s facilities and street lighting, the new Green Building Ordinance will help guide new development to be more efficient and reduce waste.
“As we rebuild the economy locally and nationally, we must do so in ways that are sustainable,” said Monrovia Mayor Mary Ann Lutz. “The focus should be on creating new jobs and improving our environment while decreasing our long-term costs. Monrovia’s Silver certification is a great example of our commitment to being a leader and advocate for both.”
Created in November 2009, California Green Communities is an environmental recognition program that fosters innovative ways for participating cities to reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption, while building vibrant, sustainable communities.
In addition to Monrovia, the cities of Claremont, Riverside and Santa Clarita have reached California Green Community Silver status. Other cities participating in the program – Culver City, Los Angeles, Redlands, San Gabriel, Santa Monica, Simi Valley and Ventura – are making progress towards certification as well. City action plans can be viewed at www.CaGreenCom.org. More cities in Southern California are expected to join the program in 2012.
Numerous other companies and organizations, such as Toyota, Alliance for Climate Education, Athens Services, Clean Environment Company, e-Recycling of California, The Energy Coalition, Kellogg Garden Products, Lifecycle Global and the Los Angeles Conservation Corps have joined SCE as California Green Communities partners to support participating cities. Southern California Edison provides advanced incentives for energy efficiency measures to cities – including Monrovia – that participate in SCE’s Energy Leader Partnership program.
