The City of Santa Clarita has achieved “Silver” status as a California Green Community for its commitment to sustainability.  Santa Clarita is one of only four cities to be honored by California Green Communities for its efforts. The award is also supported by the Environmental Media Association, Southern California Edison and Green Seal.

“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.  “Santa Clarita is a leader among southern California cities who are modeling sustainable practices for others.”

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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.

As a part of its California Green Communities Action Plan, Santa Clarita replaced more than 500 obsolete irrigation controllers with smart, weather-based irrigation controllers to water parks, medians and streetscaping to save millions of gallons of water and increase savings.  The new controllers access real-time weather information via the Internet to determine the right time and amount of water needed to irrigate various landscaped areas based on solar radiation, wind, humidity and temperature.  The system is similar to a home thermostat, measuring temperature and adjusting accordingly.

Since installation, the City’s irrigation-water management system has grown to become the world’s largest smart-controller water system and in the last year alone, this system has reduced the City’s annual water consumption by more than 150 million gallons.

“The City of Santa Clarita places a high priority on reducing its environmental footprint and preserving our community and its resources for generations to come,” said Santa Clarita Mayor Laurie Ender.  “We are committed to being one of the state’s leading green communities and are working towards achieving Platinum status in this program.”

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 Santa Clarita, the cities of Claremont, Monrovia and Riverside 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, 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 Santa Clarita – that participate in SCE’s Energy Leader Partnership program.