The City of Claremont has earned first place in the CoolCalifornia Challenge, a competition that pitted city against city to motivate residents to take actions and track efforts to reduce their carbon footprints. Out of 22 cities vying for the title of “Coolest California City,” Claremont captured the top spot earning 2,443,779 sustainability points after finishing second last year. As runners-up, the cities of Long Beach and Burlingame earn the title of “Cool California City.”

“On behalf of the residents of Claremont, I am proud to accept the title of Coolest California City,” said Mayor Sam Pedroza. “This honor speaks volumes to the dedication and initiative that Claremont residents showed throughout the Challenge to reduce our city’s greenhouse gas emissions. By working to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions all year, residents are continuing the hard work needed to help California stay golden.”

Claremont enlisted the aid of Sustainable Claremont, a nonprofit community-based organization, to engage more than 500 households in the Challenge. During the competition, which lasted from October 1 through March 30, participating households tracked energy use, recorded vehicle miles driven and shared energy saving tips to earn points for their cities.

Collectively, the 22 participating cities engaged nearly 3,200 households to take energy savings actions to reduce their carbon footprint. In total, the participants reported that they completed actions that will save 5,638 metric tons of carbon dioxide over the energy saving actions’ lifetime, equivalent to removing more than 2,500 California homes from the grid or over 1,100 automobiles from the road for a year.

“We are so appreciative of the effort invested by all the California cities in this year’s Challenge,” said Pamela Wellner, CSE’s senior outreach manager for Energy Upgrade California. “The simple ways that participants learned to save energy will have a lasting impact in leading all Californians to implement daily energy-saving habits to lower our carbon footprint.”

All participating cities will receive a portion of a $150,000 prize based on the percentage of their points that will be used to support local sustainability projects. This year’s participating cities included Benicia, Buellton, Burlingame, Claremont, Corte Madera, El Cerrito, Elk Grove, Fairfax, Huntington Beach, Indio, Larkspur, Long Beach, Lynwood, Martinez, Mill Valley, Redwood City, Richmond, San Carlos, San Mateo, San Pablo, Sausalito and South Pasadena.

CoolCalifornia Challenge is a partnership between Energy Upgrade California®, the CoolCalifornia.org program at the California Air Resources Board and the Cool Climate Network at the University of California, Berkeley.