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San Diego, Aurora Among ‘Most Water Wise' Cities

San Diego, Calif., Aurora, Colo., Torrance, Calif., Poway Calif. and Hermosa Beach, Calif. are the cities with the highest percentage of residents that made pledges during a monthlong campaign in April to promote water efficiency.The 2015 Wyland National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation, organized by the Wyland Foundation and Toyota, involved residents from more than 3,900 cities making 391,325 pledges online to reduce their water use at home, around the yard and in their lives. The challenge addressed the growing importance of educating consumers about the many ways they use water, the organizers say.

By Mike Hower | Published 9 years ago | About a 2 minute read

The 2015 Wyland National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation, organized by the Wyland Foundation and Toyota, involved residents from more than 3,900 cities making 391,325 pledges online to reduce their water use at home, around the yard and in their lives. The challenge addressed the growing importance of educating consumers about the many ways they use water, the organizers say.

In addition, mayors of cities in thirty-five states, including Pittsburgh, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Stockton, Boise, Santa Fe, Pasadena, Gainesville and Tucson increased their involvement with personal appeals to residents to participate.

In total, participants pledged to save enough water over the next year to fill 2,300 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Residents from winning cities will be entered into a drawing this month for over $50,000 in water-saving or eco-friendly prizes, the organizers say. This includes a Grand Prize Toyota Prius v, EcoFlow showerheads from WaterPik, home irrigation equipment from the Toro Company and hundreds of home improvement store gift cards.

In addition to making 1.5 billion gallons in water-saving pledges, challenge participants in 50 states pledged to reduce their use of single-use plastic water bottles by more than 4.6 million bottles and eliminate 141,000 pounds of hazardous waste from entering watersheds. By altering daily lifestyle choices, pledges also resulted in potentially 47 million fewer pounds in landfills. Potential savings of 13 million gallons of oil, 7 billion pounds of carbon dioxide, 139 million kilowatt hours of energy and $35 million in consumer cost savings rounded out the final pledge results.

California Gov. Jerry Brown, in response to the state’s ongoing drought, issued a statewide mandatory water reductions earlier this year. NASA scientists have warned California will need around 11 trillion gallons of water — about 1.5 times the maximum volume of the largest U.S. reservoir — to recover from the devastating drought.

Many companies are beginning to adopt better water management practices, but there still is room for improvement. Unilever, Coca-Cola, General Mills and Nestlé rank highest among food and beverage businesses in managing scarce water resources, but most major companies need to adopt far stronger practices, according to a recent report released by nonprofit sustainability advocacy group Ceres. The report ranks the country's 37 largest food companies on how effectively they are managing freshwater supplies.

Mike Hower

Founder & Principal Consultant, Hower Impact

Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact — a boutique consultancy delivering best-in-class strategic communication advisory and support for corporate sustainability, ESG and climate tech.

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