As of Thursday, July 31, Claremonters participating in the challenge have accumulated 1,190,193 points compared to Riverside’s 1,158,847 points.

Earlier this week, the City of Trees had slipped into second place behind Riverside, but Claremont’s 359 members responded to the setback by logging on and updating their points. In just four days, residents have logged more than 45,000 points to put Claremont back in the lead.

Claremont has traded the top spot with Riverside several times over the course of the challenge despite the fact that Riverside has almost twice the number of residents participating in the program.

The CoolCalifornia City Challenge was created to encourage voluntary carbon footprint reductions throughout the state and to track household greenhouse gas emissions reductions from city to city. Since April 1, participating households have been encouraged to track their energy and household vehicle emissions and join EcoTeams, groups of households working together to reduce their carbon footprints, and earn points in the program.

The contest continues though August 31, with Claremont eligible to win a large chunk of the $50,000 to be distributed between cities based on the number of points. 

According to the program website, the city with the most points at the end of the five-month challenge period will be crowned the “Coolest California City” for 2014 at an awards ceremony at the Air Resources Board meeting in October. In addition, two runner-up cities will each earn the title of “Cool California City”, and be awarded second and third place prizes. ALL cities will receive prize money based on the percentage of overall points earned by participants in their city during the competition.

For more details about how to log and calculate points, log on to:  https://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/challenge/how-do-we-calculate-points-for-the-challenge.php

—Angela Bailey

news@claremont-courier.com