Hermosa Beach Wins Water Challenge

In a 30-day battle of Southern California cities, Hermosa Beach has won the title of “greenest city” in the Wyland Foundation’s Mayor’s Challenge for Conservation.

The challenge in honor of Earth Month, and ranked regional cities based on the percentage of residents who pledged online to practice water-saving and energy-saving habits.

"The whole point of the Mayor's Challenge was to create a healthy competition between cities for conservation," said Wyland, renowned environmental artist and Wyland Foundation founder and president.

"Throughout the month, mayors of some of the largest and smallest cities in Southern California went head-to-head to creatively energize their residents to reduce their impact on the environment," he said in a statement Tuesday.

The , and Hermosa Beach ranked No. 1.

"Hermosa's secret to winning was the city's ability to stay motivated throughout the month and fend off challenges from dozens of other cities, like Long Beach, Torrance and Redondo Beach," Wyland said. "Even though Hermosa was one of the smallest cities participating, it racked up more pledges than cities many times its size."

By practicing environmentally friendly behavior—such as taking shorter showers or drinking from reusable water bottles—Hermosa Beach residents pledged to:

• conserve 121,540,821 gallons of water;
• reduce plastic water bottle usage by 28,125 bottles;
• eliminate 421,711 pounds of waste from landfills;
• and reduce carbon dioxide output by 3,651,388.8 pounds, according to the Wyland Foundation.

If residents adhere to their promises, their conservation efforts could save them a total of $289,285.81 over the next year, the foundation estimated.

"We would like to thank the Wyland Foundation for the opportunity to showcase our community’s commitment to protecting the environment and conserving water," said Mayor Peter Tucker on Tuesday. "As a city, one of our top priorities is finding ways to create a greener tomorrow for our community, and we look forward to continuing to work together to protect the environment."

The top 10 cities that had the highest percentage of pledges in the challenge are:

1. Hermosa Beach
2. Redondo Beach
3. Villa Park
4. Gardena
5. Long Beach
6. Signal Hill
7. Monrovia
8. Torrance
9. Huntington Beach
10. Mission Viejo

Agoura Hills and Vernon were disqualified for insufficient data.

By winning the challenge, Hermosa Beach residents who participated are now eligible to win various prizes, which include tickets to a special Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim game, Disneyland, or the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.