The Orange County Chapter of the US Green Building Council has declared the names of the cities that topped the list as the most likely winners of Eco City Award.
This award will be presented to the most sustainable cities located in the County. This initiative was started in the year 2011 and has studied the various practices adopted by the cities of the Orange County. USGBC has chosen Anaheim, Irvine and Huntington Beach as the top contenders for the awards after reviewing the public information about all the cities. The other contenders who were in the top 10 list were Aliso Viejo, Costa Mesa, Dana Point, Newport Beach, San Clemente, Santa Ana and Orange.
The chosen cities will be recognised at the USGBC’s Orange County Annual Kickoff meeting, which will be held at the headquarters in California on 26 Jan 2012. The top three cities will be briefing the gathering about the sustainability programs, which have made them qualify for the award. The various parameters that were evaluated for the award were whether they had a website for green building/sustainability, knowledge that staff have of the LEED building, Aid or city incentives in green development and LEED qualified buildings in the city. The research was done online initially and this was followed by anonymous visits to the city. These evaluation methods narrowed down the list to top ten cities, these top cities were later further required to answer a detailed questionnaire and interviews. Scores were awarded based on their performance and finally the top three cities were chosen. During the kickoff meeting the program coordinator of the Hurley’s H2O will give a presentation of the purpose and philosophy behind the initiative and aim to provide clean water for everyone. Apart from the kickoff meeting, USGBC will also be conducting a Green Home Construction Tour of LEED platinum home on 3 December and a Holiday Soiree on 15 December.
Source: http://www.usgbc-oc.org/