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newsrel -- Study: CoolCalifornia City Challenge is 'living laboratory' to engage Californians in climate action
Posted: 05 Jan 2015 16:31:51
Please consider the following news release from the California Air Resources Board: http://bit.ly/1xLXxNn -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 5, 2015 NEWS RELEASE 15-01 CONTACT: Melanie Turner (916) 322-2990 melanie.turner@arb.ca.gov Multi-city competitions can be successful strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, research shows CoolCalifornia City Challenge serves as living laboratory to test new approaches to engage Californians in climate action A first-of-its-kind research project demonstrated that participation in a pilot inter-city carbon footprint reduction competition far exceeded expectations and provided hard evidence for the kinds of approaches that successfully engage individuals and communities to take action to fight climate change. ARB is hosting a research seminar and webcast open to the public at 1:30 p.m. January 8. For more information, go to: http://bit.ly/arbseminars The webinar will be archived on ARB’s website. The CoolCalifornia City Challenge is part of an Air Resources Board-funded research project by the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab at UC Berkeley. The multi-year study, which concluded last month, developed, implemented and evaluated the pilot competition. Nearly 3,000 people in eight cities participated in the 13-month pilot competition, conducted in 2013. Data entry by participants demonstrated that they used 14 percent less electricity than a control group. A second competition was conducted in 2014, following the pilot. Ten cities participated and $100,000 in incentive and prize money was provided by Energy Upgrade California™, a statewide initiative to educate Californians about how to manage energy in their homes and businesses. In the Challenge, cities connect with citizens both directly and through community-based groups to take simple, everyday actions to cut their carbon footprint such as riding a bicycle instead of driving or hanging clothes on a laundry line instead of powering up the dryer. During the pilot contest, more than 900 participants manually entered more than 10,000 monthly electricity, natural gas and motor vehicle odometer readings in the online software, which calculated how many points those actions generated for each household and municipality. The city with the most points at the end of the competition is named the “Coolest California City.” Besides a decrease in energy use among participants, other results of the pilot project included: • The primary reported motivations of participants were similar across demographic population segments, with altruistic motives greatly outranking financial savings or other external motives, such as rewards or recognition. • Households with older participants far outperformed those with younger participants. • Income, political identity and attitudes toward climate change affected participation levels, but not performance, or points. “Participants reported very altruistic motivations for joining the program, including improving where they live, protecting the environment and helping local organizations,” said Professor Daniel Kammen, who led the pilot research for the Challenge, along with lead researcher Christopher Jones, at UC Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory. “This type of community-based competition can help California in its efforts to transition to a sustainable, clean energy economy.” Researchers concluded there is a high level of interest across California cities for successful community engagement programs. In order to realize the greatest benefits of a statewide inter-city competition, future programs should increase motivation for all cities, and programs should be designed to meet a wide range of needs from communities with differing resource levels and diverse populations. The CoolCalifornia City Challenge was created to encourage voluntary carbon footprint reductions throughout the state. Because voluntary actions are an essential component of California’s greenhouse gas reduction portfolio, ARB has developed a variety of tools and resources to support these non-regulatory efforts. The Challenge serves as a living laboratory to test new approaches to engage California residents and communities in climate action, and helps to inform future efforts to promote and quantify carbon footprint reductions and help establish best practices for citizen engagement. For press releases announcing the City Challenge winners: 2013 winners - http://bit.ly/17ejf0A 2014 winners - http://bit.ly/CACityChallenge California is in a drought emergency. Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.
