Mayor’s Challenge For Water Conservation: The City Of Sunny Isles Beach Joins National Campaign To Promote Smart Water Use And Reduce Pollution

The annual non-profit national community service campaign encourages leaders to inspire their residents, between April 1-30, to commit to making small changes at: www.mywaterpledge.com to use water more efficiently, reduce pollution and save energy. The program was started ten years ago by a handful of mayors who were looking for alternative ways to engage their residents more deeply about the coming water challenges in the United States.

Last year, residents from over 2,000 cities in all 50 U.S. States pledged to reduce their annual consumption of freshwater by over 1 billion gallons, reduce waste sent to landfills by 35 million pounds and prevent nearly one hundred thousand pounds of hazardous waste from entering our watersheds. The Challenge goes beyond short term issues and looks at the ways our water use will affect the future of our communities — from how we manage our coasts, lakes and rivers to reducing polluted runoff.

To participate, residents go to: www.mywaterpledge.com and then make a series of online pledges to conserve water on behalf of the City Of Sunny Isles Beach. Cities compete in the following population categories: (5,000- 29,999 residents, 30,000-99,999 residents, 100,000-299,999 residents, 300,000-599,999 residents and 600,000+ residents). Cities with the highest percentage of residents who take the challenge in their population category for a chance to win $3,000 toward their Home Utility Bills and hundreds more eco-friendly prizes including Toro Irrigation Smart Controllers, Gift cards for Hobie Surf Shops and more. In addition, one school from each winning city will receive 100 pairs of Zenni Remakes™ eyeglasses that help reduce damage to eyes from prolonged exposure to blue light. Each pair is made from the recycled plastics equal to three discarded single use plastic water bottles.

Participating residents are also encouraged to use a custom created digital tool called MyVolunteer Water Project, in support of the program, that gives residents a unique way to do hands-on home, community and workplace projects year-round in support of their city’s sustainability efforts. The more projects residents do throughout the year, the better chance a city wins the mayor’s challenge in April.

The National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation is presented by the Wyland Foundation, with support from the U.S EPA WaterSense, The Toro Company, Zenni Optical and National League of Cities.

The foundation encourages environmental awareness through community events, education programs and public art projects, visit: www.wylandfoundation.org