Initiative continues through end of April
Sarasota Mayor Liz Alpert and the City of Sarasota are joining mayors and communities across the country in asking residents to make a long-term commitment to manage water resources more wisely. The focus is the annual Wyland National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation, the city has announced.
In return for their pledges, residents can win $3,000 toward home utility payments, water-saving fixtures and hundreds of other prizes, a news release explains. Additionally, one charity from a winning city will receive a 2019 Toyota Highlander hybrid to serve the community, the release notes.
The annual challenge began on April 1 and will conclude on April 30, the release adds. It is a nonprofit national community service campaign “that encourages leaders to inspire their residents to make a series of simple pledges at mywaterpledge.com to use water more efficiently, reduce pollution and save energy,” the release says.
“The City of Sarasota, my fellow commissioners and I and the citizens we serve all care deeply about protecting our environment,” Alpert said in the release. “I hope our residents will join me in taking this pledge and doing their part to conserve this precious natural resource.”
Last year, residents from more than 3,800 cities in all 50 states “pledged to reduce their annual consumption of freshwater by 3 billion gallons, reduce waste sent to landfills by 79.9 million pounds and prevent more than 177,000 pounds of hazardous waste from entering our watersheds,” the release points out.
“Not only is this a great program for water conservation, but it also aligns with the city’s commitment to reducing our reliance on non-renewable energy through our Ready for 100 initiative,” said Sustainability Manager Stevie Freeman-Montes in the release. “Wastewater pumping and treatment accounts for a majority of our energy consumption as a city, so a reduction in water use by the community will have the added benefit of limiting our energy use,” she noted in the release.
To participate, residents may go to mywaterpledge.com and click on the green “Take the Pledge!” button to make a series of online pledges to conserve water on behalf of the City of Sarasota, the release explains.