Claremont should develop a community-wide Sustainability Action Plan!
Much is happening in Claremont. Organizations, institutions and individuals are looking toward a sustainable future, so much so that Cal Poly Pomona now offers a class on what Claremont is doing.
Claremont residents voted 71% on favor of taking control of our water system. We are the only city in the Southland (with about half the population of California) competing for the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize. CHERP is saving energy while improving the quality of life, increasing property values, and bringing jobs to the community. We are preserving open space in the Claremont Wilderness Park and there is a proposal to expand the Park while capturing more storm water runoff. Plans are well developed for water reclamation to irrigate the college campuses, a model that could help Claremont in times of drought — as would the water-wise DRIP initiative. Food is being grown on local plots and creating jobs; school gardens are now part of our educational system. Claremont Heritage helps preserve and enhance our cultural assets, the Chamber of Commerce furthers our economic vitality — and there is much more.
Claremont has an ambitious Sustainable City Plan, but we don’t have a coherent sustainability Action Plan to integrate and enhance these efforts — and this is an ideal time to come together, share visions, generate new ideas, and create an imaginative integrated Plan that will appeal to funders. Oberlin, a city in Ohio of just over 8,000 did just that. They formulated and funded a $135 million Project — a great success that can inspire us.
Sustainable Claremont has established a Sustainability Resource Center with a vision that includes helping to make this Claremont Action Plan a reality. We now have an office at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, managed by coordinator Alexis Reyes. We hope everyone who would like to join in creating Claremont’s Action Plan, or has an idea about what to include, will come together, and we would like to facilitate this. Please email coordinator@sustainableclaremont.org, write to P.O. Box 1502 (Claremont), or call the Center at (909) 625-8767 x238.
We also cordially invite you to a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony celebrating the opening of the Sustainability Resource Center office in the RSABG Lenz Horticulture Building, 1500 N College Ave., at noon on Wednesday, March 11.
And on Thursday, March 26, 7 PM, please Join the City of Claremont, CHERP, and Sustainable Claremont at the Rose Hills Theater, Pomona College, as we launch the Claremont Energy Challenge — Claremont's participation in the $5 Million Georgetown University Energy Prize.
Demystifying Sustainability is an initiative of Sustainable Claremont (sustainableclaremont.org).