About the Cool California challenge

Mr. Toad, the city of Davis mascot, turns in Davis’ application for the Cool California Challenge to Chris Jones, lead researcher from UC Berkeley. Davis was the first city to apply to the challenge funded by the California Air Resources Board.

The City of Davis and Cool Davis Initiative entered the Cool California Challenge in March 2012 to win the award of Coolest City in California and to reduce our community’s greenhouse gas emissions.

What is the Cool California challenge?

The Cool California Challenge (CCC) is a year long competition among California cities (competing cities: Tracy, Sacramento, Citrus Heights, Pleasanton, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Pittsburg and Chula Vista) to reduce the city’s overall carbon footprint and to build a more vibrant and sustainable community.

This competition challenges households and individuals to reduce their household energy use and transportation emissions.  It asks participants to upload energy bills, track vehicle use and consumption over several months and awards you points based on how you do compared to others and the actions you take to reduce your emissions.  Cool California is a project of the Renewable and Alternative Energy Laboratory (RAEL) at UC Berkeley & the California Air Resources Board.

How cool are you?

In the first phase of the competition from March to July 2012, Cool Davis recruited as many households and individuals as possible to be selected as one of the three city finalists and receive $10,000 in support funding and continue to the next phase. Davis was quick off the mark and successful, winning first place and injecting some much-needed resources into our work!

Now is our chance to see how we are doing now, and use that information to chart our path toward carbon neutrality. How much can we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and convert to a more sustainable lifestyle while bettering our quality of life? – Mayor Joe Krovoza

The Cool California challenge website was hindered by glitches in the early stages of the process, but Cool Davis volunteers worked with the website staff at Cool California in Berkeley to improve the site.

Phase two of the competition started in August 2012. Davis is now competing with two other cities over the next eight months. We aim to recruit as many households as possible and challenge each household on “How low can you go?”  Davis hopes to win the Challenge with the largest amount of carbon reductions and become the Coolest City in California.

>Sign up to the challenge now

How does the Cool California challenge fit in with Cool Davis’s work?

Cool Davis Initiative was founded to help the City of Davis meet its goals set out in the Davis Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, approved in June 2010, specifically to:

  • Achieve measurable greenhouse gas emissions reduction,
  • Engage 75% of Davis households in carbon reduction programs by 2015, and
  • Prepare the City for a successful transition to a low carbon future and economy.

The CoolCalifornia Community Challenge has the potential to help Cool Davis jumpstart a major campaign to reach more segments of our community, engage us further in reducing their GHG emissions, and further the mission of both Cool Davis Initiative and the CoolCalifornia Challenge.

> Find out more on Cool Davis