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Posts tagged ‘competition’

Dec 3

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White House Recognizes Salt Lake City as Climate Action Champion

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Earlier today, the White House and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recognized Salt Lake City as a Climate Action Champion for showing leadership on climate change. A total of 16 U.S. communities were recognized as inaugural Climate Action Champions.

“We are thrilled to be recognized as a one of the top U.S. communities leading out on climate change and climate action,” said Mayor Ralph Becker. “Over the past seven years, we have focused on developing a comprehensive portfolio of programs and policies that will cut carbon pollution and increase community resiliency in the face of our changing climate.”

In response to recommendations presented by the White House Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, of which Mayor Becker was an integral member, the White House launched the Climate Action Champions competition earlier this fall to identify and recognize local climate leaders and to provide targeted Federal support to help those communities further raise their ambitions.

Salt Lake City was recognized for the development of a comprehensive and well-integrated portfolio of programs and policies, including renewable energy, transportation, code revisions, water systems and building policies as priorities. The City established a joint resolution to reduce its carbon footprint by 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and 50 percent below 2020 levels by 2040. Learn more about Salt Lake City’s commitment to climate action at http://dashboard.slcgov.com.

In addition to being designated as the first cohort of Climate Action Champions, the selected communities will benefit from facilitated peer-to-peer learning and mentorship and targeted support from a range of Federal programs. A coordinator will be provided to each Climate Action Champion to foster coordination and communicate across the Federal agencies, national organizations, and foundations in support of the Champions. The coordinator will also assist efforts to raise awareness of funding and technical assistance opportunities that are available specifically for Climate Action Champions.

More information on the first cohort of Climate Action Champions is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/03/fact-sheet-16-us-communities-recognized-climate-action-champions-leaders.

Jun 24

Drive Less, Clear the Air & Win Prizes this July

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The 2014 Challenge kicked off at the Downtown Farmers Market on Saturday, June 14.

Are you ready to help clear the air? The 2014 Clear the Air Challenge starts next week on Tuesday, July 1!

The month long Challenge is just that — an excellent way to challenge yourself to “drive down your miles” and reduce your emissions. Choose alternatives to driving alone and track your impact on air quality.

(And keep an eye on the leader board for the Salt Lake City Corporation network, which is SLCgreen’s home team!)

The Basics

  • The Clear the Air Challenge runs July 1-31, 2014.
  • Register at www.CleartheAirChallenge.org (registration details below).
  • Track the trips and miles you save by using alternatives to driving alone:
    • Active transportation (walk, bike) — Biking and walking, also known as active transportation, are gaining popularity as healthy, efficient and sustainable means of transportation.
    • Public transit — To put it simply, ride UTA!
    • Carpool — Carpooling involves more than one person traveling together in a car and can be used for many occasions including commuting to work, attending special events or taking kids to school, practices or recreational activities. This strategy requires some coordination of schedules, but can be easily implemented to achieve significant results.
    • Telework — Teleworking is possible from just about anywhere – from home, a telecenter, the local coffee shop or anywhere that has a wireless Internet connection. Teleworking can include conference calling or video conferencing for meetings instead of driving to an off-site location or working from a remote office.
    • Skip the trip — The skip the trip strategy is as easy as it sounds. Just plan ahead to avoid unnecessary trips. These can be trips taken for work or for home activities.
    • Learn more about these strategies at TravelWise.utah.gov.
  • Join a network, track your impact and compete for great prizes!

Registration

This year there is a new and greatly improved tracking tool for the Clear the Air Challenge. The new tool will require all users to re-register, but the registration process will only take about 30 seconds and users now have the ability to sign up using their Facebook profile.

During the registration process you will be asked to join a team/network, although it’s not required. If you do not see your team/network listed, please email tracker@ppbh.com with the following information:

  • Team/network name
  • Team/network admin name (the person on your team who will have admin rights)
  • Admin’s email
  • Team/network address
  • Team/network description (a little about who your team is- optional)

Prizes

The Challenge has approximately $10,000 in prizes to give out this year to participants. A number of weekly prizes will be randomly given to people who have earned badges. Grand prizes will be given to the winners in various categories, including: most trips saved, most miles saved and overall champion. The Grand Prize for the overall individual champion will be a $1,300 pair of powder skis provided by Ramp Sports.

New technology

Here are some of the features of the new technology implemented this year:

  • Social media integration: Sign up with your Facebook account and share Clear the Air Challenge posts to your Timeline.
  • Easier tracking and recording of saved trips:
    • Set up favorite trips – Trips you take often can be easily added to your tracker dashboard
    • Multiple day trip recording – Forgot to track each time you took the TRAX over the past week? Simply click on each of the days you made the same trip and record them all at once!
  • Trip Planner: Not sure how you might use alternative transportation to get somewhere rather than your car? Simply enter in your starting and ending locations, and you’ll receive carpool, vanpool, transit, walking and biking options to get to your destination. Use this feature all year round whether you are tracking trips or not!

 

Apr 4

City Council Accepts Mayor’s Hive Pass Challenge

Salt Lake City Council members on Thursday officially accepted a challenge from Mayor Ralph Becker to compete in a two-month competition to see which of the representatives could sell the most Hive Passes-the City’s new, resident transit pass.

The City’s seven Council members, and the residents in their districts, will vie to sell as many of the newly available resident transit passes as they can from April 3-June 1, with the winning district and Council member in line for bragging rights, the pride of making an impact on air quality issues and a fabulous prize package that includes tickets for Hive Pass holders in the winning district to an upcoming Salt Lake Bees game.

“Council Members are excited to help build the buzz about the Hive,” said Salt Lake City Council Chairman Charlie Luke. “The competition among Council Districts is a great way to remind people the eco-friendly mass transit pass is now available. Of course, the free Bees tickets for the winning District with the most sales doesn’t hurt the competitive spirit either.”

The new Hive Pass is a pilot program created through a partnership between Salt Lake City and UTA that is initially only be available to Salt Lake City residents. The one-year pass is good on all UTA TRAX, Frontrunner, bus and S-line Streetcar services and available for an up-front payment of $350 or for $360 in twelve monthly installments.

“We’ve already seen over 1,000 people in our community take advantage of this great new program,” said Mayor Becker. “We’re excited to see which district will ‘bring it’ and work to put a Hive Pass in every one of their neighbors’ pockets. I know we can count on our Council members to find very creative ways to get passes sold in their districts.”

For more information on the Hive Pass visit RidewithHive.com