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Coachella Valley Cities Overview
Coachella Valley Green (CVG) intends to keep valley residents up-to-date with all the Green and Sustainable efforts of each Coachella Valley City. Click on each city name for a link to the respective city and their current projects, incentives and policies.
CVG also intends to rank each city on a regular basis in regards to their green efforts. This will be our attempt to recognize and encourage each city's progress as well as point out which cities are leading the way for a sustainable future.
For Winter 2009 the Apples are awarded to:
Indio clearly began to make green a priority in 2009 by creating an impressive web page attached to their city page at: Green/Environmental Services as well as a quarterly newsletter Leap Into Green .
They have also begun to offer more rebate and recyling progams to their
residents and went the extra step by getting their largest city
sponsored event, The Indio International Tamale Festival, G-Rock Green
Certified with 100% zero waste. Congratulations Indio!
   Palm Desert ties with both Palm Springs and Indio when it comes to Green Efforts valley wide during the 2009. Bolstered mostly by past actions, their assembly bill “AB 811” is notable around the world as groundbreaking for city residents.
With the AB 811 program, home owners can receive 100% low interest loans for energy improvements that can be paid back over 20 years. Palm Desert is the only City in the CV currently using this program and is one of the first cities in California to implement the program. However, both the money originally allocated and a follow-up progam was utilized quickly and there are no funds presently available.
Besides AB 811, Palm Desert offers a number of rebate programs for city residents at www.settosave.com. Go to the website for details about the many energy saving programs offered by the City of Palm Desert. Palm Desert was also the first City in the Coachella Valley to receive a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver Certification for their Visitor's Center.
  Palm Springs: Palm Springs residents, along with Mayor Steve Pougnet, appear to be working very hard to turn Palm Springs into one of the CV’s most sustainable cities. In late summer the city took a major step forward by hiring Michele Mician as a Sustainability Manager. The Palm Springs Sustainability Council meets regularly and together they are all working towards making Palm Springs the sustainability capital of the United States. The city website, Your Sustainable City offers a number of rebate and informational programs available to residents.
La Quinta
holds the distinction of building Vista Dunes, the first LEED Platinum Low Income
Housing Projects in not only the valley, but the entire country. They are also implimenting a several programs for changing out landscaping to more water-efficient yards. Still, besides holding a couple of community "Energy Fairs" and the usual rebate programs, their efforts seemed to have hit a plateau.
 Rancho Mirage has gotten more visual about their sustainable efforts during the last year by offering a notable website at “Think Green” that promotes numerous environmental programs including General Conservation, Energy Conservation, Water Conservation, Air Quality, Wildlife and Environmental conservation. They also provide an admirable restaurant food recyling program with dozens of city restuarants involved along with a Sustainability Hotline at 760.324.2374. They do not however have a visual "sustainability manager" that shows a coordinated effort to work with other cities or other Coachella Valley Residents. We would like to encourage them to use some of their obvious resources to work with others within our desert.
Indian Wells is making an effort to green their city by offering an easy and informational website at "Go Green". They also offer their city residents a great rebate (that is in addition to all rebates offered by utilities) that they call IW H.E.A.L. that is a wonderful incentive to replace old tired worn out appliances and machinery in a home. Good for Indian Wells for taking steps to go green.
 Cathedral City
was the first city in the CV to implement a water-smart landscaping
grant program which provides matching funds of up to $500 per
household. Cathedral City has also installed photovoltaic panels that
double as a carport for its employees, which is estimated to have saved
taxpayers $60,000 a year in energy savings. In addition, their
website encourages recyling: Refuse & Recycling.
While they continue to offer basic tips and information, during 2009
they have not appeared to offer programs or additional information to
serve the residents of either Cathedral City or the Coachella Valley in
general.
Desert Hot Springs offers a recycling program but appears to have no other emphasis on green for its city or residents. We give them one apple for providing their residents with a website for questions about recycling or PM10.
Thousand Palms does not offer a city webpage and no news or information regarding their green efforts is available.
Coachella has a city website but does not offer any apparent programs for residents regarding sustainable practices.
Mecca does not offer a city webpage and no news or information regarding their green efforts is available.
Thermal does not offer a city webpage and no news or information regarding their green efforts is available.
(last update 5/18/09--If any reader knows of new information that should be added or reviewed--please let us know. Thanks!)
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