Conserve Irvine: A Community Call to Action and Response

Friday, May 28, 2021

As part of the City of Irvine’s Earth Day efforts, the City unveiled the Conserve Irvine campaign, a multi-year endeavor to improve resilience and sustainability of the community.

The Conserve Irvine campaign focuses on the key pillars of environmental protection that residents and businesses can take action on -- waste reduction, energy, water conservation, and alternative transportation choices. Through events and additional resources that raise awareness, the campaign will also promote making environmentally friendly actions, like reducing plastic consumption, composting, and implementing drought tolerant landscaping, part of an everyday sustainable lifestyle.

The Irvine community promotes sustainability through numerous projects, events, and campaigns throughout the year. In honor of Earth Month, the City facilitated a month of sustainability-themed activities for the community in April. These included the rehabilitation of the Butterfly Garden at Adventure Playground, the Pick Up 50 litter cleanup event, and the 50th Anniversary Arbor Day Tree Planting. Finally, more than 700 student volunteers from Irvine’s Youth Action Team (YAT) completed 878 hours of environmentally-focused community service during the month of April.

“When the community in Irvine works together, we can have a great impact on the planet,” said Mayor Farrah N. Khan. “Fifty years ago, Irvine began as the model for master-planned communities. As we embark on our next 50 years, we want Irvine to be a world leader in conservation and environmental sustainability. The actions of our community members to date show that we are well on our way.”

Earth Month’s service events were complemented by a variety of YAT activities, and virtual Earth Day events for the community at-large, including a plant-based cooking seminar, Drive Electric Vehicle (EV) webinar, composting workshop and compost bin events, and a virtual Earth Day pledge highlighting the “Restore Our Earth” theme. During Earth Month, the City also recruited new members for the citizen-led Green Ribbon Environmental Committee, including two inaugural student seats.

City operations also contributed to several environmental initiatives during Earth Month, such as the installation of the City’s first battery storage system at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatic Center, completion of the EV Charging Stations at the Irvine Civic Center, and welcoming the City’s first fully electric vehicle to the City fleet — a Chevy Bolt.

The City of Irvine is committed to working with the community to ensure everyone does their part to implement small behavior changes that will have big impacts for the planet.

For more information on the City’s sustainability efforts, and to learn more about the Conserve Irvine campaign, please visit cityofirvine.org/conserveirvine.