SustainLane Media

SustainLane Media - the nation's leading online green media company - announced today that the City of Colorado Springs scored the most points in The Local Action Challenge (see www.sustainlane.com/hopenhagen for full details). The Local Action Challenge is a national contest that encourages people in cities across the U.S. to think global, act local, and do their part in saving energy while helping their home cities become more sustainable.

SustainLane created the Local Action Challenge in partnership with Hopenhagen (www.Hopenhagen.org), an international movement to drive action on climate change at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen occurring this week in Denmark. SustainLane has been reaching out on the local level to connect citizens with their hometown Mayor's wish lists of preferred green actions for their residents. The goal is to make Hopenhagen personal and local, and thus manageable for people, so people can feel a sense of participation and forward momentum. Colorado Springs residents posted the most actions over a three-month period to take first place in the friendly competition between the nation's 50 largest cities.

"I am tremendously impressed, though not surprised, by this honor, as I personally have met so many dedicated citizens," said Mayor Lionel Rivera. "Colorado Springs has made great environmental strides in recent years and momentum for this effort will no doubt strengthen and grow our community's interest in sustainability. Congratulations to the citizens who chose to participate in this challenge and preserve resources for future generations."

The Local Action Challenge gives local communities a unique opportunity to engage their citizens in on-the-ground action as part of the Hopenhagen movement. Leveraging its relationship with mayors and sustainability directors from the 50 most-populous U.S. cities - forged during its bi-annual U.S. City Rankings - SustainLane received from cities their top-ten lists of actions they'd like residents to take in order to combat climate change and care for the planet in their own communities.

"Cities need their residents to be part of the solution," said James Elsen, SustainLane Media CEO. "Colorado Springs' citizens answered that call, and are congratulated for finishing first in this challenge. As the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen gets underway this week, we will let them know that there are lots of people here at home in the US who are acting today on the local level to make changes to improve their quality of life while caring for our environment."

Residents who took their city’s challenge completed tasks on their city's wish list and uploaded photos of their actions, earning points for their city along the way. They were then entered into weekly drawings to win prizes donated by local green business sponsors. The City of Cleveland was the runner-up in the Local Action Challenge, while Atlanta took 3rd place.

About SustainLane.com
The largest user-generated web guide to healthy, sustainable living, SustainLane.com invites visitors to share their success stories, special insights and tested tips to drive debate and inform fellow consumers on the best ways to lead environmentally conscious lives. Published by SustainLane Media, SustainLane.com has a dedicated and growing following of like-minded users who turn to the website for community, advice, news, product reviews and the nation's largest local green living business directory, with 30K small business listings. SustainLane.com was founded in 2004 and is home to the Sustainable City Rankings, the most comprehensive and credible benchmarking of the state of sustainability in America, as well as the newly formed Green Jobs Board. SustainLane Media (www.SustainLaneMedia.com), parent of SustainLane.com, has the largest online distribution in the green space with 34M monthly unique users, and over 400M monthly pageviews, encompassing over 100 of the web's best publishers promoting healthy and sustainable lifestyles.

About Hopenhagen
Leaders from more than 180 nations will meet in December in Copenhagen to ratify a new international global climate treaty, which will take effect when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Hopenhagen will allow citizens to become active participants in the climate change dialogue and make their voices heard to world leaders and the conference delegates attending the meeting. The Hopenhagen website, Hopenhagen.org, will serve as the campaign hub to give citizens, governments, nonprofits and businesses the tools to rally support for a positive outcome at the COP15 Climate Change Conference. Hopenhagen will bring forward a positive message of hope for the outcome of the conference and inspire the citizens of the world to "Lead the Leaders" into reaching an agreement there. Hopenhagen has generated support from multinational corporations, world governments and global citizens everywhere.

SustainLaneMedia.com

SustainLaneMedia.com

SustainLane is an independent online media company that creates social media properties intended to inspire, entertain, educate, and build community in the green and healthy lifestyle space. Coming from a belief that all change starts with small steps, their work is committed to the support of healthy lives, strong local economies, and a restored planet. SustainLane has three key offerings: The industry-leading SustainLane Green Ad Network (www.sustainlanegreenadnetwork.com), the most robust user-generated website on green products and services (SustainLane.com), and the highly regarded U.S. City Sustainability Rankings. Founded in November 2004, SustainLane is a privately held company based in San Francisco, CA.

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