Yesterday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors recognized the winners of its Fourth Annual Green Leadership Awards. Taking home this year’s Public Agency Green Leadership Award was the Long Beach Water Department, which received the award for its Lawn to Garden Program, covered here at the Post.

The Water Department created the Lawn to Garden Incentive Program two years ago. Since that time, nearly 600 landscape transformations have been completed throughout the city. The program provides financial incentives to customers who tear out their grass lawns and replace them with drought tolerant, environmentally friendly landscapes. Since roughly half of all residential water use occurs outdoors, the program aims to permanently reduce citywide water consumption by providing residents with an effective means to switch over to plants and landscapes that require less water and result in less energy use and urban runoff.

There are approximately 60,000 single-family homes in Long Beach, which means that even with 600 Lawn to Garden projects now complete, only 1 percent of Long Beach homes have gone through the program. The Water Department hopes to continue building on the program’s early success.

The Lawn to Garden Program remains open to new applicants. Funding for the program is made available by the Water Department and through a partnership with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Current applicants and other interested customers can find out more about the incentive program and drought tolerant landscaping in general, by clicking here.

The Water Department will also be holding its first annual citywide Lawn to Garden Tour on May 19th, from 10:00am to 2:00pm. The free, self-guided tour will feature 30 homes that have successfully gone through the program. To sign up for the tour, please click here.