Community members are encouraged to cast their votes for Evanston in the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) 2016 “We Love Cities” campaign.
In tandem with the WWF’s Earth Hour City Challenge, the “We Love Cities” campaign allows people across the world to express support for sustainable urban development by voting for selected Earth Hour City Challenge finalist cities and posting improvement suggestions. Evanston has been selected as a finalist to represent the United States in the Earth Hour City Challenge, along with Burlington, Vt., Boulder, Colo. Last year, Evanston edged Cleveland and Seattle to become the U.S. Earth Hour City Capital.
Voting on the website is limited to once per person, per day, per city. However, community members are allowed to share multiple suggestions per day on WeLoveEvanston.org, along with #WeLoveEvanston submissions via Twitter and Instagram. All Twitter and Instagram profiles must be public in order for votes to count. The winning city will be announced on June 22.
This is the second consecutive year that Evanston has participated in the “We Love Cities” competition. Last year, Evanston had the second highest number of votes per capita, trailing only 2015 winner Balikpapan, Indonesia. Despite having one of the competition’s smallest populations, Evanston had the fourth largest vote total overall, eclipsing much larger cities, such as Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, and Vancouver.