WOODLAND HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Anthem Blue Cross, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and LA City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield cut the ribbon on 12.7 acres of California friendly landscape, made possible by the LA DWP’s incentive program, at Anthem’s Woodland Hills campus.
“As California faces this massive drought, we all need to cut back our water use and be responsible members of our society,” said Jim Ardell, Anthem’s vice president for corporate real estate and chief procurement officer. “Thanks to the LADWP’s California Friendly Landscape Incentive Program, Anthem was able to replace nearly 10 football fields worth of grass with drought-friendly plants.”
The entire cost of the project, which took approximately 5 months, was offset by a rebate of $1.1 million from LADWP. Specifics of the project include:
- 12.7 Acres of lawn replaced, or 554,000 square feet
- More than 12 million gallons of water expected to be saved per year
- Ongoing savings of $85,000 per year, consisting of $65,000 in lower water fees and $20,000 in landscape maintenance savings.
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More than 8,500 plants planted to replace the grass, including:
- 178 Crape Myrtle Trees
- 88 Bottle Brush Trees
- 22 Tipu Trees
- 1,185 Caramel Creeper bushes
- 475 Sage Leaf Rockroses
- 275 Flax bushes
- 135 Tagete bushes
The new vegetation will use a drip irrigation system.
Anthem received a rebate of $2 per square foot of replaced turf. The per square foot rebate amount varies based on the size of the project.
On April 1, Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order that California reduce water usage by 25 percent statewide. Among the steps included in the executive order were replacing 50 million square feet of lawns with drought-tolerant landscaping.
About Anthem Blue Cross
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