The City of Roswell has earned the highest distinction by the Atlanta Regional Commission for its efforts to promote sustainable use of natural resources. The ARC has upgraded Roswell to "gold" status in the agency's four-year-old Green Communities Program . Roswell was one of seven metro Atlanta communities recognized on Wednesday, joining the City of Dunwoody have earned gold status. The communities are awarded points in the voluntary certification program that includes categories such as green building, energy efficiency, water use reduction and efficiency, green power, trees and greenspace, transportation, recycling and waste, land use and education. Gold communities score between 280-405 points. Silver communities score between 230 and 2879 points and they include the City of Atlanta and Cobb County. Bronze communities score between 175 and 229 points and they include DeKalb County, Douglas County and the City of Suwanee. The seven communities, which were all recertified by the ARC, have have had the following cumulative impact since 2009:

159 million kWh of green power produced

1062 additional acres of protected greenspace

30 community gardens cultivated

1,000,222 tons of household hazardous waste collected

$1,114,000 in energy savings

713 million gallons of water reused

"The seven local governments the Atlanta Regional Commission recognized today are working hard to use resources wisely and well, and I commend them for their achievements," ARC chairman Kerry Armstrong said in a statement.

"Their efforts are contributing to cleaner air, reduced water demand, less waste going into landfills and a reduction in energy use. As a result, we have a cleaner, greener region."

