The way in which we design our communities directly impacts public health. Conventional community design, with its wide streets and absence of sidewalks, contributes to increased vehicle use and vehicle miles traveled (VMT)even for short trips. In the past 20 years, VMT has almost doubled and continues to increase faster than our population growth. In 1991, air pollution from highway VMT was estimated to have caused between 20,000 and 40,000 cases of respiratory illness. Most susceptible to respiratory illness are children. There has been a 160% increase in asthma in children under five years of age in the past 15 years. It is the leading cause of hospitalization for chronic diseases and of school absenteeism.

Growth patterns also affect the quality of the water we drink. Development activity results in the conversion of undeveloped land to impervious surface. This process reduces natural fillters such as wetlands, ultimately contributing to increased volumes of pollutants such as pesticides, fertilizers, and heavy metals in stormwater runoff. The threat to human health occurs when such runnoff enters a water body and ultimately into the drinking water supply.

Most communities today were designed to accommodate the automobile and do not have many sidewalks to facilitate walking and biking. These development patterns has ultimately ultimate caused sedentary behavior because of the reliance on the automobile and cost the public valuable opportunities to be physically active through walking and bicycling to school, work or for errands. Even more alarming, current growth patterns are causing a rise in obesity in both adults and children. Today, nearly one is four Americans is obese and 60 percent of Americans are overweight. Over the last three decades, the percentage of overweight children has doubled.

Smart growth is an integrative solution that addresses these trends and promotes a healthier, vibrant community. It helps reduce health threats from exposure to pollution and indoor contaminants, improves pedestrian safety, and engages residents and workers in a more active, healthy lifestyle. By promoting compact, walkable neighborhoods with mixed uses, walking and bicycling become viable transportation options.

Resources

“Show You’re Green” Award Winning Projects

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Housing and Custom Residential Knowledge Community has selected eight “Show You’re Green” projects as examples of outstanding housing that is both affordable and green. The knowledge community invited Show You’re Green submissions from architects and developers around the nation.

This Is Smart Growth Showcases Development at its Best

Many people want to know what smart growth looks like. This Is Smart Growth, a publication from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and the Smart Growth Network, illustrates and explains smart growth concepts and outcomes. This full-color booklet describes how, when done well, development can help create more economic opportunities, build great places where people want to live and visit, preserve the qualities people love about their communities, and protect environmental resources.

1000 Friends of Florida Receives 2007 Best Practice Award for Manual on Health of State's Freshwater Springs

Explosive growth in the Sunshine State has come at an expensive price: diminished health of its freshwater springs. For its vital role in enhancing public understanding about spring damages and effective ways to reduce the problem, 1000 Friends of Florida is receiving one of two 2007 National Planning Excellence Awards for Best Practice from the American Planning Association (APA).

1000 Friends of Wisconsin ''Ten of the Best'' Awards

As part of its 10th year celebration, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin is recognizing ''10 of the Best'' individuals, organizations, companies, and efforts to promote better communities through land use and transportation ideas, policies, projects, and investments.

20 Actions Governors Can Take

The National Governors Association's (NGA) Health and Dignity Task Force provides this issue brief on ways to improve long-term health care issues in America.

2003 Phoenix Awards

The 2003 Phoenix Awards for Excellence in Brownfield Redevelopment will be one of the highlights of the National Brownfields Conference, Brownfields 2003, in Portland, Oregon on October 27-29, 2003.

2004 American Community Survey

Smart Growth America and the National Association of Realtors® prepared this survey in October 2004 on Americans’ preferences for the type of communities they want to live in and the policies they support for creating those communities. The preferences and other opinions expressed in the survey suggest a direction for solving the conflicting pressures of the desire to develop and the wish to preserve communities.

2005 AFT Steward of the Land Award -- Profile

The American Farmland Trust (AFT) profiles Steve Sinton and his 18,000-acre California ranch in their Steward of the Land awards. Sinton, who received the AFT's 2005 Steward of the Land award, has dedicated much of his time to developing conservation strategies for his land and other California ranches.

2005 APA Planning Awards

The American Planning Association (APA) has announced the winners of its 2005 National Planning Awards. These awards honor the cutting-edge achievements of the planning profession and those involved in creating communities of lasting value.

2005 Golden Shoe Award

The Center for Quality Growth & Regional Development at Georgia Tech (CQGRD) and Emory University won a Golden Shoe Award from Pedestrians Educating Drivers on Safety (PEDS) for creating an ongoing venue for multi-disciplinary discussions and research on the relationship between health and the built environment through the Healthy Places Research Group.

2005 International Awards for Livable Communities

The International Awards for Liveable Communities is the world’s only Competition for local communities that focuses on environmental management and the creation of liveable communities.

2005 Rudy Bruner Awards for Urban Excellence

Excellence exists in every city. It can be found in downtowns, neighborhoods, and parks. The Rudy Bruner Award searches for urban places that embody excellence, and celebrates their contribution to the richness and diversity of the urban experience.

2005 ULI Awards of Excellence -- Americas

Eleven outstanding developments from the Americas have been selected as winners for the 2005 Urban Land Institute's first ever (ULI) Awards for Excellence: The Americas competition.

2006 AFT Steward of the Land Award -- Profile

American Farmland Trust (AFT) honored Tom Hutson, a dairy farmer from DeLancey, NY, with the tenth annual Steward of the Land Award on June 8, 2006. Hutson received a check for $10,000 at a presentation on the steps of city hall.

2006 Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants

The Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants Program provides grants to organizations working on a local level to protect and improve watersheds in the Chesapeake Bay basin, while building citizen-based resource stewardship.

2006 Green Roof Award of Excellence -- Civic

The Civic Award of Excellence will be presented to a person (in North America) who through a substantiated action has advanced the public policy debate on green roofs. The 2006 contest has been extended to accept nominations until March 15th, 2006 (midnight EST).

2006 Massachusetts Smart Growth Conference Proceedings

Conference proceedings and presentations from the 2006 Massachusetts Smart Growth Conference are now available online at the conference website. More than 750 people from the private, public, and non-profit sectors attended this event, co-hosted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Planning Association.

2006 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement

On November 15, 2006, EPA announced five winners of the 2006 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. This award recognizes outstanding achievement in smart growth by tribal, state, local, or regional governments in five categories: Overall Excellence, Built Projects, Policies and Regulations, Small Communities, and Equitable Development.

2006 National Land Conservation Awards

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) and the National Association of Counties (NACo) have named six counties in the 2006 County Leadership in Conservation Awards, recognize leadership, innovation, and excellence on local land conservation and park creation initiatives by county leaders across America.

2006 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference -- Audio Recordings

Audio compact discs from the 2006 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference are available for purchase. The fifth annual conference drew more than 1,200 attendees and offered dozens of seminars, symposia, workshops, and other events.

2006 Vision Long Island Smart Growth Awardees

Vision Long Island hosted more than 375 leaders, experts and advocates at the 5th Annual Smart Growth Awards on June 16, 2006. The event put a spotlight on the cutting edge people, projects and policies that are shaping the future of Long Island’s landscape. Categories were based on Vision Long Island's “Principles of Smart Growth,” and included awards for green development and regional leadership.

2006 Vision Long Island Smart Growth Awards Nominations

Vision Long Island is seeking nominations for its fourth annual Smart Growth Awards. This special event will honor individuals and organizations taking leadership in advancing Smart Growth projects, policies, regulations and initiatives. Deadline for submission is February 28, 2006.

2007 Award for Smart Growth Excellence -- New York State

The New York State Association of REALTORS Award for Smart Growth Excellence was created to recognize the successful efforts of New York's communities to incorporate the principles of smart growth into their projects, policies and programs. Its purpose is to promote the continued advancement of smart growth in the state, in accordance with the principles adopted by REALTORS.

2007 Farm Policy Reform: Creating Healthy Farms, Healthy Food and a Healthy World

2007 Farm Policy Reform: Creating Healthy Farms, Healthy Food and a Healthy World outlines the American Farmland Trust's ambitious and comprehensive campaign to strengthen American agriculture and expand the public benefits of U.S. farm policy.

2007 National Planning Awards -- Call for Entries

Good planning helps create communities of lasting value. Creating such communities takes effort, vision, and dedication.

2007 Planning Award for Regional Bicycle Plan

Changing people's minds about the practicality and convenience of using a bicycle instead of car to drive to work, complete an errand, or go on a nearby outing is neither simple nor easy. Yet, the idea of using a bicycle to get around town is not only gaining popularity in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but also national attention.

2007 Vision Long Island Smart Growth Awardees

Vision Long Island honored a dozen individuals and organizations in their 2007 Smart Growth Awards ceremony, held on June 15, 2007, at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury, New York.

2007 Walk to School Survey Findings

The 2007 Walk to School Survey Findings report provides a brief background on Walk to School events in the U.S.; summarizes findings from the 2007 Walk to School Organizer survey; proposes implications of the findings; and recommends actions that would likely strengthen the conduct of future events and increase capacity and demand for SRTS programs.

2008 AFT Steward of the Land Award -- Profile

American Farmland Trust is proud to recognize Nash Huber of Nash's Organic Produce as our 2008 Steward of the Land. The award recognizes Huber for his leadership in protecting agricultural land, local food and the environment.

2008 Annual Green Innovation Awards

The Virginia Sustainable Building Network (VSBN) announced the fourth annual Virginia Green Innovation Awards at its Annual Meeting on June 25, 2008. Each year, VSBN members are asked to nominate Green businesses, organizations, design firms, and community programs that represent ''the best Green projects or programs in Virginia.''

2008 Awards for Excellence -- Europe

Five outstanding developments have been selected as winners of the Urban Land Institute's (ULI) 2008 Awards for Excellence: Europe competition. The Awards for Excellence competition is widely recognized as the land use industry's most prestigious recognition program.

2008 Benchmarking Sustainability Awards

Green Building Pages has announced winners of its 2008 Benchmarking Sustainability Awards. This competition recognizes product manufacturers for achievements in minimizing their global environmental impacts in order to create a sustainable building industry and world.

2008 Comprehensive Planning Grants -- Wisconsin

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle has announced comprehensive planning grants for 149 local governments throughout Wisconsin, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin reports. This funding will help communities develop and adopt locally created plans to address long-term needs, promote economic development, and guide future land use decisions.

2008 Evergreen Cities Act -- Washington State

The 2008 Evergreen Cities Act (Washington State, HB 2844) was signed into law by Governor Christine Gregoire on April 1, 2008. This landmark legislation represents a commitment by the State of Washington to improving its urban forests.

2008 Green Fund Grant Recipients -- Berkeley

The University of California-Berkeley sponsors the Green Fund Cal sustainability projects, which are funded by the Chancellor's Green Campus Fund.

2008 Pedestrian and Biking Professionals Awards

The Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) announced the 2008 winners of its annual awards program to honor excellence in the profession. APBP made three awards at its 2008 Pro Walk/Pro Bike conference in Seattle: The Lifetime Achievement Award, the Public Sector Professional-of-the-Year, and the Private Sector Professional-of-the-Year.

2008 Sustainability Award Winners -- Berkeley

The Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Sustainability (CACS) at the University of California-Berkeley presents the annual Sustainability Award to outstanding members of the Cal Community. Winners of the 2008 competition are featured on the CACS website.

2008 UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development Speaker Series

Ecofoot, the official website of the Office of Campus Sustainability at Michigan State University, provides a listing for its 2008 UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development Speaker Series. Participating in the Fall 2008 speaker lineup are Ritu Primlani, Richard Louv, and Tom Princen.

2009 Livable Communities Award

The Coalition for Smarter Growth will present its Sixth Annual Livable Communities Leadership Award to Congressman Gerry Connolly at an awards ceremony on February 25, 2009.

2009 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement Winners

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson presented the 2009 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement on December 1 at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Through the awards, four communities were recognized for their comprehensive approach to improving access to affordable housing, providing more transportation options and protecting the local environment for residents.

The four recipients of the 2009 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement are:

Overall Excellence: Lancaster County Planning Commission for Envision Lancaster County. Lancaster County, in south-central Pennsylvania, is known for its historic towns and villages, and its fertile farmland. To maintain the county’s character, its diverse economy, and its natural resources for future generations, the Lancaster County Planning Commission established a countywide comprehensive growth management plan, which protects valuable farmland and historic landscapes by directing development to established towns and cities in the county.

Policies and Regulations: City of Charlotte for Urban Street Design Guidelines. As the central city in a rapidly growing metropolitan area, Charlotte, N.C., is under intense development pressures. Rather than continue the automobile-dominated development patterns of the last 50 years, Charlotte adopted Urban Street Design Guidelines to make walking, bicycling, and transit more appealing and to make the city more attractive and sustainable.

Built Projects: Chicago Housing Authority, FitzGerald Associates Architects and Holsten Real Estate Development Corporation for Parkside of Old Town. Parkside of Old Town sits on eight city blocks that were once home to a public housing complex notorious for criminal activity. The redevelopment has transformed the neighborhood by reconnecting it to downtown Chicago and tying together mixed-income housing, parks, and new shops and restaurants.

Smart Growth and Green Building: City of Tempe, Ariz. for the Tempe Transportation Center. The Tempe Transportation Center is a model for sustainable design, a vibrant, mixed-use regional transportation hub that incorporates innovative and green building elements tailored to the Southwest desert environment. The Tempe Transportation Center is a true multi-modal facility that integrates a light rail stop, the main city bus station, and paths for bicyclists and pedestrians.

2009 New Partners for Smart Growth Session Proposals

The Local Government Commission (LGC) is conducting a ''Call for Session Proposals'' (CFSP) for the 2009 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference program. This process will be open from May 19 through June 25, 2008. The submittal review process will take place from early-July through late-August 2008.

2009 Smart Growth Design & Reuse Competition

The Valley Development Council, in collaboration with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, invites you to participate in the 2009 Smart Growth Design & Reuse Competition.

Architects, designers, landscape architects, planners and students are invited to prepare concept plans for the redevelopment of three strategic sites in the Pioneer Valley, a region of Western Massachusetts defined by the Connecticut River Valley. These sites are located in Southampton, Palmer and Hadley.

The goal for this international design competition is to create a local example of sustainable development and redevelopment, and to provide a model of how communities in the region can grow smarter. With the partnerships formed through this competition process, there will be significant momentum for turning the winning concept plan idea into reality.

Deadline for submissions is January 15, 2010.

2009 Smart Growth Vermont Awards

Smart Growth Vermont announces its 2009 Smart Growth Awards and Art Gibb Award Ceremony. This awards program honors projects, initiatives, and plans anywhere in the state of Vermont that demonstrate smart growth principles in action.

2009 Sustainability Awards

The Fraser Basin Council of British Columbia congratulates recipients of its 2009 Sustainability Awards.

2009 Sustainable Vision Grants from NCIIA

Through its Sustainable Vision Grants program, the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) funds transformational education programs where breakthrough technologies are created and commercialized for the benefit of people living in poverty in the U.S. and abroad.

2010 Healthy Communities - Region 1

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 1, requests proposals for the Healthy Communities Grant Program. This program support projects that work directly with communities to reduce environmental risks and protect and improve human health and the quality of life. Priority areas include: Asthma; Capacity Building on Environmental and Public Health Issues; Healthy Indoor/Outdoor Environments; Healthy Schools; and Urban Natural Resources.

Some $300K is expected to be available, with up to 20 awards anticipated.

Responses are due April 5, 2010. Projects must take place in CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, or VT.

2010 IAHH International Student Design Competition

The International Association for Humane Habitat (IAHH) has announced its eighth International Student Design Competition, which is based on the theme of “Affordable Housing in Sustainable Humane Habitats.” The competition is open to students of architecture, housing, planning, urban design, landscape architecture and related disciplines of anthropology, sociology, engineering, economics, geography, social work etc. However, the design team must be led by a student of architecture. The student participants are required to identify a site in a city of their own choice anywhere in the world for planning and designing affordable housing in sustainable humane habitat project.

The site for the project shall be about 5-10 ha, which will be a brownfield site located in an urban area that is presently neglected. The site may have dilapidated housing stock. The project shall aim at providing affordable housing to about 1,000 families belonging to various income and social groups. A high priority shall be given to provide housing for the urban poor and low-income families. The project shall aim at sustainable urban renewal of the area with a mixed land-use strategy.

Final submissions are due: January 25, 2010.

2010 MetLife Foundation Community-Police Partnership Awards Program

MetLife Foundation and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) are partnering for the ninth year to recognize, sustain and share the work of innovative partnerships between community groups and police to promote neighborhood safety and revitalization.

Preliminary Application Deadline: February 26, 2010

Awardees will receive monetary grants ranging from $15,000 to $25,000.

Case studies about award-winning partnerships will be disseminated throughout the community development and law enforcement industries.

Cash grants will be awarded in the following two categories:

Neighborhood Revitalization Awards (Six at $15,000-25,000): These awards celebrate exemplary collaboration between community groups and police that yields crime reduction as well as economic development outcomes, such as real estate development, business attraction and job growth.

Special Strategy Awards (Five at $15,000): Community and police partners who have achieved significant accomplishments in one of the following areas will receive awards:

• Applied technology
• The Aesthetics and Greenspace Improvement
• Diversity Inclusion & Integration
• Drug Market Disruption
• Gang Prevention & Youth Safety
• Seniors & Safety

2010 Metropolis Next Generation Design Competition

Metropolis's 2010 Next Generation Design Competition is now accepting entries based on the theme is One Design Fix for the Future. The competition is looking for one small (but utterly brilliant!) design fix that can be made now, and that will have a lasting postive impact on the designed environment. The competition is open to all designers and architects in practice ten years or less (including design students), and the winner will receive $10,000 to help make his or her idea a reality.

Deadline: January 29, 2010.

2010 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now accepting applications for the 2010 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement. This competition is open to public- and private-sector entities that have successfully used smart growth principles to improve communities environmentally, socially, and economically.

The application period is open from February 8, 2010 to April 5, 2010.

Up to five awards will be given in the following categories:

• Programs, Policies, and Regulations
• Smart Growth and Green Building
• Civic Places
• Rural Smart Growth
• Overall excellence

2010 New Partners for Smart Growth: Building Safe, Healthy and Livable Communities

February 4-6, 2010 – Seattle, WA

The 9th Annual 2010 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference in Seattle, Washington, boasted record-breaking attendance. Some 1,600 people from across the country gathered for three days of presentations, discussions, and information sharing. For more information about the conference, see www.newpartners.org.

The conference was produced by the Local Government Commission (LGC), with support form a very impressive and multi-disciplinary group of partners and sponsoring organizations, agencies, and companies. Without their collective support, this dynamic event would not have been possible. For a complete list of sponsors and cosponsors, see

The conference was produced by the Local Government Commission (LGC), with support form a very impressive and multi-disciplinary group of partners and sponsoring organizations, agencies, and companies. Without their collective support, this dynamic event would not have been possible. For a complete list of sponsors and cosponsors, visit the conference website.

PDF files of available PowerPoint presentations are now available on the conference program page at the link below. These files are available for FREE download.

Please note: some presentation files are large and may take time to download.

2010 Opportunity to Register and Other Important Information for Electronic Application Submission for the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program

On February 10, 2010, HUD published an Advance Notice (75 FR 6689) announcing its intent to offer funding through competitive NOFA under its Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program. Through the Advance Notice, HUD sought input from state and local governments, regional bodies, community development entities, and a broad range of other stakeholders on how the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program should be structured in order to have the most meaningful impact on regional planning for sustainable development.

HUD is publishing this new Notice to inform potential applicants of the multi-week time frame for the registration requirements that must be met before an application can be submitted, as well as the application procedures to follow once the NOFA itself is published.

HUD is using this notice to request entities interested in applying for the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program to notify HUD of their intent to submit an application. Providing HUD with this information will allow HUD to properly access the workload anticipated during the review process and plan accordingly to ensure timely decision-making.

If your organization is interested in applying for the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program, please call the HUD NOFA Information Center as soon as possible at 1-800-HUD-8929. The NOFA Information Center will ask for your organization name and address, contact name, email, and telephone number, including area code. Notification of intent to apply is not a requirement for application. If you are an eligible applicant, you may still apply – notification merely helps HUD determine staffing requirements for review and evaluation of applicants.

The full Notice is available at the link below.

2010 U.S. Forest Service National Urban and Community Forestry Challenge Cost-Share Grant

The U.S. Forest Service recently issued a Request for Proposals for the 2010 National Urban and Community Forestry Challenge Cost-Share Grant Program. There is approximately $900,000 available for projects within four issue areas:

• Energy conservation and urban forests
• Climate change and urban forests
• Public health and urban forests
• Green infrastructure assessments

A copy of the grant package is available on the Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry website at the link below.

Pre-Proposals must be posted to www.grants.gov or Courier hard copies received by 11:59 PM Eastern, December 15, 2009. Innovation proposals selected for full proposals will be (tentatively) due by 11:59 PM Eastern, March 17, 2010. The U.S. Forest Service will award the successful projects as Federal Financial Assistance grants no later than September 30, 2010.

21st Century Land Development Code

In 21st Century Land Development Code from APA Planners Press, two of the nation's leading experts in land-use law and planning provide a comprehensive guide to drafting and updating land-use regulations.

30 Great Places in America

The American Planning Association (APA) has announced its 2008 list of Great Neighborhoods, Great Streets, and Great Public Spaces -- in 21 states and the District of Columbia -- that offer better choices for where and how people work and live.

50 Greenest Cities in the United States

The March 2008 issue of Popular Science Magazine has ranked America's 50 Greenest Cities. Popular Science used raw data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Geographic Society's Green Guide, which collected survey data and government statistics for American cities over 100,000 people in more than 30 categories, including air quality, electricity use, and transportation habits.

A Better Future from Farms

American Farmland Trust is launching two new initiatives to harness the potential of our nation's farms and ranches at this pivotal time in history: the Agriculture & Environment campaign and the Growing Local campaign.

A Blueprint for Action: Developing a Livable Community for All Ages

A Blueprint for Action was created to provide local leaders with tools to build the collaborations needed to create livable communities for people of all ages. The guide can be used as a quick-reference kit for practitioners looking for tools, resources, and best practices. It includes information based on community experiences in building local leadership and offers tools to prepare for the needs of a maturing America, drawing on the most innovative and effective practices of communities throughout the country.

A Citizen’s Guide to Participating in Florida’s Growth Management Process

1000 Friends of Florida have produced A Citizen’s Guide to Participating in Florida’s Growth Management Process, a handbook that provides a brief overview of the Florida's Growth Management Act, and then focuses on how citizens can become effective advocates for better planning in their communities.

A Global Urban Agenda: Highlights from the 2005 World Cities Forum

A Global Urban Agenda from the Urban Land Institute highlights issues discussed at ULI’s World Cities Forum in June 2005.

A Guide for Collaborative Action

This report examines how community development organizations often overlook the importance of involving youth and delinquency prevention in their programs.

A Guide to Aging in Place

The National Aging in Place Council (NAICP) has create an online Guide to Aging in Place. This resource, indexed by topic, provides detailed information about things to consider if you want to remain living independently in your own home throughout retirement.

A Guide to Setting Up Your Own Edible Rooftop Garden

The Alternatives and the Rooftop Garden Project are publishers of Guide to Setting Up Your Own Edible Rooftop Garden, a guidebook that provides a top-to-bottom outline of creating and maintaining rooftop gardens.

A Guide to Smart Growth and Cultural Resource Planning

A Guide to Smart Growth and Cultural Resource Planning, prepared by the Wisconsin Historical Society's Division of Historic Preservation, is now available.

A Nation in Transition: What the Urban Age Means for the United States

In an address to a gathering of the Urban Age in New York City on May 4, 2007, Bruce Katz argues that contrary to popular opinion, the United States exemplifies the world's drive towards urbanization, and that to remain prosperous, the U.S. must recognize the central lesson of the Urban Age: that the ability of the U.S., or any nation, to compete globally and meet the great environmental and social challenges of our time rests largely on the health and vitality of major cities and metropolitan areas.

A New Path Forward: Action Plan for a Sustainable Washington
Achieving Long-Term Economic, Social, and Environmental Vitality

From the Executive Summary:
Governor Gary Locke convened the Sustainable Washington Advisory Panel in September 2002 because of the widening gap between our state’s current reality and a Washington that is equitable, healthy, and prospering. The Panel concluded that it is imperative to initiate significant changes now if we want Washington’s quality of life to improve, not diminish, over the next generation.

A Plan for Tomorrow: Creating Stronger, Healthier Communities

A Plan for Tomorrow: Re-Thinking Density to Create Stronger, Healthier Communities is a free PowerPoint presentation jointly prepared by the Urban Land Institute, the National Multi-Housing Council, and the Sierra Club, that shows how density can transform neighborhoods, and offers compelling research to allay conventional fears about density.

A Primer on Active Living for Government Officials

This primer on active living is an introduction for government officials on the health and economic benefits of active living, and explores ideas on how state and local officials can promote active living within their communities.

A Residents' Guide to Creating Safe and Walkable Communities

People need walkable communities where sidewalks, trails, and street crossings are safe, accessible, and comfortable for people of all ability levels. A Residents' Guide to Creating Safe and Walkable Communities from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, provides examples from communities that are working to improve pedestrian safety. It includes information, ideas, and resources to help residents learn about issues that affect walking conditions; find ways to address or prevent these problems; and promote pedestrian safety.

A Smart Growth Reader

A Smart Growth Reader, prepared by the American Planning Association (APA), is designed as an aid to understanding the various elements that make up Smart Growth. This on-line publication draws on articles that have appeared in APA publications over the past two years, and is intended as a rich compendium of perspectives on the smart growth.

A Strategy for Saving Rhode Island from Sprawl and Urban Decay

This briefing book from Grow Smart Rhode Island provides background information about issues that are critical for the state’s healthy economic and physical development, quality of life, and social well-being.

A Toolkit for Tomorrow’s Schools

This analysis examines how schools and development can be planned together using common population projections, facility budgeting, comprehensive plans, and even common review staff.

AASHE Sustainability Leadership Awards -- 2007

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) presented its annual Campus Sustainability Leadership Awards at the 7th biennial Greening of the Campus Conference, ''Partnering for Sustainability: Enabling a Diverse Future,'' held September 6-8, 2007, at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.

Access to Safe Parks Helps Increase Physical Activity Among Teenagers

Access to Safe Parks is a brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research that presents policy recommendations aimed at improving neighborhood environments and access to parks to encourage physical activity by California adolescents.

Achieving Equity and Inclusion in America

PolicyLink has developed Achieving Equity and Inclusion in America: Policy Principles for the Obama Administration and New Congress, a framework of principles that can guide federal decision-making to maximize the return on national investment for all Americans, especially low-income people and communities of color. These principles reflect the knowledge and experience PolicyLink has developed through its decade-long partnership with local leaders working to foster economic and social inclusion in communities across America.

Achieving Smart Growth in New Hampshire

The New Hampshire Office of Energy and Planning (OEP) has produced a report and website, Achieving Smart Growth in New Hampshire. This project documents how New Hampshire is changing and highlights some positive examples of development and conservation throughout the state.

Across Local Borders

This 45-page report documents some of the conditions under which local governments have found regional coordination of brownfields redevelopment to be strategic, the different forms of regional coordination that are taking place, and case study examples describing why and how communities are meeting brownfields challenges through regional approaches.

Active Community Environments (ACEs)

This Center for Disease Control program promotes walking, bicycling, and the development of accessible recreation facilities. The website contains a number of working papers and data analyses designed to better understand how the natural, built, and social environment influences physical activity.

Active Design Guidelines

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, architects and urban reformers helped to defeat infectious diseases, such as cholera and tuberculosis, by improving design of buildings, streets, neighborhoods, clean water systems and parks. In the 21st century, designers can again play a crucial role in combating the most rapidly growing public health epidemics of our time: obesity and its impact on related chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. Today, physical inactivity and unhealthy diet are second only to tobacco use as the main causes of premature death in the United States. A growing body of research suggests that evidence-based architectural and urban design strategies can increase regular physical activity and healthy eating.

The Active Design Guidelines provides architects and urban designers with a manual of strategies for creating healthier buildings, streets and urban spaces, based on the latest academic research and best practices in the field. A growing body of research suggests that evidence-based architectural and urban design strategies can increase regular physical activity and healthy eating.

The Guidelines includes:

• Urban design strategies for creating neighborhoods, streets and outdoor spaces that encourage walking, bicycling and active transportation and recreation.
• Building design strategies for promoting active living where we work, live and play—for example, through the placement and design of stairs, elevators and indoor and outdoor spaces.
• Discussion of synergies between active design and sustainable design initiatives such as LEED and PlaNYC.

The Active Design Guidelines was developed through a partnership of the New York City departments of Design and Construction, Health and Mental Hygiene, Transportation, City Planning and the Office of Management and Budget, working with leading architectural and planning academics, and with assistance from the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter. Other City agencies that contributed to the Guidelines include the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, Department of Buildings, Department of Parks and Recreation, School Construction Authority, Housing Preservation and Development and the Department for the Aging.

Active Living and Social Equity

Active Living and Social Equity describes how local managers, department heads and local government staff can design healthy communities for all residents, regardless of income, race or ethnicity, age, ability or gender.

Active Living Approaches by Local Government

Active living -- the integration of physical activity into daily routines -- is one innovative approach to making communities healthier. This survey by the National Association of Counties and the International City/County Management Association seeks to understand how local government leaders view their role in enabling active living in communities.

Active Living by Design Issues Call for Proposals Aimed at Helping Americans Become More Physically Active

Active Living by Design plans to award grants of up to $200,000 each to 25 community partnerships across the country. These partnerships will develop and implement strategies that will make it easier for people to enjoy routine physical activity as part of their daily lives.

Active Living Funding Sources

The Active Living Resource Center (ALRC) Web site provides resources and tools to help you make walking and bicycling part of your community's healthy lifestyle. The funding section of the Web site is designed to help answer all of your funding needs.

Active Living Minnesota

The Active Living Minnesota funding program supports interdisciplinary partnerships to plan for and implement a comprehensive approach to encourage active living among community residents, with a focus on environmental and policy change efforts.

Active Living Research

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced a New Connections funding opportunity the Active Living Research program. The Foundation's New Connections program is designed to expand the diversity of perspectives that inform RWJF programming and introduce new researchers and scholars to the Foundation, while simultaneously helping to analyze data that measures progress towards programming objectives.

Active Living Research -- Call for Abstracts 2006

Active Living Research has issued a Call for Abstracts for their Third Annual Conference, to be held in Coronado, California, February 16-18, 2006.

Active Living Research -- Call for Proposals

Active Living Research (formerly Active Living Policy and Environmental Studies) is a $12.5-million national program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), created to stimulate and support research that will identify environmental factors and policies that influence physical activity. Findings are expected to inform environmental and policy changes that will promote active living among Americans.

Active Living Research -- Call for Proposals (Round 8)

Active Living Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has issued a call for full proposals for research topic grants and full proposals for dissertation grants in Round 8 of their program.

Active Living Research -- Childhood Obesity

Active Living Research is a $12.5-million national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that stimulates and supports research to identify environmental factors and policies that influence physical activity. Childhood obesity is one topic that Active Living Research has pursued, and to this end issued a call for proposals is to increase our understanding of how environments and policies affect children's physical activity in community and school settings.

Active Living Research -- Round 5 -- RWJ Foundation

Round 5 of the Active Living Research Program is underway for funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Active Living Research program focuses on relationships among characteristics of natural and built environments, public and private policies, and personal levels of physical activity. Application deadline for Round 5 submissions is May 25, 2005.

Active Living Research 2009 -- Childhood Obesity

Active Living Research supports research to inform policy and environmental strategies for increasing physical activity among children and adolescents, decreasing their sedentary behaviors and preventing obesity. A special emphasis is placed on research focused on racial/ethnic populations and children living in low-income communities who are at highest risk for obesity. Findings will advance RWJF's efforts to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015.

Active Living Research PowerPoint Presentations

PowerPoint presentations from the 3rd Annual Active Living Research Conference, held in Coronado, California on February 16-18, 2006 are now available online.

Conference sessions included oral presentations and posters selected though a competitive call for abstracts and presentations on cutting-edge issues by experts.

Active Living Research is an Active Living Program supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and administered by San Diego State University. Read more at the resource link below.

Active Living Research Rapid-Response Round 3 Grants

Active Living Research (ALR) is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that supports research to inform policy and environmental strategies for increasing physical activity among children and adolescents, decreasing their sedentary behaviors and preventing obesity. The program places special emphasis on reaching children and youths ages 3 to 18 who are at highest risk for obesity: Black, Latino, American Indian and Asian/Pacific Islander children, as well as children who live in under-resourced and lower-income communities.

The Rapid-Response Round 3 call for proposals will support opportunistic, time-sensitive studies on emerging or anticipated changes in physical activity-related policies or environments. Rapid-response grants are expected to accelerate progress toward policy and environmental strategies to prevent and reduce childhood obesity. For maximum impact, studies should be completed in as short a time frame as realistically possible, and results disseminated using methods designed to reach local, state or national decision-makers in time to help inform key policy decisions. Detailed results of these studies, including methodologies and data analyses, along with the outcome of the efforts to reach policy audiences, also should be subsequently reported in peer-reviewed publications.

A total of up to $1.5 million will be awarded under this CFP. The maximum award for a single grant is $150,000, with a maximum funding period of 18 months.

Application Deadline: Letters of Intent can be submitted at any time until July 1, 2011.

More details on how to apply are available at the link below.

Active Living Resource Center Experts Directory

The Active Living Resource Center website provide answers and resources to help you make walking and bicycling part of your community's healthier lifestyle.

Active Living Resource Center Library

The Active Living Resource Center (ALRC) is an online resource designed to help citizens take charge in their neighborhoods and make them more physically active by making them more bicycle and pedestrian friendly. The ALRC Library provides dozens of resources that support this goal.

Active Living Storybank Database

The Active Living Network -- a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation -- has recently launched its new Storybank database, archiving more than 100 searchable projects, programs and initiatives around the country promoting health through changes in the built environment, public policy and education.

Active Neighborhood Checklist

Active Living Research grantees have developed an objective and practical checklist to help residents, community groups, local government officials and advocacy organizations determine whether their neighborhoods are activity friendly. The checklist rates communities on land use, presence of public recreational facilities, availability of public transportation and quality of the environment.

Active School Neighborhood Checklist

Today, nearly one in every three (or more than 23 million) children in the U.S. are overweight or obese and physical inactivity contributes to this high prevalence of overweight. In the late 1990s, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared an 'epidemic' of obesity and diabetes. Much of the epidemic has been caused by an ever-decreasing amount of physical activity in the lives of our children due, in part, to how our communities are built. Since then, many highly respected medical and health organizations have made similar declarations and policy statements, and have launched campaigns to reverse the epidemic.

The aim of the Active School Neighborhood Checklist (ASNC) is to provide decision makers with a quantitative tool for evaluating the potential long-term health impacts of candidate school sites on the children who will attend them. The logic of ASNC is based on existing research that the built environment can have an effect on either encouraging or preventing people of all ages from walking and bicycling safely to various destinations.

Active Transportation for America: A Case for Increased Federal Investment in Bicycling and Walking

Active Transportation for America from the Rails to Trails Conservancy makes the case and quantifies the national benefits -- for the first time -- that increased federal funding in bicycling and walking infrastructure would provide tens of billions of dollars in benefits to all Americans.

Affordable Housing Built Responsibly Grants

Through the Affordable Housing Built Responsibly grant program, The Home Depot Foundation administers millions of dollars in grants each year to nonprofit organizations whose missions align with the Foundation's interests in supporting the production and preservation of affordable, efficient and healthy housing.

The Home Depot Foundation makes grants to 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charities in the United States and to charitable organizations in Canada. Support is given to programs and projects that align with the Foundation's mission and grant criteria.

To better support its mission, The Home Depot Foundation awards most of its grants by directly soliciting proposals from high-performing nonprofit organizations with the demonstrated ability to create strong partnerships, impact multiple communities and leverage grant resources. In order to identify potential future nonprofit partners or respond to unique community revitalization opportunities, a limited amount of unsolicited grant funding is set aside to be awarded through a competitive process.

UPDATE: Community Tree Grants
The Home Depot Foundation has combined its community trees grant program with its Affordable Housing Built Responsibly grant program. The Foundation remains firmly committed to supporting the planting of trees and the development of greenspace in order to provide communities with the many economic, social and environmental benefits of the urban forest. This change in programming structure reflects the foundation’s understanding that it is more effective to support the creation of healthy and sustainable communities through the integration of our focus areas.

Preference is given to proposals that include community engagement that result in the production, preservation, or financing of housing units for low- to moderate-income families. The most promising proposals incorporate a number of “green” building design practices. Also, proposals that clearly demonstrate how tree strategies integrated with affordable housing production/preservation create healthier, more vibrant communities will have a distinct advantage.

For this grant cycle, letters of inquiry are due July 1, 2010. Full project proposals are due September 15, 2010.

After Katrina: New Solutions for Safe Communities and a Secure Energy Future

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) offers this report on how Hurricane Katrina exposed deficiencies in past and current planning practices and energy choices, and provides alternatives to both that may help communities maintain a level of safety in the face of future disasters.

Age Friendly Manitoba Initiative

The Canadian Province of Manitoba has launched an Age Friendly Initiative with numerous partners to address the challenges facing the growing population of seniors.

Aging Americans: Stranded Without Options

This report from The Surface Transportation Policy Project presents new findings based on the National Household Transportation Survey of 2001 and places them in the context of other research on mobility in the aging population.

Aging and Smart Growth: Building Aging-Sensitive Communities

This report posits that the sprawling, automobile-dominated landscape so prevalent throughout the United States seriously limits the continued mobility and independence of older people, a reality that is of enormous consequence to the aging experience.

Aging in Place

Aging in Place from the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Community Housing Resource Center is a tool designed to help local governments plan and prepare for their aging populations. It presents a series of programs and zoning practices that expand the alternatives available to older adults living in the community.

Aging in Place Initiative

The National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) and Partners for Livable Communities (PLC) have launched a joint initiative to work with cities and counties over an 18-month period to facilitate a community dialogue on ''aging in place,'' and to assist community leaders in developing an action plan to ensure programs and services are in place so that communities are good places to grow old.

Aging in Place: A Toolkit for Local Governments

Aging in Place: A Toolkit for Local Governments from the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Community Housing Resource Center is a tool designed to help local governments plan and prepare for their aging populations. It presents a series of programs and zoning practices that expand the alternatives available to older adults living in the community.

Aging Initiative Awards

The U.S. EPA is inviting eligible candidates to submit applications for the Excellence in Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging award. Applications are due September 12, 2008.

Agriculture and Climate Change

The American Farmland Trust (AFT) maintains a webpage on ''Agriculture's Role in Curbing Climate Change,'' which details AFT's Climate Change Campaign. As stewards of over half the land and water resources in America, farmers and ranchers must be involved in the development of climate change solutions.

Agriculture and Smart Growth

There is a growing recognition that the protection of farmland around cities and towns -- urban-influenced farmland -- contributes to smart growth and the livability of our communities. Not only does agricultural protection further smart growth, integral to smart growth is the protection of urban-influenced farmland. Sustainability begins -- although it does not end -- with the land that feeds us.

Ahwahnee Water Principles for Resource Efficient Land Use

The Local Government Commission has published online the Ahwahnee Water Principles for Resource Efficient Land Use. These principles complement the Ahwahnee Principles for Resource-Efficient Communities that were developed in 1991. Many cities and counties are already using them to improve the vitality and prosperity of their communities.

AIA Green Building Awards -- 2008

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) has announced winners of its 2008 ''Top Ten Green Projects.'' Each project was evaluated on ten measures, documented extensively on the COTE Web site, which include design innovation, community context and land use, longevity, bioclimatic design, water and energy conservation, materials, and indoor environment.

AIA Green Projects

Each year the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment selects projects from across the United States as shining examples of sustainable design. This year eight buildings and one urban design design plan have achieved this distinction, now called the Green Project Awards.

AIA Recorded Presentations -- Convention '09

Did you miss the 2009 AIA convention? The American Institute of Architects is offering through its website a video stream of select presentations and workshops from the 2009 National Convention and Design Exposition.

AIA Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) Program

The SDAT is a community assistance program that focuses on the principles of sustainability. SDATs will bring a team of volunteer professionals (such as architects, urban designers, planners, hydrologists, economists, attorneys, and others) to work with community decision-makers and stakeholders to help them develop a vision and framework for a sustainable future.

AIA Sustainable Design Assessment Team RFP -- 2009

The American Institute of Architects Center for Communities by Design announces the 2009 Sustainable Design Assessment Team Program Request for Proposals.

AIA Sustainable Design Assessment Team RFP -- 2010

The AIA Center for Communities by Design announces the 2010 Sustainable Design Assessment Team Program Request for Proposals. The RFP solicits applications for inclusion in the Sustainable Design Assessment Team 2010 program.

AIA Top Ten Projects and Measures -- 2008

Each year the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment hosts a 2008 Top Ten Green Awards competition. In addition to posting award recipients and project summaries, AIA produces a webpage featuring information on the ten measures and supporting metrics used to evaluate the entries.

AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Project Awards -- 2008

The American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment has posted results from their 2008 Top Ten Green Awards.

AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects -- 2009 Nominations

The American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA/COTE) invites your entry to the 2009 Top Ten Green Projects Awards.

Air Quality and Smart Growth: Planning for Cleaner Air

Air Quality and Smart Growth: Planning for Cleaner Air, Translation Paper #16 from the Funders Network, explores the connection between land development patterns, transportation patterns, and air pollution and how growing smarter can lead to better air quality.

Alaska Brownfields

The State of Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Division of Spill Prevention and Response, maintains a webpage on their Contaminated Sites Program that describes DEC's brownfields reuse and redevelopment initiative (RRI).

Alcan Prize for Sustainability 2006 -- Awardees

Alcan and The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) announced the 2006 shortlist of candidates for the US$1 million Alcan Prize for Sustainability. Ten organizations were selected from a field of almost 200 entries from 55 countries around the world, and now face a final consideration by an international Adjudication Panel of distinguished sustainability experts.

Alcan Prize for Sustainability 2007

The Alcan Prize for Sustainability is a $1 million prize that recognizes organizations demonstrating a comprehensive approach to addressing, achieving and further advancing economic, environmental and/or social sustainability. The Alcan Prize for Sustainability is one of the world’s most significant, privately funded Prizes. One Prize is awarded annually.

Alcan Prize for Sustainability 2008

The Alcan Prize for Sustainability is a $1 million prize that recognizes organizations demonstrating a comprehensive approach to addressing, achieving and further advancing economic, environmental and/or social sustainability. The Alcan Prize for Sustainability is one of the world’s most significant, privately funded Prizes. One Prize is awarded annually.

America 2050 Planning Initiative

America 2050 is a national initiative to meet the infrastructure, economic development and environmental challenges of the nation as we prepare to add about 130 million additional Americans by the year 2050.

American Makeover

American Makeover is a new web-exclusive series that explores growth and development alternatives in communities across America, looking at what can be done to help our communities grow in such a way that gives us the kind of neighborhoods and choices we're increasingly looking for.

The first episode ''sounds the alarm bell on Atlanta’s sprawl.'' No one who has ever been to Atlanta will argue their status as poster child of sprawling growth, but it's encouraging that the filmmakers spend most of the short episode taking a closer look at the alternatives in Atlanta — focusing on those growing millions of people who are looking for places to live that are walkable and connected and dontt entail hour-long car commutes to work, school, or the local market.

The series is expected to include episodes of four to five more cities.

American Trails' National Trails Awards Program -- 2008

Every two years, American Trails presents the National Trails Awards to recognize the tremendous contributions of volunteers, professionals, businesses, and other leaders who are working to create a national system of trails for all Americans.

America's Favorite Farmers Market Contest

American Farmland Trust (AFT) is holding the first-ever America's Favorite Farmers Markets™ contest to raise national awareness about the importance of supporting fresh food from local farms and farmers.

AMPO -- 2004 Conference Presentations

Presentations from the 2004 Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations Conference are available online as PowerPoint files through the AMPO website.

AMPO -- 2008 Conference Presentations

Presentations from the 2008 Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations Conference are available online as PDF files through the AMPO website. The event was held October 28-31, 2008, in in Seattle, Washington.

AMPO Annual Conference Presentations

The AMPO Annual Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, October 2-4, 2007, drew close to 300 attendees from MPO's, state and federal agencies, and consulting firms. Presentations from many conference events are now available online at the AMPO website.

An Alternative Future: Florida in the 21st Century 2020 2040 2060

An Alternative Future is a comprehensive look at an alternate trend for development that would accommodate the predicted doubling of Florida's population by 2060 without changing the character of the landscape. By creating an efficient transportation infrastructure, a significant cost-savings can be realized -- up to $526 billion dollars -- over the current development trends.

Anacostia River Urban Watershed Partnership RFP

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), is soliciting new assistance agreement proposals under the EPA's Targeted Watershed Grants Program designed to support the protection and restoration of urban water resources through a holistic watershed approach to water quality management.

Annual Urban Forestry Awards -- Mississippi

Each year the Mississippi Urban Forest Council (MUFC), in partnership with the Mississippi Forestry Commission and the U.S. Forest Service, recognizes and honors cities, individuals, civic groups and businesses that have demonstrated success with urban forestry and green infrastructure.

APA Audio Conferences

The American Planning Association (APA) offers the Audio Conference Training Series comprised of thematic audio and visual training programs. Topics during the current series include Economic Development for Small Towns, Planning and Public Health, and Planning for Safe Growth.

APA National Plan of the Year Award -- 2006

With northeastern Illinois expected to grow by 1.9 million people over the next 25 years, a new vision -- one that will accommodate this anticipated growth in an efficient, coordinated and sustainable manner -- is guiding decision making around the region. This vision is a key component of the 2040 Regional Framework Plan, recipient of the 2006 Outstanding Planning Award for a Plan from the American Planning Association (APA).

APA National Planning Conference Coverage 2007

The American Planning Association has created a website featuring resources and information from their 2007 National Planning Conference. Session reports, photos from various events, media coverage, and more can be found at this resource.

APA's 2009 Planning Conference -- Call for Proposals

The American Planning Association (APA) is seeking proposals for providing educational content at the 2009 APA National Planning Conference in Minneapolis, April 25–29, 2009.

Application Guidelines for Safe Routes to School

The National Safe Routes to Schools Partnership (SRTS) provides links to the State Departments of Transportation that have released application guidelines for the federal program.

Applications Sought for Brownfields Assessment Revolving Loan Fund and Cleanup Grants

The US Environmental Protection Agency is soliciting applications for its Brownfields Assessment Revolving Loan Fund and Cleanup Grants. Assessment grant funds of up to $200,000 (up to $350,000 with waiver) may be used to inventory, characterize, assess and conduct planning and community involvement efforts related to brownfields.

April 2007 Getting Smart! Newsletter

The April 2007 issue of Getting Smart! focuses on three case studies of faith-based organizations and religious institutions that have been pivotal in the success of smart growth efforts.

April 2009 Getting Smart! Newsletter

The April 2009 Getting Smart e-newsletter features articles on energy-related topics. With the Obama Administration declaring energy a priority and investing billions of federal dollars in new and existing programs, this edition offers some ideas for broader consideration.

Arizona Smart Growth Scorecard

The Arizona Smart Growth Scorecard is a valuable tool for community self-assessment developed by a working group of the Growth Cabinet with input from public and private stakeholders. It is designed to strengthen the ability of local officials to plan for future growth and development and to adopt comprehensive strategies that address growth-related pressures. As Arizona continues to attract unprecedented population growth, all levels of government must play a role in wisely planning and managing both the challenges and opportunities that new growth and development present.

Recognizing that communities measure and track how well they are implementing smart growth and look for areas of improvement, the Growth Cabinet prepared this Scorecard to help communities assess whether they have the right tools in place to promote smart growth. Executive Order 2007-05, directed state agencies to identify how state discretionary funds might provide incentives to communities for growing smarter and technical assistance for those needing support. The intent is to provide communities, counties, and Tribal governments - small or large, rural or urban - with a simple, clear, usable means of evaluating how well prepared they are for the pressures of growth. In addition, the Scorecard can help spur action on local and regional approaches to address growth issues and provide incentives and assistance to communities wanting to effectively and efficiently manage development. Cities, towns, counties, and Tribal governments will be evaluated by the set of smart growth criteria and indicators contained within the Scorecard.

Arlington's Smart Growth Journey: Documentary Film

Arlington's Smart Growth Journey is a documentary film that traces the dramatic history of the past half-century of growth and development in Arlington, Virginia.

Around the Table: Community Partnerships for Healthier Eating

Communities throughout the United States are experimenting with innovative ways to support adults and youth in making healthier food choices. Around the Table: Community Partnerships for Healthier Eating is a report from the Center for Civic Partnerships (CHCC) that reviews the Healthy Cities and Communities program in California, which promotes an inclusionary and systems approach to improving community health and encouraging healthier eating.

ARRA Prevention and Wellness Funding: Communities Putting Prevention to Work

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Procurement and Grants Office has published a funding opportunity announcement entitled, ''American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: Communities Putting Prevention to Work.'' Approximately $373 million will be available in fiscal year 2009 to fund thirty to forty awards.

Assessing the Wealth of Nature: Using Economic Studies to Promote Land Conservation Instead of Sprawl

Assessing the Wealth of Nature summarizes how land-use and conservation decisions can be influenced by informing a community of the economic benefits of natural habitat, and provides guidelines for conducting sound economic studies.

Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) Livable Centers Initiative -- Georgia

The Atlanta Regional Commission’s (ARC) Livable Centers Initiative encourages local jurisdictions to plan and implement strategies that link transportation improvements with land use development strategies to create sustainable, livable communities consistent with regional development policies.

Atlanta's Fifty Forward Initiative

The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) has launched an ambitious initiative, called ''Fifty Forward: Metro Atlanta Futures Forum,'' to explore possible future scenarios for metro Atlanta and forge an action plan to ensure future livability, prosperity and sustainability.

Audio from Three Winter 2008 Smart Growth Speaker Series Events

New audio recordings are now available from three Smart Growth Speaker Series events at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. These lectures are part of a four-part series focusing on Smart Growth in Washington, D.C., which will conclude with the April 23, 2008 event celebrating 10 years of the Smart Growth Speaker Series.

August 2007 Getting Smart! Newsletter

The August 2007 issue of Getting Smart! focuses on one of the hottest -- no pun intended -- issues of the day: climate change. The transportation sector is one of the largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions. To effectively reduce emissions from the transportation sector, we must reduce the number of miles U.S. residents drive; in other words, land use patterns must change. Smart growth will play a critical role in making this change happen.

August 2008 Getting Smart! Newsletter

The latest issue of Getting Smart! is now available for all Smart Growth Network members in the Members Section. This edition of Getting Smart! examines how the most public of places -- our community's streets -- can be transformed to serve not only vehicles but also pedestrians and cyclists.

Awards for Municipal Excellence -- 2008 Call for Nominations

The National League of Cities (NLC) is pleased to announce the 2008 Awards for Municipal Excellence, an awards competition that identifies and showcases outstanding city and town programs that improve the quality of life in America's communities.

Awards of Excellence for Sustainable Community Development

The Home Depot Foundation’s Awards of Excellence for Sustainable Community Development recognizes public-private partnerships that have successfully developed projects and/or initiatives that promote and exemplify a more sustainable community. Truly sustainable projects take a holistic, integrated approach, whereby sustainability planning, affordable housing and the creation of green spaces and planting of trees are inextricably linked.

Projects that qualify for the Awards of Excellence in Sustainable Community Development program exhibit thoughtful construction of a neighborhood which includes green affordable housing and tree plantings and have gone beyond to address overarching community issues. These projects have contributed to creating a stronger connection among the residents and addressed many broad-scale issues, including treatment of stormwater, economic development, reducing urban heat island effect, disaster preparedness, carbon reduction strategies, abandoned and foreclosed properties, pedestrian friendliness, traffic calming, transit oriented development, and resident health and quality of life.

The Awards of Excellence go to both the cities and their non-profit partners representing the partnership that completed the local initiative. The Foundation will recognize a National Winner ($75,000 grant), National Runner-up ($25,000 grant), and up to three Honorable Mentions ($2,500 grant).

The grants are to be used at the discretion of the non-profit to further the sustainability goals of the community.

Responses are due March 31, 2010.

Award-Winning Healthy Schools

The Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI) lists on its website CEFPI Award-Winning Healthy Schools.

Balancing Water Quality and Smart Growth Goals -- Archived Webcast

Balancing Water Quality and Smart Growth Goals looks at how two very different communities -- San José, California and Barnstable, Massachusetts -- protect water quality while meeting smart growth goals for economic growth and development. An archive of this July 2007 webcast, presented by ICMA and the U.S. EPA, is now available on the ICMA website.

Baltimore County Forest Sustainability Project

Baltimore County's Forest Sustainability Project is the latest report in The Conservation Fund's Green Infrastructure Case Studies series. The project engages stakeholders to ensure the long-term health and vitality of Baltimore County's diverse forest resources.

Bank of America Neighborhood Excellence Initiative -- 2007

Bank of America's Neighborhood Excellence initiative consists of three distinct investing programs in select markets: Neighborhood Builders, Local Heroes, and Student Leaders.

Bay Area Bike Commuter of the Year Nominations -- 2008

Do you know someone in your community who is committed to making every day a ''Bike to Work Day''? Does this person epitomize and actualize the health, environmental, social and economic benefits of bicycling? Please share his or her story with us!

Bay Area Focused Growth

Four San Francisco, California Bay Area regional agencies have joined forces in a Joint Policy Committee. The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) are working together to create complete, livable communities.

BC Sprawl Report: Walkability and Health

The 2009 BC Sprawl Report: Walkability and Health from Smart Growth BC links physical activity and health data from 16 neighborhoods dispersed throughout British Columbia, spanning the urban to rural spectrum, with objective and subjective walkability index scores.

BEES 3.0 -- Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability

Designers, builders, and product manufacturers can use this program to help select cost-effective, environmentally preferable building products.

Beltway Burden: Housing and Transportation Costs Squeeze Working Families

Housing located far from transit and employment centers places a heavy financial strain on working families in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region, according to a 2009 publication from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing. Beltway Burden: The Combined Cost of Housing and Transportation in the Greater Washington, DC Metropolitan Area, documents the challenges faced by area working families who are forced to ''drive 'til they qualify'' for housing, incurring higher transportation costs that eventually erode their housing cost savings. It finds that area families are victim to combined housing and transportation costs that constitute, on average, nearly 47 percent of the area median income.

Best Practices in Development: ULI Award Winning Projects 2009

This lavishly illustrated, hardcover awards book profiles 48 top development projects throughout the world. Each project description includes photos, the development story, and project data and is a winner or finalist for the prestigious ULI Awards for Excellence. The annual prize is based on financial viability, the resourceful use of land, design, relevance to contemporary issues, and sensitivity to the community and environment.

Best Practices in Green Education

Best Practices in Green Education from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) offers model education programs and curriculum to support efforts in educating for sustainability. USGBC believes educators learn best from hearing the stories of other educators' efforts.

Best Walking Cities -- 2009

Prevention lists the 25 Best Walking Cities in the United States, based on its annual survey with the American Podiatric Medical Association and Sperling's Best Places.

Better Models for Development in California

Better Models for Development in California is a one of a kind publication for creating, maintaining and enhancing livable communities in California.

Better Models for Development in Maryland

Authors Edward McMahon and Shelley Mastran offer practical advice on key issues facing communities throughout Maryland in Better Models for Development in Maryland, published by the Conservation Fund.

Beyond 50.05: A Report to the Nation on Livable Communities

Beyond 50.05 -- Livable Communities: Creating Environments for Successful Aging takes a fresh look at the adequacy of communities to serve the needs of persons of all ages, especially those 50 and older, and provides AARP’s prescription for improving them.

BGreen 2020

The City of Bridgeport and Bridgeport Regional Business Council have released BGreen 2020, a Sustainability Plan that outlines the policies and actions to be implemented in the next decade to improve the quality of life, social equity, and economic competitiveness of the city while reducing carbon emissions and increasing the community's resilience to the effects of climate change and increasing energy costs. The program management team, led by Regional Plan Association, convened the efforts of more than a hundred stakeholders in a Community Advisory Committee and working groups to develop strategies to address brownfields and land use, pedestrian and transit access, renewable energy production, and environmental protection while supporting the growth of green jobs in the region.

BGreen 2020 is the result of a public-private partnership between the City of Bridgeport and the Bridgeport Regional Business Council, a consortium of local business groups. By building on Bridgeport's existing strengths, BGreen will modernize the city's infrastructure, create wealth, intensify urban amenities, enhance environmental quality, enable revitalization without gentrification, and retain Bridgeport's historic character. Early priorities are the creation of an Energy Improvement District to support energy efficiency and production, adopting a ''Transit First'' policy, developing a plan for open space use and maintenance, expanding recycling, and protecting the region's waterways through enhanced stormwater management. A Green Collar Institute will train workers and act as an incubator for developing green industries.

More information, and a download link, can be found at the link below.

(Reprinted with permission from Regional Plan Association)

Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Funding -- Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Departmetn of Transportation (WisDOT) takes an active role in providing financial assistance to create and improve bicycle and pedestrian facilities in Wisconsin. The state's website offers background on both current and historical funding for bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

Bicycle and Pedestrian Funding

Bicycle and pedestrian projects are broadly eligible for funding from almost all the major Federal-aid highway, transit, safety, and other programs. Bicycle projects must be ''principally for transportation, rather than recreation, purposes'' and must be designed and located pursuant to the transportation plans required of States and Metropolitan Planning Organizations. This page lists funding sources for bicycle and pedestrian projects.

Bicycle Friendly America

The League of American Bicyclists coordinates the Bicycle Friendly America family of programs, which recognize states, communities, and businesses for their efforts to promote bicycling and provides roadmaps to improve. The League is helping build a bicycle-friendly America, and its 2009 U.S. Bicycle-Friendly State Rankings provides a 50-state rankings list.

Bicycle Friendly Communities Awards 2006

Twelve cities across the United States celebrated the start of fall with the news that the League of American Bicyclists awarded them the coveted designation of Bicycle Friendly Community. The award, given at levels from Bronze to Platinum, recognizes those communities that are improving conditions for bicyclists and bicycling.

Bicycle Friendly Communities Grants

Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), a national retail cooperative providing quality outdoor gear and clothing, has announced a $100,000 grant to the Bikes Belong Foundation to support an innovative series of grant awards to help U.S. cities become more bicycle friendly. The Bikes Belong Foundation, in cooperation with the League of American Bicyclists, will direct the new effort.

Bicycle Friendly Community Grants

The Bicycle Friendly Communities Campaign is an awards program that recognizes municipalities that actively support bicycling.

Bicycle Parking Solutions

''A Resource for Installing Indoor Bicycle Parking.''

Bicycling and Walking in the United States: 2010 Benchmarking Report

Bicycling and Walking in the U.S.: 2010 Benchmarking Report is an effort by the Alliance for Biking and Walking to collect and analyze data on bicycling and walking in all 50 states and the 51 largest U.S. cities and promote human powered transportation as an important alternative choice. This second biennial report reveals data including: bicycling and walking levels and demographics; bicycle and pedestrian safety; bicycle and pedestrian policies and provisions; funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects; bicycle and pedestrian staffing levels; written policies on bicycling and walking; bicycle infrastructure including bike lanes, paths, signed bike routes, and bicycle parking; bike-transit integration including presence of bike racks on buses, bike parking at transit stops; bicycling and walking education and encouragement activities; and public health indicators including levels of obesity, physical activity, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

The report concludes that where bicycling and walking levels are higher, obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes levels are lower. Higher levels of bicycling and walking also coincide with increased bicycle and pedestrian safety and higher levels of physical activity. Increasing physical activity through transportation can help improve health and reduce obesity. Bicycling and Walking in the U.S.: 2010 Benchmarking Report also includes numerous measures local and state governments can implement to make their communities friendlier to walkers and bikers. International efforts are also studied to show what programs have worked overseas and potential ways to copy those successes in the United States.

Alliance for Biking & Walking (formerly known as the Thunderhead Alliance) is the North American coalition of grassroots bicycling and walking advocacy organizations. Bicycling and Walking in the U.S.: 2010 Benchmarking Report was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and made possible through the additional support of Bikes Belong and Planet Bike.

Big Ideas: Linking Food, Culture, Health, and the Environment

With a global food crisis, rising environmental concerns, and America's children facing epidemic levels of diet-related diseases, how can educators positively engage students in understanding the connections among these topics? Big Ideas: Linking Food, Culture, Health, and the Environment provides a conceptual framework for integrated learning in these important areas in K-12 classrooms.

Bike to Work Day 2009

Thousands of bicyclists turned out to celebrate Bike to Work Day 2009 at locations in the District of Columbia, suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia. More than 8,000 people signed up to participate in advance of the event, which set a new record for registrations.

Bikeability Checklist

How bikeable is your community? The Bikeability Checklist can help you find the answer. Inside you'll find insightful questions, allowing you to evaluate your neighborhood's bikeability.

Bikes Belong Coalition Grants -- Overview

The Bikes Belong Coalition is sponsored by members of the U.S. bicycle industry. Its mission is to put more people on bicycles more often. The Bike Belong Grants Program was the first major on-going initiative undertaken by the Bikes Belong Coalition.

Bikes Belong Grants -- Summer 2007

Bikes Belong is the national coalition of bicycle suppliers and retailers working together to put more people on bicycles more often. Through national leadership, grassroots support, and promotion, Bike Belong works to make bicycling safe, convenient, and fun. In summer 2007 Bikes Belong presented six grant awards, totaling $46,935. Investment in these paths, trails, parks, and advocacy initiatives will help create, enhance, and protect great places to ride in communities across the country.

Bikes Belong Grants Program

The Bikes Belong Coalition is sponsored by members of the U.S. bicycle industry. Its mission is to put more people on bicycles more often. The Bike Belong Grants Program was the first major on-going initiative undertaken by the Bikes Belong Coalition.

BikeSafe Case Studies

BikeSafe, the Bicycle Countermeasure Selection System from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration, now offers a selection of case studies from many states that illustrate how design and policy solutions can improve the safety and mobility of bicyclists.

Biking and Walking Funding

America Bikes outlines on its website how communities can leverage federal funding to improve local roads for bicyclists through the 2005 SAFETEA-LU bill.

Bill Moyers' Interview with Michael Pollan -- Podcast

In this podcast, Bill Moyers sits down with Michael Pollan, Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley, to discuss what direction the U.S. should pursue in the often-overlooked question of food policy.

Biodiversity and Smart Growth

This paper discusses the relationship between biodiversity conservation and smart growth, the work that is being done, and suggests promising strategies and explicit collaborations for consideration by philanthropic and public funders and other key actors.

Blueprint for a Better Region: Putting Development in the Right Places

This PowerPoint presentation promotes Smart Growth principles in the Greater Washington, D.C. metro area.

Blueprint for America

Blueprint for America is a comprehensive community service program of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) initiated by AIA members in their local communities.

Blueprint for American Prosperity

The Blueprint for American Prosperity is a multi-year initiative from Brookings to promote an economic agenda for the nation that builds on the assets -- and centrality -- of America's metropolitan areas.

Blueprint for Oregon's Future

From 2005-2007, 1000 Friends of Oregon, the Bus Project, and more than 50 other organizations hosted a series of town hall forums in 16 locations across the state. Called ''Envision Oregon,'' these forums challenged more than 2,200 participants from over 140 towns and places in Oregon to describe their vision for Oregon's future, and to help create strategies for making that vision a reality. They also formed the foundation for Blueprint for Oregon's Future.

Boston Indicators Report

The Indicators Report provides high quality data and information about Boston by engaging hundreds of participants and experts in presenting data in 10 categories, drawn from the wealth of research and information generated by public agencies, civic institutions, researchers, think tanks and community-based organizations.

Boston Schoolyard Funding -- Boston, Massachusetts

The Boston Schoolyard Initiative (BSI) was formally launched in 1995 as a public/private partnership to help revitalize Boston's schoolyards.

Breaking the Codes

Breaking the Codes is a report from Good Jobs First that documents the ways that states are revising their building codes to encourage more rehabilitation of existing structures, especially in urban areas.

Briefing Papers on Benefits of City Parks

To demonstrate the benefits of city parks and the varied positive affects they can have on a community, the City Parks Forum is producing a series of briefing papers on ''How Cities Use Parks For…''

Bringing Home the Benefits of Energy Efficiency to Low-Income Households

A new study by Enterprise Community Partners, Bringing Home the Benefits of Energy Efficiency to Low-Income Households: A Case for a National Commitment, calls for a national commitment to rehabilitate and retrofit low-income housing with energy-efficient features that will offer substantial financial savings for the residents and ensure long-term gains in environmental and energy sustainability.

Bringing Safe Routes to Scale

The Transportation and Land Use Coalition (TALC) has released Bringing Safe Routes to Scale, a report that outlines the need for regional funding to support Safe Routes to Schools programs that help students safely walk and bike to and from school without having to be driven in a car.

Brookings Greater Washington Research Program Outlines Vision for Capital Renewal

''Revitalizing Washington's Neighborhoods: A Vision Takes Shape,'' a new discussion paper by Alice Rivlin and others, provides a roadmap for revitalizing the District of Columbia and boosting its population by targeting development resources on key neighborhoods.

Brownfield Case Study Sites

As part of a research project at Carnegie Mellon University entitled: Brownfield Development: the Implications for Urban Infrastructure, several case studies are being conducted concerning specific brownfield sites. Information for each of the case study brownfield sites currently being investigated.

Brownfield Communities Network

Brownfield Communities Network is a national network of local communities working to demonstrate how the cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated property can be an effective tool for community revitalization.

Brownfield Funding -- Michigan

The Clean Michigan Initiative (CMI) is a $675 million bond approved by Michigan voters to improve and protect Michigan's water resources. The major programs are administered by the Departments of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Natural Resources (DNR), and Community Health (MDCH).

Brownfield Grant Awards in Florida

The Florida Brownfields Association (FBA) provides a comprehensive list of brownfields grant awards in the state of Florida.

Brownfield Internet Toolkit

Portland, Oregon's Bureau of Environmental Services offers this website on brownfields information, including information on pollution prevention, community involvement and financial assistance.

Brownfield Redevelopment Funding

Through its Project Learning Program (PLP), the Center for Creative Land Recycling (CCLR) assists nonprofits, municipalities, and community organizations in tackling brownfield redevelopment projects. Each year, CCLR awards several PLP grants to communities and organizations, providing them with the financial and technical assistance necessary to address brownfield-related issues such as: contamination and remediation, economic feasibility, regulatory facilitation, financing, and community-based decision making. Once awarded funding, grantees often retain outside consultants to assist with community-consensus building, economic feasibility studies, site reuse planning, and site design.

Brownfield Redevelopment Solutions

Working with a stakeholder group, Envision Utah has developed a multi-disciplinary tool to expedite the land redevelopment process without sacrificing environmental and land-use standards.

Brownfield to Parks Examples

Since the 1970's, The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has been helping to transform used land into gardens and parks. TPL has posted on its website recent examples -- snapshot portraits of communities where brownfields are giving way to gardens, parks, greenways and open space.

Brownfields 2008 Call for Ideas

The Brownfields 2008 Call for Ideas is open. Submit ideas for a complete session, a presentation, a poster, or a particular topic you would like to see covered. There are twelve educational tracks for Brownfields 2008, including The Greening of Redevelopment and Planning and Design Approaches, and two types of sessions, Marketplace Roundtable and Panel.

Brownfields and Sustainable Development

Region 8 of the U.S EPA offers an online toolkit for tackling brownfields restoration that help remediation efforts to be profitable for the community, restorative for the environment over the long term, and sustainable.

Brownfields and Utility Sites: A Primer for Local Governments

ICMA has released a new report, Brownfields and Utility Sites: A Primer for Local Governments. This free report details some of the unique issues involved in redeveloping properties owned or formerly owned by oil, gas, and electric utility companies. Types of former utility sites include former manufactured gas plant sites (MGP), disposal stations, tank farms, substations, service facilities, rights-of-way parcels, and treatment plants.

Brownfields Assessment Grants -- Connecticut

The Connecticut Office of Brownfield Remediation and Development offers the CT EPA Assessment Program to fully qualify the environmental condition of a site so that remediation and redevelopment can occur.

Brownfields Assessment Grants -- EPA Region 8 (Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah)

Region 8 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offers brownfield assessment grants that provide funding to inventory, characterize, assess, and conduct planning and community involvement related to Brownfield sites.

Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund and Cleanup Grant Guidelines -- U.S. EPA, 2010

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces the availability of funds and solicits applications from eligible entities and non-profit organizations for its competitive 2010 ''Brownfields Grant program: Assessment Grants, Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grants, and Cleanup Grants.''

Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup Grants -- U.S. EPA, 2007

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces the availability of funds and solicits applications from eligible entities and non-profit organizations for its competitive Brownfields Grant program: Assessment Grants, Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grants, and Cleanup Grants.

Brownfields Assistance -- Illinois

The Illinois Bureau of Land (BOL) is responsible for the protection and restoration of land and groundwater resources in the State of Illinois. The BOL administers a broad variety of solid and hazardous waste management and cleanup programs, including Brownfields Assistance.

Brownfields Center

The Environmental Law Institute's Brownfields Center provides essential information on brownfields cleanup and redevelopment with a focus on the concerns and needs of community groups across the country. The Center's goal is to encourage and support effective citizen participation in the redevelopment of brownfields.

Brownfields Cleanup Grants -- EPA Region 8 (Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah)

Region 8 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offers brownfield cleanup grants that provide funding to carry out cleanup activities at Brownfields sites.

Brownfields Cleanup Success Stories

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is publishing brownfield cleanup success stories accomplished through its Revolving Loan Fund (RLF). brownfields at-a-glance are fact sheets that contain vital statistics and a project overview for each story, including key accomplishments and outcome.

Brownfields Economic Development Initiative

The Brownfields Economic Development Initiative (BEDI) is one of the key competitive grant programs that HUD administers to stimulate and promote economic and community development activities under Section 108(q) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, as amended. BEDI is designed to assist cities with the redevelopment of abandoned, idled and underused industrial and commercial facilities with expansion and redevelopment of real or perceived environmental contamination.

Brownfields Federal Programs Guide

There are nearly two dozen federal programs that can help communities in one way or another to assess, cleanup and reuse Brownfields. Brownfields Federal Programs Guide examines in alphabetical order the resources available in other departments and agencies which could be applied in Brownfields situations.

Brownfields Financing Basics

This presentation introduces newcomers to the brownfields financing issue -- local officials, developers, congressional staff, and others -- to basic terms, programs, and opportunities for public sector initiatives.

Brownfields Funding -- Maryland

The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), Site Assessment/State Superfund Division can perform a Phase I and Phase II Site Assessment at selected sites at no cost to the property owner or interested party. MDE, through a grant with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has funds to conduct assessments at Brownfields properties throughout the State of Maryland.

Brownfields Funding -- Updates to U.S. EPA Grant Proposal Guidelines

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released EPA Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund and Cleanup (ARC) Grant Proposal Guidelines: Key Modifications, a two-page document that outlines changes to the EPA's grant guidelines for the 2008-09 grant cycle.

Brownfields Funding Awards -- 2008

Communities in 43 states, two Tribal Nations and two territories will share over $74 million in EPA Brownfields grants in 2008 to help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, turning them from problem properties to productive community use.

Brownfields Funding California

In 2000, Governor Gray Davis signed into law the ''Cleanup Loans and Environmental Assistance to Neighborhoods (CLEAN) Program'' establishing new financial incentives to encourage property owners, developers, community groups and local governments to redevelop abandoned and underutilized urban properties in California. Links on this website provide information on the program.

Brownfields Funding in Washington State

The Washington State Department of Ecology maintains a webpage on grants and financial assistance for cleanup of brownfields in the state.

Brownfields Funding Programs -- Connecticut

The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) offers flexible tools to deal with all brownfield issues, including gap financing, seed capital programs, corporate tax credits and its own environmental liability insurance program.

Brownfields Grants -- Montana

Montana's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) offers a web site dedicated to brownfields grant information. The data is linked to the U.S. EPA's Brownfields grants program.

Brownfields Grants from CCLR

The Center for Creative Land Recycling (CCLR) awards Project Learning Program (PLP) grants that range in size up to $25,000 per project, year-round, on a merit-based schedule.

Brownfields Green Space Grants -- Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has posted notice that it will not not be accepting any applications for its Brownfields Green Space Grants program until after July 1, 2009.

Brownfields Insurance

BrownfieldsInsurance.org is a website developed with funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assist those seeking information and assistance with insurance products that mitigate environmental liabilities associated with brownfield properties.

Brownfields Links

The U.S Conference of Mayors website offers a list of brownfields links on its website.

Brownfields Policy and Research

The February 2009 Brownfields Policy Research Newsletter from Northeast/Midwest Institute (NEMW) includes links to recent reports and white papers plus a feature article, ''Infill, Historic Preservation, and Infrastructure Savings.''

Brownfields Policy and Research: August 2009

The August 2009 Brownfields Policy Research Newsletter from Northeast/Midwest Institute includes links to recent reports and white papers plus an analysis of how brownfields projects would be eligible under the proposed Livable Communities Act of 2009.

Brownfields Policy Research Newsletter -- September 2008

The September 2008 Brownfields Policy Research Newsletter from Northeast/Midwest Institute (NEMW) includes links to recent reports and white papers plus a feature article, ''State-Facilitated Tax Increment Financing for Brownfields Redevelopment.''

Brownfields Policy Research Newsletter from NEMW

The Northeast/Midwest Institute (NEMW) publishes the Brownfields Policy Research Newsletter, a monthly publication highlighting policy research and legislative information that will assist brownfields and community redevelopment practitioners to make progress in their communities.

Brownfields Policy Research Newsletter: July 2009

The July 2009 Brownfields Policy Research Newsletter from Northeast/Midwest Institute contains links to recent reports and white papers, with a section on Energy, Brownfields, and Sustainability.

Brownfields Redevelopment

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking proposals for Smart Growth and Brownfield Redevelopment. Proposals are due by 5:00 pm on August 24, 2004.

Brownfields Redevelopment -- Indiana

The Indiana Finance Authority (IFA) offers financial assistance for brownfields redevelopment in the form of site assessment grants, low-interest loans, petroleum remediation grants, and more.

Brownfields Redevelopment -- Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy offers a focus on brownfields in the Community Lots section of their website. This focus section is specifically tailored for the needs and concerns of nonprofit community-based organizations (CBOs) that want to undertake brownfield redevelopment.

Brownfields Redevelopment Fund -- Oregon

The Brownfields Redevelopment Fund is a direct loan and grant program to conduct environmental actions on brownfields. Created by the Oregon Legislative Assembly in 1997, the program's primary purpose is to assist private persons and local governments to evaluate, cleanup, and therefore redevelop brownfields.

Brownfields Redevelopment Tax Credits -- Maryland

Maryland properties with environmental concerns are now eligible for tax credits after environmental clean up. Polluted sites often lay dormant, unattractive to development due to clean-up and liability concerns. Federal and state laws have now clarified the legal responsibilities for environmental clean-up, paving the way for opportunities to redevelopment land in prime commercial locations.

Brownfields Redevelopment Toolbox for Disadvantaged Communities

Case Studies, site-specific tools, and planning for brownfields remediation in disadvantaged communites are all part of the Brownfields Redevelopment Toolbox for Disadvantaged Communities from the Northeast-Midwest Institute and the Disadvantaged Communities Network.

Brownfields Redevelopment: Best Practices Report

The NGA Center for Best Practices examines innovative state practices in brownfield redevelopment that encourage urban cleanup and revitalization. Two PDF files included as resources on this site.

Brownfields Research Consortium

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Milwaukee Brownfields Research Consortium is a new partnership among UWM faculty, government agencies, businesses, and nonprofit organizations involved in the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfield properties.

Brownfields Resource Guide -- Washington State

Brownfields cleanup and reuse are priorities for the State of Washington and USEPA. This resource guide will point you in the right direction to get answers to your questions and help with brownfield projects.

Brownfields Resource Guide for Rural and Small Communities

Published by the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) Research Foundation under a cooperative agreement with EPA, Brownfields Resource Guide for Rural and Small Communities is a guide that provides a range of resources for brownfields efforts.

Brownfields Road Map

The U.S. EPA's Road Map to Understanding Innovative Technology Options for Brownfields Investigation and Cleanup, Fourth Edition, includes new and updated resources to assist in identification and selection of innovative site characterization and cleanup technologies for brownfields redevelopment.

Brownfields Site Mart -- New Jersey

The Brownfields Site Mart, a web site produced by the State of New Jersey, is designed to make it easier for developers to locate and build on land in cities and towns, while preserving the state's dwindling inventory of open space.

Brownfields Tax Incentive

Originally signed into law in 1997, the Brownfields Tax Incentive encourages the cleanup and reuse of brownfields. This program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been extended through December 31, 2009.

Brownfields Tax Incentive

Originally signed into law in August 1997, the Taxpayer Relief Act (Public Law 105-34) included a tax incentive to spur the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields in distressed urban and rural areas.

Brownfields Tax Incentive -- FAQ (2007)

Originally signed into law in 1997 and extended through December 31, 2007, the Brownfields Tax Incentive encourages the cleanup and reuse of brownfields. This document from the U.S. EPA provides answers to some of the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) about this federal tax incentive.

Brownfields Tax Incentive Guidelines -- 2007 Edition

Originally signed into law in 1997 and extended through December 31, 2007, the Brownfields Tax Incentive encourages the cleanup and reuse of brownfields. Under the Brownfields Tax Incentive, environmental cleanup costs are fully deductible in the year incurred, rather than capitalized and spread over time. Improvements in 2006 expanded the tax incentive to include petroleum cleanup.

Brownfields Tax Incentive State Contacts

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers a state-by-state listing of Brownfields Tax Incentives on the Brownfields section of its website. Contact information for all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, are included in this resource.

Brownfields to Green Space

Brownfields to Green Space is a fact sheet from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) that describes the financial hurdles met by groups and communities seeking to convert brownfields to usable green space, and the positive effects new green spaces have on communities.

Brownfields Tools for Disadvantaged Communities

The Northeast-Midwest Institute, the Sustainable Community Development Group and The Ferguson Group have launched a U.S. EPA-sponsored initiative to provide brownfields tools and technical assistance to local communities that are seeking to overcome economic and neighborhood disadvantage.

Brownfields Training Grants

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Brownfields Cleanup and Redevelopment (OBCR) has issued a revised announcement of a funding opportunity for the Brownfields Training, Research, and Technical Assistance Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program.

Brownfields Training, Research and Technical Assistance Grants

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posts on its website Training, Research, and Technical Assistance Grant Fact Sheets. These Fact Sheets, viewable as PDF or HTML documents, describe various programs throughout the United States that are receiving funds from the EPA's Technical Assistance Program.

Brownfields Workshop Presentations

The Canadian Brownfields Network (CBN) is offering workshop presentations on its website. Presentations from events dating back to 2004 are available in Adobe Acrobat format.

Brownfields: State of the States

Elected officials and program staff across the country have endeavored to make certain that their programs reflect local brownfield project needs, run smoothly, and take advantage of opportunities to tie brownfield cleanup and redevelopment assistance with regulatory incentives. This updated report highlights their successes and challenges over the past year.

BrownfieldSource.org

BrownfieldSource.org is a comprehensive online resource for brownfields news and information.

Build Smart

This article from The American School Board Journal challenges the notion that bigger schools are better, a trend that has dominated the education landscape for decades.

Building a Greener Future: Zero-Carbon Housing

This 2006 report from the United Kingdom's Department for Communities and Local Government outlines a plan to provide zero carbon housing for new residential construction in England by 2016.

Building Better: A Guide to America's Best New Development Projects

Building Better: A Guide to America's Best New Development Projects from the Sierra Club reports on the current state of development in the United States and highlights some of the best new developments that are producing healthy neighborhoods and livable communities.

Building Commons and Community

Building Commons and Community documents 45 years of the late Karl Linn's legacy creating neighborhood spaces for communities and by communities. In this richly-illustrated landscape-format hardcover book, Linn presents his philosophies and practical wisdom to help people use the resources they find in their own surroundings to create welcoming shared spaces.

Building Community through Transportation

The overarching goal of Building Community through Transportation, a Project for Public Spaces (PPS) initiative, is to support Placemaking and transform federal, state, and metropolitan transportation policies and practice that currently prioritize moving people and goods over creating walkable, healthy and sustainable communities. This campaign is also focused on influencing the design of streets and transit facilities so they become assets and gathering places for civic life.

Building Green Sustainable Communities

Building Green Sustainable Communities, a special report from Local Initiatives Support Corporation, highlights the group's green projects, including training for green jobs; construction of new affordable housing and retrofit of existing homes; urban farms and farmers markets; and green schools and environmental education programs.

Building Green: Overcoming Barriers in Philadelphia

Building Green: Overcoming Barriers in Philadelphia is a report from the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) that identifies obstacles to green building in Philadelphia and recommends solutions to dissolving those barriers.

Building Healthier Schools: Local Collaborations to Promote Nutrition and Physical Activity

The National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) offers this compilation of innovative approaches to collaboration and creative health-promoting activities that resulted from local public health agency (LPHA)-school partnerships.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging

This award recognizes communities for their outstanding comprehensive approaches to implementing principles of smart growth, as well as strategies that support active aging. It is presented to communities with the best and most inclusive overall approach to implementing smart growth and active aging on a variety of fronts, at the neighborhood, tribe, city, county, and/or regional level.

For the past three years, 15 communities in 14 states have been recognized for their leadership in smart growth and active aging. Together these regional councils of government, cities and towns have a total population of more than 5 million inhabitants and almost 500,000 residents over 65 years of age. As a percent of the population over 65, five of the award winning entities have greater than the national average of 12.6 percent and range from 13.3 percent to 21.5 percent. The other winning communities are planning for the aging of the population and currently have been 7 percent and 12.5 percent of their population over 65.

The communities have a diverse array of projects that are at the commitment or planning stage or have implemented ambitious plans and are winners of the achievement award. The lead for each of the projects were local planning department, city managers, parks and recreation, public health, aging, housing or transportation. For more information on the past winning communities see http://www.epa.gov/aging/bhc/index.htm

While this recognition program does not provide a financial award, the winners are the people living in these communities and this award recognizes the leadership of these communities in making their communities a great place to live. If you would like to submit an application to be considered for this recognition, visit the link below.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging -- 2007

The U.S. EPA is inviting eligible candidates to submit applications for the Excellence in Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging award. This award recognizes communities for their outstanding comprehensive approaches to implementing principles of smart growth, as well as strategies that support active aging.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging -- 2008 Applications

The U.S. EPA's Aging Initiative is spearheading the multi-agency Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Award. The The principal goal of the is to raise awareness across the nation about healthy synergies that can be achieved by communities combining Smart Growth and Active Aging concepts.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging -- 2009 Applications

The principal goal of the Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Award program is to raise awareness across the nation about healthy synergies that can be achieved by communities combining Smart Growth and Active Aging concepts.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Assessment Tool

The U.S. EPA's Aging Initiative website provides a wealth of information about the Agency's efforts to protect the environmental health of older persons. The Initiative's Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Assessment Tool consists of a series of questions that address concerns for an aging population in terms of overall health, quality of life in terms of accessibility within the community -- and how smart growth practices provide solutions to these questions.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Award

The U.S. EPA's Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Award recognizes communities for their outstanding comprehensive approaches to implementing principles of smart growth, as well as strategies that support active aging.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Awards 2008

The U.S. EPA has produced a booklet for recipients of its Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Awards 2008. Included in this booklet are details on the 2008 Achievement Award Winner, 2008 Commitment Award Winners, and 2007 BHCAA Winner Updates.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Awards Nominations

Nominations are now open for the 2009 Excellence in Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Awards. This award from the U.S. EPA's Aging Initiative program recognizes communities for their outstanding comprehensive approaches to implementing principles of smart growth, as well as strategies that support active aging.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging National Recognition Program

U.S. EPA offers this fact sheet on the ''Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging'' program. The principal goal of the program is to raise awareness across the nation about healthy synergies that can be achieved by communities combining Smart Growth and Active Aging concepts.

Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging: Grant Winners

The U.S. EPA has announced winners of its Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging: Training and Demonstration Projects. EPA has awarded the Training Grant to the Univeristy of Maine, and the Demonstration Grant to Portland State University.

Building Resilient Cities Along the Gulf of Mexico

In The Resilient Coast: Policy Frameworks for Adapting the Built Environment to Climate Change and Growth in Coastal Areas of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, authors John Jacob and Stephanie Showalter predict that a ''perfect storm'' is brewing on the Gulf Coast: Rapid growth is occurring in hazardous zones that will likely be rendered even more hazardous as a result of climate change, putting ever more people in harm's way. This publication examines policy frameworks across the five Gulf states that could encourage better planning, and finds a surprising variability among the states.

Building Sustainable Communities

Building Sustainable Communities is the Local Initiatives Support Corporation's (LISC's) plan to help community residents transform distressed neighborhoods into healthy and sustainable communities of choice and opportunity -- good places to work, do business and raise children.

Building the Livable Urban Edge

This resource from the Cleveland Waterfront Coalition is a Best Practices for Urban Waterfronts slideshow that you can view in your web browser. More than 150 slides show the current condition of Cleveland's lakefront and photos from other cities.

Built Environment and Obesity Research

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are accepting applications for grants to research relationships in two specific areas related to the built environment and obesity: First, understanding the role of the built environment in causing/exacerbating obesity and related co-morbidities; and second, developing, implementing, and evaluating prevention/intervention strategies that influence parameters of the built environment in order to reduce the prevalence of overweight, obesity and co-morbidities.

Califia Sketchbook Design Competition

The Califia Sketchbook Design Competition will demonstrate what life will be like in Califia, a proposed next generation eco-city. People from around the world are invited to enter a conceptual sketch conveying their view of ''slices-of-life'' within Califia, revealing smarter ways of building, powering, and maintaining the urban fabric. The program sponsors believe that allowing for more direct public involvement in the design of future living spaces is the first step in a successful eco-city project.

California Brownfields Reuse Success Stories

The State of California's Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) contains a variety of brownfield-related resources on its website, including a section on successful reuse of certain brownfields within the state.

California Green Campuses Earn Best Practices Award

Two Green Campus universities -- Humboldt State University and University of California, Berkeley -- received last year’s Higher Education Energy Efficiency Best Practices Awards in the category of Student Energy Conservation in the CSU and UC grouping respectively.

California Greening Schools Initiative

The California Green Schools Initiative has compiled a list of resources as a starting place for parents, teachers, and school administrators who are interested in finding ways to cover the costs of greening their schools.

California Sustainable Community Planning Grant Program

On behalf of the Strategic Growth Council, the California Dept. of Conservation is administering a $22.3 million competitive planning grant program for sustainable community plans.

The primary purpose of this grant program is to implement the vision of the Governor and Legislature to foster and support development of sustainable communities. Local governments will need to adopt land use plans and integrated strategies that can transform communities and create long term prosperity. Such communities shall promote equity, strengthen the economy, protect the environment and promote healthy, safe communities.

Under SB 732, approximately $60 million will be awarded to cities, counties, Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), Joint Powers Authorities (JPAs), Regional Transportation Planning Agencies (RTPAs), and Council of Governments (COGs). The Council anticipates two or three funding cycles.

Funds will be used to encourage sustainable regional and local actions that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, promote water conservation, reduce automobile use and fuel consumption, encourage infill and compact development, protect natural resources and agricultural lands, promote public health, and revitalize urban and community centers. Proposals must help achieve state planning priorities and environmental goals, as well as promote cooperative and scale-appropriate methods and strategies that reflect the interdependence of environmental, economic and community health.

Workshops will be conducted to provide technical assistance in preparing grant applications and vetting project proposals for eligibility and competitiveness.

Applications are due by August 31, 2010.

Call for Abstracts -- Urban Down Under 2005

Urbanism Down Under 2005 -- Creative Urban Futures, an international urban design conference with an Australasian focus, has issued a Call for Abstracts for their August 2005 conference.

Call for Entries: 2006 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for the fifth annual National Award for Smart Growth Achievement.

Call for Entries: National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education Best Masters Thesis Award 2007

The National Center for Smart Growth at the University of Maryland will grant one award in the amount of $1000 for the best masters thesis focused on urban growth and development issues completed in the 2007 academic year. Masters students in urban planning, public policy, civil engineering, public and community health, economics and finance, political science or related fields are encouraged to apply.

Call for Papers -- International Sustainable Development Conference -- Sustainable Cities

The Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management (CUPEM), The University of Hong Kong, in association with ERP Environment, have announced the 12th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference 2006 will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong on April 6-8, 2006.

Call for Program Ideas -- New Partners for Smart Growth 2008 Conference

The Local Government Commission is conducting a ''Call for Program Ideas'' for the 2008 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference program. This process will be open from June 6th through July 11th, 2007. The submittal review process will take place from mid-July through late-September 2007, and those selected for inclusion in the final program will be notified by late September.

Call for Smart Growth Model Courses

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has received requests from communities and universities for help in developing model courses that incorporate smart growth into hands-on, applied course offerings.

Campus Building Design Projects

Sterling College recently began to renovate its facilities and dorms to make these historic Vermont buildings more energy efficient. In keeping with the mission of the college, it was apparent that this development should be done in an ecologically sustainable way.

Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework

The Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework (CSAF) examines campus sustainability by looking at the interconnectedness of People and Ecosystems in maintaining the balance of life on this planet.

Campus Sustainability Leadership Awards -- 2007

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) presented its Campus Sustainability Leadership Awards on September 7, 2007, at the 7th biennial Greening of the Campus conference, ''Partnering for Sustainability: Enabling a Diverse Future,'' held at Ball State University September 6-8, 2007, in Muncie, Indiana.

Campus Sustainability Report -- Indiana University 2007

The Indiana University Task Force on Campus Sustainability has released the Campus Sustainability Report, a collective work of more than 100 IU faculty, staff, and students who have been engaged, over the past six months, in developing a sustainability plan for the IU-Bloomington campus.

Campus Sustainability Report -- Michigan State University 2007

The Michigan State University Committee for a Sustainable Campus (UCSC) has released the 2007 Campus Sustainability Report, a collective work that builds on the initial report from 2003. The report presents the latest trends in interdependence between the social, environmental and economic components of the campus -- and adds several new indicators.

Can Landscape Architects Make Schools Walkable Again?

In the April 15, 2008 edition of LAND online, the landscape architecture news digest of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), editor J. William ''Bill'' Thompson discusses the challenge of getting kids to walk to school.

Canada's Sustainable Cities 2009

Corporate Knights Magazine has issued its 2009 Sustainable Cities Report, the third annual report detailing which Canadian cities have the smallest environmental footprint.

Canons of Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism

The Charter of the New Urbanism is the guiding document of the new urbanist movement. Although it offers an encompassing vision of sustainable urbanism from the scale of the region to the block and building, three leading CNU members, including two who had a central role in drafting the original Charter, undertook an effort to clarify and detail the relationship between New Urbanism and sustainability. The resulting document, The Canons of Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism, is designed to serve as a set of operating principles for human settlement that reestablish the relationship between the art of building, the making of community, and the conservation of our natural world.

Car-Sharing: Where and How It Succeeds

The Transportation Research Board's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) has produced Car-Sharing--Where and How It Succeeds, a report that examines the development and implementation of car-sharing services.

Cascadia Scorecard

Northwest Environment Watch (NEW) offers the Cascadia Scorecard, a new gauge of regional progress that monitors seven key trends--health, economy, population, energy, sprawl, forests, and pollution--that are profoundly shaping the region's future.

Case Studies for Transit-Oriented Development

Case Studies for Transit-Oriented Development, a report prepared for Local Initiatives Support Corp. by Reconnecting America, is a short summary of the TOD tools that are used by communities all across the country.

Case Studies in Smart Growth

The New Jersey Smart Growth Gateway, a project of New Jersey Future, is an online resource to provide the information necessary to begin implementing Smart Growth Strategies in their communities. Included on this website are links to on- and off-site case studies from a variety of organizations.

Case Study of State Incentives: Proposals to Make Strategic Investments in Brownfields Redevelopment

The Northeast-Midwest Institute partnered with ICF International to create this Case Study of State Incentives, which advises a state on the potential to modify and expand its brownfields incentives.

Case Study: Gardening in the San Diego School District

The Local Government Commission (LGC) has posted this case study of gardening in the San Diego School District. Students at Rosa Parks Elementary School in the San Diego, California, can enjoy the benefits of a community garden right on their school's campus. The school is located in the City Heights neighborhood where residents are predominately Latino, African-American and Southeast Asian, and 54.5 percent of families earn incomes below the federal poverty level.

CDC Livability Listserv

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) facilitates a Listserv that addresses issues related to health and the built environment. An e-newsletter that includes related news articles, latest studies, and updates on conferences and events related to livability is sent to all subscribers once a month.

CDC Offers Slideshows on Kidswalk to School Website

Two new slide presentations are available on the CDC's Kidswalk-to-School website. Each comes with a lesson plan, presenter's guide, and presentation script.

Center for Infrastructure Equity

The PolicyLink Center for Infrastructure Equity advocates for fair and inclusive policies and provides community and grassroots leaders, advocates, and public officials with the tools, training, and consultation needed to ensure that public investments in infrastructure create economic opportunity and health in all communities. The center has evolved out of several years of action-oriented research and partnerships by PolicyLink with state and local organizations, and is poised to continue that work while also addressing key new federal infrastructure policy opportunities.

Center for Sustainable Communities

Center for Sustainable Communities, part of the National Association of Counties (NACo) website, provides a forum for county officials to work with other government leaders, the private sector, and communities to develop policies and programs that lead to economic enhancement, environmental stewardship and social well being -- the three pillars of sustainable communities.

Center for Urban and Rural Affairs Funding

The Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) is an all-University applied research and technology center at the University of Minnesota that connects faculty and students with community organizations and public institutions working on significant public policy issues in Minnesota.

Central Florida Regional Indicators Report 2005

The Central Florida Regional Indicators Report 2005 establishes a regional key indicator system that not only measures progress in the myregion priority areas but indicates the region’s success in becoming less fragmented and more coordinated.

Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida

The Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida was established by the Governor and Legislature of Florida to envision the future of Florida -- to help citizens and state leaders prepare for a continued increase in population and to craft a plan that meets the challenges and opportunities this presents. This First Annual Report lays the foundation for the creation of a sustainable Florida.

CEOS for Cities

CEOs for Cities is a membership-based national network of urban leaders dedicated to creating next generation cities that hold the answers to many of the challenges our nation faces. Through its website, members and visitors can keep current on events, publications and projects, meetings, and more.

Champions for Sustainable Communities -- Call for Partners

Forward Scotland is currently developing and looking for partners for Champions for Sustainable Communities. Originally launched in 2008, this is an award that recognizes the achievements of individuals across society who have lead the way in community development with the highest regard for sustainable development principles.

Chesapeake Bay Trust Funding -- Maryland

The Chesapeake Bay Trust provides grant funding for on-the-ground Chesapeake Bay restoration projects throughout Maryland, reaching thousands of students, organizations and community leaders each year.

Chesapeake Bay Trust Mini-Grants: Summer 2009 Deadlines

The Chesapeake Bay Trust's Mini Grants program awards up to $5,000 for projects that address one or more of the Trust's grant making priorities. The majority of Mini Grant applications are submitted by schools for field experiences and on-the ground student service projects.

Chesapeake Bay Watershed Grants

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Chesapeake Bay Program Office, is announcing a request for proposals for Support of the Chesapeake Bay Targeted Watershed Pilot Grants Program (CBTWPGP) for 2005. This is a new announcement that has not previously been distributed.

Chicago Climate Action Plan

The Chicago Climate Action Plan describes the major effects climate change could have on the city and suggests how all city residents can work together to address those challenges.

Chicago Climate Action Report

Chicago's Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Center for Neighborhood Technology a reports on the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the Chicago metro region for the years 2000 and 2005, assesses the impacts of the 8.4 million people who live in the region and the commerce conducted there, and provides four key findings of the research.

Chicago's Eat Local Live Healthy Campaign

''Chicago: Eat Local, Live Healthy'' is a City of Chicago strategy to coordinate aspects of the local and regional food industry in ways that enhance public health and create food-related business opportunities.

Child-Friendly Transport Planning

As a step to developing child-friendly planning guidelines, the Centre for Sustainable Transportation has completed a limited literature survey and canvassed several planning experts to determine whether child friendly planning guidelines have been developed elsewhere in the world. Child Friendly Transport Planning is a report that outlines the results of this search.

Childhood Obesity Prevention and Healthy Living

The National Association of Counties provides technical assistance on childhood obesity prevention to counties, with a focus on rural and/or underserved communities, including those communities disproportionately affected by youth obesity.

Children and Nature Network Community Action Guide

The Children and Nature Network (C&NN) was created to encourage and support people and organizations working toward the goal of reconnecting children and nature. C&NN provides a critical link between researchers, individuals, educators, organizations, businesses and government agencies dedicated to children's health and well-being.

Choosing Our Community's Future

Smart Growth America has released Choosing Our Community's Future, a guidebook developed to assist communities in shaping the growth and development of their neighborhoods, towns and regions.

Cities Enjoy Bicycles Awards

In a global partnership for sustainable urban transport, Shimano, the world's leading bicycle component producer, and ICLEI—Local Governments for Sustainability, the world's leading associations of cities, towns and regions for sustainable development, have combined forces to promote non-motorized mobility in cities. Incentives have been created for municipal decision makers to work towards non-motorized mobility and a bicycle-friendly atmosphere in their communities through the global Cities Enjoy Bicycles Awards, special awards in the series of ICLEI's Local Initiatives Awards.

Citistates Weekly Columns

The Citistates Group is a network of journalists, speakers and civic leaders focused on building competitive, equitable and sustainable 21st century metropolitan regions.

Citizen Planners Resource Kit

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy offers U.S. planning boards a complimentary Citizen Planners Resource Kit. The Citizen Planners Resource Kit was developed for distribution to local planning boards and commissions across the U.S. as part of the Lincoln Institute’s mission to reach out to citizen planning commissions through educational programs, publications, multi-media resources, and its website.

City Limits: Putting the Brakes on Sprawl

Worldwatch Institute: Worldwatch Paper 156, June 2001. This study reports how citizens and local leaders around the world are using the political process to demand attractive public spaces and better transportation choices. The stories show other places how they could gain by revamping government agencies and policies to link transportation and land use decisions and remove incentives to sprawl.

City Parks Blog

City Parks Blog is a joint effort of the Center for City Park Excellence at the Trust for Public Land and the City Parks Alliance to chronicle the news and issues of the urban park movement. The blog covers a variety of related topics, including green infrastructure, planning, health, transportation, and economics.

City Parks Forum Briefing Papers

The City Parks Forum, a special initiative of the American Planning Association (APA), has published a second series of briefing papers that show mayors, city managers, planners and others how to use healthy parks to create safer neighborhoods, protect and enhance urban environments, improve learning among children, and improve public health.

City Parks: Facts and Figures 2009

The 77 largest city park systems nationwide provide more than 1.3 million acres of parkland, providing close-to-home outdoor experiences in an ailing economy, according to a City Parks: Facts and Figures report released by The Trust for Public Land (TPL).

City Parks: When There's Nothing to Conserve -- Create!

When There's Nothing to Conserve -- Create! is a publication from the Trust for Public Lands (TPL) that describes how, from Boston to San Francisco, successful parks have been created out of former factories, home sites, office buildings, railyards, parking lots, landfills, and even highways.

City Practice Resources

When your city is seeking solutions, avoid reinventing the wheel by using the City Practice Resources compiled by the staff of the National League of Cities. Four City Practice Resources are now available: City Practice Online Database, City Practices Briefs, Municipal Action Guides, and the Municipal Reference Service Inquiry Service.

City Routes, City Rights: Building Livable Neighborhoods and Environmental Justice by Fixing Transportation.

Boston: Conservation Law Foundation, June 1998. City Routes, City Rights is a guidebook for urban -- especially inner-city -- residents who are sick and tired of coping with an epidemic of asthma attacks, with out-of-control traffic, with unsafe streets that claim the lives of young children, with filthy clouds of pollution that surround bus depots and garages sited smack in the middle of neighborhoods, and with layers of government transportation officials who often seem indifferent to the needs and desires of the city's most disempowered residents.

City/County Collaborations on Brownfields

The Joint Center for Sustainable Communities and the National Association of County Organizations (NACo) offer City/County Collaborations on Brownfields, a report on how cities and counties have cooperated to reclaim brownfield properties.

CITYGreen Environmental Education

American Forests' environmental education program provides students with a real world learning experience while providing teachers an innovative yet well organized program for teaching science, math and Geographic Information Systems.

Civilizing Downtown Highways

Civilizing Downtown Highways from the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) is a must-read for anyone interested in traffic management. Using California as a case study, this book discusses the struggle New Urbanists face in reconstructing inner-city super highways into walkable, business-friendly thouroghfares.

Clarksville, Tennessee, Smart Growth Plan 2030

The Clarksville Smart Growth Plan 2030 was initiated in January 2010 by Clarksville Mayor John E. Piper and the Clarksville City Council. The mayor established a Comprehensive Master Plan Committee with the responsibility of creating a strategic plan to guide the future growth, development and quality of life initiatives for the community. The first phase of the plan was published to a new website on July 30.

Smart Growth Plan 2030 is subtitled ''a Blueprint for Progress & Quality . . . as we grow to 250,000 residents.'' Combining the work of a multi-disciplinary planning team plus the input of 200 citizen volunteers, the plan presents a vision for the city of Clarksville, including artistic renderings, potential projects, economic considerations and implementation steps to achieve major priorities.

Clean Air Excellence Awardees -- 2006

EPA's Clean Air Excellence Awards Program, established at the recommendation of the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee, annually recognizes and honors outstanding, innovative efforts that help to make progress in achieving cleaner air.

Clean Air Excellence Awards -- 2010

The U.S. EPA is accepting applications for the 10th Annual Clean Air Excellence Awards. The program honors outstanding innovative efforts to help make progress in achieving cleaner air. Award-winning entries must directly or indirectly reduce pollutant emissions, demonstrate innovation, offer sustainable outcomes, and provide a model for others to follow.

Clean Energy and Climate Policy for U.S. Growth and Job Creation

The new study Clean Energy and Climate Policy for U.S. Growth and Job Creation concludes that a robust climate bill could boost the U.S. economy by about $111 billion by 2020 and create as many as 1.9 million jobs.

The report is by David Roland-Holst and Friedrich Kahrl of the University of California, Berkeley, in collaboration with Madhu Khanna of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Jennifer Baka of Yale University. The authors’ findings run contrary to claims made by opponents of climate legislation in the U.S. Senate.

The team's analysis issued in late October 2009 offers a state-by-state look at the economic implications posed by comprehensive federal climate policy.

The study's key findings are:

• All 50 states can gain economically from strong federal energy and climate policy, despite the diversity of their economies and energy mixes.
• Contrary to what is commonly assumed, comprehensive national climate policy does not benefit the coasts at the expense of the heartland states.
• A strategy for public education about the conservation effort is in place.
• The country as a whole can gain 918,000 to 1.9 million jobs, and household income can grow by $488 to $1,176, by 2020 under comprehensive energy and climate policy.

Clean Ohio Bond Fund

American Farmland Trust (AFT) reports a landslide victory for Clean Ohio Bond Fund, a November 2008 ballot initiative that offers great promise to farmland protection and the environment.

Clean Ohio Fund

The Clean Ohio Fund was established to preserve green space and farmland, improve outdoor recreation, and revitalize blighted neighborhoods by cleaning up and redeveloping polluted properties.

Clear as Mud: Planning for the Rebuilding of New Orleans

Planning the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has been among the greatest urban planning challenges of our time. Since 2005, Robert B. Olshansky and Laurie A. Johnson, urban planners who specialize in disaster planning and recovery, have been working to understand, in real time, the difficult planning decisions in this unusual situation. As both observers of and participants in the challenging process of creating the Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP), Olshansky and Johnson bring unparalleled detail and insight to this complex story.

New Orleans has had to rebuild its buildings and institutions, but it has also had to create a community planning structure that is seen as both equitable and effective, while addressing the concerns and demands of state, federal, nonprofit, and private-sector stakeholders. In documenting how this unprecedented process occurred, Olshansky and Johnson spent years in New Orleans, interviewing leaders and citizens and abetting the design and execution of the UNOP. Their insights will help cities around the globe recognize the challenges of rebuilding and recovering after disaster strikes.

Clearing the Air

Nearly half of all Americans are breathing unhealthy air, and air quality in dozens of metropolitan areas has actually gotten worse over the last decade according to a new report from the Surface Transportation Policy Project.

Climate Change and Health

The National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO) maintains a Climate Change webpage under its Environmental Health programs.

Climate Change and Older Adults

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed a web page on Climate Change and Older Adults that provides an overview of world climate change and how it may affect portions of the population.

Climate Change and Schools Resources

The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) facilitates the design, construction and operation of high performance schools: environments that are not only energy and resource efficient, but also healthy, comfortable, well lit, and containing the amenities for a quality education. In January 2008, CHPS called together a group of stakeholders to discuss schools and their impact on climate change, and how CHPS can address greenhouse gas emissions in its 2009 Criteria revision. Presenters discussed greenhouse gas emissions and buildings, calculating emissions, building and policy solutions and model programs in other building sectors.

Climate Change Solutions

The David Suzuki Foundation offers a Solutions page to the Global Warming section of its website -- policy and practice changes that can be made to minimize greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate Neutral Campus Report

The Climate Neutral Campus Report contains peer-reviewed white papers, case studies, executive interviews and vendor profiles that share strategies, challenges and solutions for higher education institutions that are striving for climate neutrality.

Climate Protection Awards -- 2008

In 2008, 15 Climate Protection Awards were presented to companies, NGOs, and individuals in recognition of exceptional leadership, outstanding innovation, personal dedication, and technical achievements in protecting the Earth's climate.

Climate Protection Success Stories

''Success Stories from our Cities and Counties'' is a project of the Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network Climate Protection Task Force. Formed in May 2007, the Joint Venture Public Sector Climate Task Force includes representatives from every city and county in Silicon Valley, plus several special districts and representatives from Pacific Gas and Electric and SunPower.

Climate, Energy and Transport

Climate protection is one of the four key goals of the World Resources Institute (WRI), and the Climate, Energy and Transport section of its website deals with the topic of climate change on a global scale.

Climate@CNU

Climate@CNU is the Congress for the New Urbanism's (CNU's) Low-Carbon Urbanism Campaign, which emphasizes low-carbon neighborhoods and high-quality living.

CNT Building -- LEED Platinum

The Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) moved into an eighty-year-old former textile factory in 1987, leaving its home in downtown Chicago for a transit-friendly neighborhood on Chicago’s near Northwest Side. CNT renovated the upper two floors of the building in a then energy-efficient manner, in accordance with the organization's philosophy of promoting urban sustainability. The building became the first non-toxic one in Illinois and CNT earned an award for having the most energy-efficient building in the state.

CNU Athena Award

Sim Van der Ryn became the 10th recipient of the Athena Award when the the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) honored him at its Sustainable Communities 2008 conference in September 2008. Van der Ryn earned an international reputation as the ''father of the green building'' during his tenure as California State Architect during then Governor Jerry Brown's administration.

CNU Charter Awards 2006 Honorees

The Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) has honored 19 professional, student, and faculty projects with in their 2006 Charter Awards competition.

CNU Charter Awards 2007 Honorees

The Congress for the New Urbanism announces the recipients of its 2007 Charter Awards, the annual prize honoring the best of the New Urbanism. The 20 winning professional submissions and 5 student/faculty submissions were chosen by a seven-member jury of distinguished urbanists in March 2007.

CNU Charter Awards Nominations 2007

The Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) is accepting nominations for its 2007 Charter Awards, recognizing achievements in design, planning, and development that meet the exacting standards of the Charter of the New Urbanism.

CNU Project Database

Are you looking for ideas on how other communities are successfully promoting walkable, neighborhood-based development? The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) offers a Project Database that features dozens of new urbanist developments from throughout the United States and other countries.

CNU Report on Emergency Response and Street Design

The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and fire marshals from across the country have partnered together on an Emergency Response & Street Design Initiative. This initiative is aimed at reconciling the growing desire for appropriately sized and connected streets with emergency responders' access needs.

CNU XIV Multimedia Toolkit

The Congress for New Urbanism offers the CNU XIV Multimedia Toolkit, a collection of materials from sessions and events at the 2006 CNU Congress. The Toolkit includes audio and video from nearly 50 Congress sessions, a similar number of slideshows, and reports from the correspondents who covered the Congress for the online Daily NUws.

Coalition for Smarter Growth Awards

The Coalition for Smarter Growth will host its Tenth Anniversary Celebration November 14, 2007 in Washington, DC at the True Reformer Building, with a reception, silent auction, and presentation of the 2007 Capital Region Visionary Awards.

Collaborative of High Performance Schools Project List

The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) facilitates the design, construction and operation of high performance schools: environments that are not only energy and resource efficient, but also healthy, comfortable, well lit, and containing the amenities for a quality education. The CHPS Project List provides an at-a-glance view of school districts from across the country that are building high performance schools using the CHPS Criteria.

Collaborative Science and Technology Network for Sustainability

Through the Collaborative Science and Technology Network for Sustainability (CNS), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD) is seeking applications proposing innovative regional projects that apply science to decision-making to address a stated problem or opportunity relating to sustainability.

College Sustainability Report Card 2009

GreenReportCard.org is the first website to provide in-depth sustainability profiles for hundreds of colleges in all 50 U.S. States and Canada. Its College Sustainability Report Card is the only independent evaluation of campus and endowment sustainability activities at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.

Colorado Brownfields Resources

The Colorado Brownfields Foundation offers an online library of publications and links from both state and national sources, including case stides from around Colorado that highlight economic, fiscal, environmental, and community impacts of brownfields redevelopment or potential brownfields development projects.

Combating Problems of Vacant and Abandoned Property

Combating Problems of Vacant and Abandoned Properties is a report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors that details best practices for rehabilitating abandoned properties in 27 U.S. cities.

Commentary Links Economic Vitality to Growth Management

This commentary in the Springfield (MO) News-Leader argues that Springfield's economic resilience depends on the city setting a statewide example of growth management in the Show Me State.

Commonwealth Capital -- Massachusetts

The Commonwealth Capital (CC) policy of the Office for Commonwealth Development (OCD) coordinates Massachusetts capital spending programs that affect development patterns. The state's goal is to invest in projects that are consistent with OCD's Sustainable Development Principles and partner with municipalities seeking to advance the Commonwealth's development and resource protection interests.

Communities Creating Healthy Environments

Communities Creating Healthy Environments is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that aims to prevent childhood obesity by increasing access to healthy foods and safe places to play in communities of color. The program will advance RWJF's efforts to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015 by supporting diverse, community-based organizations and federally chartered tribal nations in the development and implementation of effective, culturally competent policy initiatives to address childhood obesity at the local level.

Community Assessment Tools

The Active Living Resource Center offers a collection of community assessment tools on its Web site.

Community Building: How to Do It, Why It Matters

Building a stronger community leads to a higher quality of life—higher educational performance, lower crime, and better physical and mental health. Community building develops trust between residents and governments, and generates a partnership between them.

Community building creates an environment in which there is almost no issue that cannot be resolved, leads to better ideas and solutions, encourages people to be responsible for and committed to improving the quality of life in their communities, and makes the job of the local government manager easier.

In this IQ Report, Ed Everett, former city manager of Redwood City, California describes how we are currently stuck in the “vending machine” form of government, with the public viewing themselves as customers, and why this has caused the public to lose their sense of being responsible citizens and accountable for their community. He describes how local governments need to change the way we view our residents to move them from being customers to being citizens. Discover the various roles of local government in building community and get concrete examples of those roles, and lessons learned. Through this report, you will come to understand not only the power of community building but also the way that community building relates to the reasons why many of us were drawn to the profession of local government management in the first place.

Community Culture and the Environment: A Guide to Understanding a Sense of Place

This Environmental Protection Agency guide is a technical document designed to help environmental professionals engage human communities in the processes of creating, implementing, and sustaining environmental protection efforts. It is based on elements of social science theory and methodology (e.g., anthropology, cultural geography, political science, economics, and sociology) that are relevant to defining and understanding the connections between community life and environmental issues.

Community Design and Transportation Policies: New Ways to Promote Physical Activity

The Physician and Sportsmedicine, vol.29, no.2. February 2001. Public health and city planning both seek to improve living conditions and health by preventing, identifying, investigating, and eliminating problems that may pose threats to residents' health and welfare. This article asks how can public health, city planning, and transportation officials work toward reducing the burden of physical inactivity.

Community Design Centers

Community Design Centers (CDCs) provide planning, design and technical assistance to low- and moderate-income urban and rural communities, many of which have limited resources.

Community Design for Healthy Eating

Community Design for Healthy Eating: How Land Use and Transportation Solutions Can Help, a research paper from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, examines how community design and transportation flaws have contributed to a decrease in physical activity among Americans and an increase in rate of obesity.

Community Design, Active Living and Public Health

Community Design, Active Living and Public Health makes a compelling case for changes in regional and community design to reverse the growing trend toward obesity and its negative effects on health.

Community Development Resources

A collection of publications for guidance on Waterways, Landfills, and Traffic and Highway issues.

Community Energy Opportunity Finder

The Community Energy Opportunity Finder is an interactive tool that will help you determine your community's best bets for energy solutions that benefit the local economy, the community, and the environment.

Community Food Projects Grants Program 2007

The Community Food Projects (CFP) Competitive Grants Program provides the major funding source for community-based food and agriculture projects nationwide. Approximately $4.6 million in funds will be granted in 2007.

Community Food Projects Grants Program 2010

Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) invites applications for the Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program (CFPCGP) for fiscal year (FY) 2010 to support: (1) the development of Community Food Projects with a one-time infusion of federal dollars to make such projects self-sustaining; and (2) Planning Projects to assess the food security needs and plan long-term solutions to help ensure food security in communities. CSREES anticipates that the amount available for support of this program in FY 2010 will be approximately $5,000,000.

Community for a Lifetime -- Michigan

''Community for a Lifetime'' is a statewide community recognition program offered by the Michigan Office of Services to the Aging, in conjunction with the Michigan Commission on Services to the Aging and in cooperation with Michigan State University Extension.

Community Greening Initiative

The Chesapeake Bay Trust is proud to announce the new Community Greening Initiative grant program, which is designed to aid communities in implementing “greening” plans that increase tree canopy, reduce storm water runoff, and improve air quality in urban areas.

Community Image Survey CD

The Community Image Survey from the Local Government Commission (LGC) is a tool for helping decision-makers and their constituents address community design, land use and transportation issues. It uses visual images to help participants evaluate their existing environment and envision their community's future. Tailored for the needs of each community, the survey provides a foundation for planning and implementation efforts.

Community Innovations Grants

The Boston Foundation announced $19 million in new grant awards to more than 100 nonprofit organizations serving Greater Boston. While the wide range of these grants speaks to the rich complexity of life in the region, each individual funding decision reflects a strategic commitment to increase impact, opportunity and innovation within the organizations that serve area residents.

Community Involvement in Brownfield Redevelopment

Community participation and stakeholder involvement play an essential role in successful brownfield development, as dozens of success stories attest. Yet historically, community participation in federally influenced redevelopment activities has been adversarial.

Community Jobs in the Green Economy

Community Jobs in the Green Economy, a collaborative effort between the Apollo Alliance and Urban Habitat, emphasizes the potential of the ''green economy'' to generate quality jobs in the nation's low-income communities and communities of color.

Community Lots Website

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy offers the Community Lots project, an online resource designed to help community-based organizations (CBOs) move beyond their traditional role of housing development and into the community at large.

Community of Choices

This video focuses on the economic, social, and environmental benefits of preserving community character.

Community Partnership Profiles -- Active Living by Design

The Community Partnership Profiles report reviews each of the 25 community partnership locations selected by Active Living by Design. Facts for each location include summaries of demographic information, description of each project, and its primary areas of focus.

Community Preservation in Action

Community Preservation in Action features articles about completed or planned projects that preserve and enhance quality of life in Massachusetts communities.

Community Revitalization Funds

The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) provides grant funds to support local initiatives that promote community stability and quality of life through its Community Revitalization Program (CRP).

Community Revitalization Grants

The Surdna Foundation is accepting applications for its Community Revitalization Grants program to support projects that improve the quality and longevity of communities, such as through development that is walkable, environmentally sustainable, and cost-effective.

Community Revitalization Grants -- Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Department of Community and Economic Development sponsors the Community Revitalization Program. This program provides grants for community revitalization and improvement projects which in the judgment of the Department will improve the stability of the community; promote economic development; improve existing and develop new civic, cultural, recreational, industrial and other facilities; assist in business retention, expansion, stimulation and attraction; promote the creation of jobs and employment opportunities; or enhance the health, welfare and quality of life of citizens in the Commonwealth.

Community Revitalization Resources -- Honolulu

The City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, offers a Community Revitalization Unit, providing information, technical support, and technical assistance for communities and organizations within communities that wish to implement projects, programs and activities that will be a positive influence for that community.

Community Revitalization Stories: On Common Ground

The Summer 2005 edition of On Common Ground from the National Association of Realtors turns its focus to revitalization: success stories of rejuvenation in urban areas and inner-ring suburbs.

Community Toolbox for Children’s Environmental Health

Guided by a board comprised primarily of grassroots leaders, Community Toolbox supports community-based initiatives to protect children from environmental health hazards.

Community Trees Grants

Green Communities now offers Community Trees Grants, in partnership with The Home Depot Foundation, to affordable housing developers to strategically incorporate trees into their site plans. This program focuses on the remarkable economic, social and environmental contributions trees make to communities. The Foundation views trees as an untapped resource that can be used to help cities deal with the pollution of our air and water, cool our city streets, reduce crime, reduce asthma and improve our overall health.

Community Watershed Assessment

The Community Watershed Assessment Handbook is a simple and straightforward watershed assessment tool that is intended to direct community groups and local governments in conducting a comprehensive environmental assessment.

Community-Based Watershed Management Handbook

Community-Based Watershed Management: Lessons from the National Estuary Program (NEP) is designed for all individuals and organizations involved in watershed management, including states, tribes, local governments, and nongovernmental organizations. This document describes innovative approaches to watershed management implemented by the 28 National Estuary Programs (NEPs).

CommunityViz® Software

CommunityViz® GIS software for land-use planning from Placeways is designed to help people visualize, analyze, and communicate about important land-use decisions. CommunityViz® community planning software provides a real–time interactive environment of 3D visuals, intelligent maps and dynamic analysis tools.

Comparing Green Building Guidelines and Healthy Homes Principles

Comparing Green Building Guidelines and Healthy Homes Principles is a report from the National Center for Healthy Housing that compares major national green building and indoor air quality guidelines with NCHH's set of recommended healthy housing criteria to assess the extent to which these programs protect residents from health and safety hazards.

Compendium of Sustainability Indicators

Version two of the Compendium of Sustainable Development Indicator Initiatives is now available online. Use this searchable directory to find initiatives based on location, type, issue areas, and more. Search for topics including quality of life,housing, and transporation.

Complete Streets for Active Communities

Complete Streets for Active Communities is a new fact sheet from the Active Living Resource Center Library, part of the Active Living Resource Center (ALRC).

Complete Streets Report

The Thunderhead Alliance, national coalition of state and local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations, has published the first nationwide analysis of policies designed to create complete streets that routinely accommodate bicycle and pedestrian travel.

Complete the Streets

Complete streets are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users. Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and bus riders of all ages and abilities are able to safely move along and across a complete street. The Complete the Streets website contains information and resources that you can use to help bring complete streets to your community.

Connecticut Brownfields Cleanup Grants

The Connecticut Brownfields Redevelopment Authority (CBRA) has developed programs that encourage brownfield redevelopment by reducing costs, eliminating environmental uncertainly, and simplifying the regulatory process.

Connecticut Brownfields Funding

The State of Connecticut Office of Brownfields Remediation (OBRD) website provides a list of financial assistance sources for brownfield redevelopment projects, including sources from the U.S. EPA, the State of Connecticut and other programs that serve specific towns and regions of the state. The OBRD partners with all of them.

Connecticut Brownfields Redevelopment Authority Grants

The Connecticut Brownfields Redevelopment Authority provides assistance for remediation and redevelopment of brownfields anywhere in Connecticut that will generate future incremental municipal property tax revenues.

Connecticut Environmental Assistance Programs

The Connecticut Office of Brownfield Remediation and Development (OBRD) provides a list of State of Connecticut Environmental Assistance Programs on its website.

Connecticut Urban and Industrial Sites Reinvestment Tax Credit Program

The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development offers an Urban and Industrial Sites Reinvestment Tax Credit Program. This economic development tool designed to drive investment to the state's urban centers and other economically distressed communities without depleting valuable state bond dollars.

Connecting Green Trail Packages

Portland, Oregon park providers, local cities and citizens have worked for decades to establish a network of trails linking parks to local communities and other area attractions. In April 2008 the Metro Council appointed a Blue Ribbon Committee for Trails to take the work the community has developed, evaluate where regional trails fit in the region's priorities and recommend potential strategies for expanding the region's trail network.

Conserving the Green Network

Conserving the Green Network is a joint effort by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and American Farmland Trust to assess the condition of the Washington-Baltimore region’s open space assets, past and present attempts to conserve them, and the effects that a coordinated green network might have on future growth.

Counties and Residential Green Building Standards

Counties and Residential Green Building Standards is a fact sheet from the National Association of Counties (NACo) that provides an introduction to green buildings and an overview of green building programs, with examples and links from throughout the United States.

County Government Approaches to Combating Youth Obesity, Encouraging Physical Activity, and Creating Healthy Communities

This report from NACo reviews what county officials have done to promote physical activity and provide healthy eating choices for their citizens, and what future steps need to be taken to assist officials to create healthier communities.

Creating a Regulatory Blueprint for Healthy Community Design

ICMA's consumer guide, Creating a Regulatory Blueprint for Healthy Community Design, is a road map for local government officials and their staff as they consider reforming zoning and development codes to encourage more physical activity in their areas.

Creating Community-Based Brownfield Redevelopment Strategies -- Resource List

The Creating Community-Based Brownfields Redevelopment Strategies Resource List from the American Planning Association contains books, articles, and government document citations. The list is part of a continuous process and may be considered a literature review as well as a resource list for the project.

Creating Great Neighborhoods: Density in Your Community

Creating Great Neighborhoods highlights the success of nine community led efforts to create vibrant neighborhoods through density. Building great dense places with good design is not just an abstract theory -- it is a practical approach to growth that is being used in diverse places across the country.

Creating Great Places

Creating Great Places is an initiative of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) that helps governors design and implement state growth and physical development strategies that promote healthy, economically competitive and sustainable communities.

Creating Livable Places

The Creating Livable Places website is provided by the Southern California Association of Governments to promote more livable communities. The site includes ten case studies of regional communities that have made efforts to become livable communities. The site also provides information and resources related to transportation planning, transit, and growth visioning. A calendar of events and list of related links are also available at the site.

Creating Safer, More Livable Communities Through Planning and Design.

Proceedings APA Online National Conference, Boston, 1998. Tempe AZ: ASU College of Architecture and Environmental Design P, 1999. Municipalities throughout the country are recognizing the potential benefits of supporting programs which focus on the physical environment and crime. As a result, many planners and designers are entering a new realm of their ultimate responsibility: to protect the public general health, safety, and welfare.

Creating Value: Smart Development and Green Design

In Creating Value: Smart Development and Green Design, a new book from the Urban Land Institute, architect Vernon Swaback argues convincingly that financial success in real estate development will increasingly require design that is smarter, greener, and more sustainable.

Creating Walkable Places

Richly illustrated with color photographs, site plans, and diagrams, Creating Walkable Places: Compact Mixed-Use Solutions is a book from the Urban Land Institute that explains how to create pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use developments.

Cross-Sector Dialogue on the Impact of Housing/Land Use and Mobility

On June 22, 2006, the Center for Civic Partnerships organized and hosted a facilitated cross-sector dialogue in Glendale, California on land use, mobility and public health. The purpose of the meeting was to identify promising strategies and resource opportunities involving multi-sectored collaboration. Cross Sector Dialogue on Impact of Housing/Land Use and Mobility on Physical Activity and Older Adults is the final report from this event.

CUI Brownie Awards -- 2007 Award Winners

Winners of the Canadian Urban Institute's (CUI's) annual Brownie Awards were announced at a presentation dinner on October 18, 2007 during the 8th annual Canadian Brownfields Conference in Montreal.

CUI Brownie Awards 2005

The Canadian Urban Institute's annual Brownie Awards program recognizes leadership, innovation and environmental sustainability in brownfields redevelopment across Canada. Working with key industry and professional organizations, the Canadian Urban Institute presents its awards at its Brownfields conference, held in October each year.

CUI Brownie Awards 2006

The Canadian Urban Institute's annual Brownie Awards program recognizes leadership, innovation and environmental sustainability in brownfields redevelopment across Canada. Working with key industry and professional organizations, the Canadian Urban Institute presents its awards at its Brownfields conference, held in the fall of each year.

CUI Brownie Awards 2007

The Canadian Urban Institute's annual Brownie Awards program recognizes leadership, innovation and environmental sustainability in brownfields redevelopment across Canada. Working with key industry and professional organizations, the Canadian Urban Institute presents its awards at its Brownfields conference, held in October each year.

CUI's Urban Leadership Awards Nominations -- 2008

The Canadian Urban Institute's (CUI's) Urban Leadership Awards program honors those that have made a profound and lasting impact on the quality of urban life.

Cultivating Community Gardens

Cultivating Community Gardens: The Role of Local Government in Creating Healthy, Livable Neighborhoods is a fact sheet from the Local Government Commission (LGC) that offers case studies, best management practices, resources and tools for policymakers to develop creative, cost-effective solutions that reduce barriers and facilitate the creation of community garden programs.

Cultures of Cities: A New Online Data Bank

This online data bank gives a panorama of present transformations in European cities. The reports focus on the main themes discussed at the 4th Biennial of Towns and Town Planners in Europe.

Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE)

The Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE) is a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility, and selected federal incentives that promote renewable energy.

DataPlace™ -- Maps, Charts and Statistics for U.S. Communities

DataPlace™ aims to be a one-stop source for housing and demographic data about your community, your region, and the nation. Build maps, create charts, or compare data on any U.S. location.

December 2008 Getting Smart! Newsletter

The December 2008 issue of Getting Smart! is now available for all Smart Growth Network members in the Members Section.

Decisions for the Earth

This issue of World Resources focuses on environmental governance -- the processes and institutions used to make decisions about the environment.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance Project Recognition

Do you have a smart growth project on the horizon? Consider submitting an application for either preliminary or final recognition by the Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance.

To be eligible, the project must be located in Eastern or Central Pennsylvania (including Dauphin County), Southern New Jersey (including Mercer County and south) or Delaware, and not yet under construction.

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance is a collaborative initiative of more than 200 government, private sector and non-profit organizations in the tri-state region. We support and promote good smart growth projects at the earliest stages by helping them get approved at the local level. Each quarter, applications are reviewed by an independent jury of architects, planners, developers, builders, bankers, engineers, and other related disciplines. Projects recognized to be in compliance with the DVSGA's published smart growth criteria receive a letter of endorsement and an offer of testimony before local approval authorities.

DVSGA recognizes projects that will foster regional growth and redevelopment in a manner that achieves important economic, environmental and quality of life objectives. By highlighting the potential of smart growth projects to add value to the region, the DVSGA hopes to encourage developers, business organizations, citizen groups and elected officials to strive for smart growth solutions.

To date, the DVSGA has granted preliminary and/or full recognition to 26 projects, including most recently a group of affordable infill townhomes in downtown Norristown that will soon be under construction.

Download an application, as well as the criteria and the list of more than 200 supporting organizations and companies and examples of recognized projects, at the link below.

The application deadline for the current round is September 1, 2010.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance Recognized Project -- July 2008

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance jury provides on its website a list of project applications as good examples of smart growth development in the region. In July 2008 the Alliance recognized University Place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance Recognized Projects: April 2009

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance has added to its list of recognized smart growth projects: Kardon Ponds in Chester County, Pennsylvania; and Zurbrugg Mansion Redevelopment in Burlington County, New Jersey.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance Slide Show

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance (DVSGA), an initiative of various government, private sector and non-profit organizations in the Greater Philadelphia tri-state region, offers a free educational PowerPoint slide show on its web site.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Coalition -- Application for Project Recognition

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance (DVSGA) is an initiative of various government, private sector and non-profit organizations in the Greater Philadelphia tri-state region encompassing Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and Delaware. The DVSGA promotes smart growth projects by recognizing proposed projects prior to development approval.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Projects Recognized

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance jury provides on its website a list of project applications as good examples of smart growth development in the region. Projects recognized in 2006 include Bell Point in Sussex County, Delaware, and Pembroke North in Radnor Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Projects Recognized -- 2006

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance jury provides on its website a list of project applications as good examples of smart growth development in the region. Projects recognized in 2006 include Towne Center at Haddon in Camden County, New Jersey, and The Village at Valley Forge in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

Delaware Valley Smart Growth Projects Recognized -- 2007

The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance jury provides on its website a list of project applications as good examples of smart growth development in the region. Projects recognized in 2007 include Wyomissing Square, Wyomissing, Berks County, Pennsylvania, and Stafford Park, Stafford Township, Ocean County, New Jersey.

Demonstrating the Economic Benefits of Integrated, Green Infrastructure

This paper by Sustainable Edge, Inc., prepared for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, will provide a compelling argument for municipalities to pursue means of developing integrated approaches in the development of services and infrastructure.

Demonstrating the Economic Benefits of Integrated, Green Infrastructure

This paper will provide a compelling argument for municipalities to pursue means of developing integrated approaches in the development of services and infrastructure.

Demonstrating the Economic Benefits of Integrated, Green Infrastructure

This paper by Sustainable Edge, Inc., prepared for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, will provide a compelling argument for municipalities to pursue means of developing integrated approaches in the development of services and infrastructure.

Demonstrating the Economic Benefits of Integrated, Green Infrastructure

This paper will provide a compelling argument for municipalities to pursue means of developing integrated approaches in the development of services and infrastructure.

Design for Aging

Authored by the American Institute of Architects Design for Aging Center, Design for Aging: Post-Occupancy Evaluations features well-researched post-occupancy evaluations for approximately forty senior living facilities previously featured in the AIA's Design for Aging Review.

Design for Health Summit Report

The primary goal of the Design for Health Summit for Massachusetts Health Care Decision Makers was to bring together leading health care facility decision makers, discuss the arguments for and evidence supporting ''healthy design,'' and brainstorm initiatives and implementation strategies to achieve healthier hospitals—healthier for patients, healthier for staff, healthier for the environment and community, and healthier for hospital financial security.

Designation of 22 New National Recreation Trails

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar recently designated 22 trails in 13 states as newly recognized National Recreation Trails, adding more than 525 miles of trails to the National Trails System.

Designing Activity into Our Lives

A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded study reports on the links between active living and health issues. Includes interactive features.

Designing and Building Healthy Places

The Centers for Disease Control offers this website on health and the built environment. Topics include children's and elders' health, accessibility, and physical activity.

Designing and Building Healthy Places

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has organized a section of its website to focus on ''Designing and Building Healthy Places.''

Designing and Building Healthy Places

The Centers for Disease Control offers this website on health and the built environment. Topics include children's and elders' health, accessibility, and physical activity.

Designing and Building Healthy Places

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has organized a section of its website to focus on ''Designing and Building Healthy Places.''

Designing for Active Recreation

Designing for Active Recreation is a fact sheet that summarizes the current state of research into the way community design is related to whether people walk or bicycle to get to where they're going.

Designing Major Urban Thoroughfares for Walkable Communities

This report from the Institute of Transportation Engineers advances the successful use of context sensitive solutions (CSS) in the planning and design of major urban thoroughfares for walkable communities.

Designing Schoolyards & Building Community

Designing Schoolyards & Building Community is a report on the Boston Schoolyard Initiative, an effort dedicated to transforming Boston's schoolyards into dynamic centers for learning and community life.

Designs for Walkable Neighborhoods

This 12-minute video provides an introduction to key design concepts of pedestrian friendly development including: compact, mixed-use development, pedestrian-oriented site design, and traditional neighborhood street design.

Development Incentives -- Seattle Department of Planning and Development, Seattle, Washington

The Seattle Department of Planning and Development maintains a Development Incentives section on its website. This feature provides an overview of incentives by project type, as outlined by city Green Building staff, to help you achieve your green building goals.

Development Principles and Ordinance Manual for Protecting Nature

The Chicago Wilderness coalition produces a variety of publications for the general public, teachers, decision-makers, scientists and land managers. Sustainable Development Principles: Protecting Nature in the Chicago Wilderness Region is one of their latest publications.

Directory of Federal Programs for Environmentally-Related Education

The Directory of Federal Grant-Making Programs for Environmentally-Related Education, published by Campaign for Environmental Literacy (CEL), is designed to help meet the need of the environmental education community for easily accessible and reasonably comprehensive information about federal funding programs. It also helps enable the Campaign for Environmental Literacy to track and analyze government grant-making trends, and to provide this information to Members of Congress.

Disadvantaged Communities Network: Brownfield Tools and Assistance

The Northeast-Midwest Institute has posted on its website presentations and audio archives from the EPA-sponsored Disadvantaged Communities Network events. The Network was launched in 2006 launched to provide brownfields tools and technical assistance to local communities that are seeking to overcome economic and neighborhood disadvantage.

Diversity: Smart Growth for Inclusion

The Winter 2007 edition of On Common Ground focuses on inclusion and diversity. People who care about inclusion and diversity are viewing Smart Growth, which supports a greater diversity and connectivity in the physical pattern of growth, as one tool to bring people together across racial and class lines.

Downtown Planning for Smaller and Midsized Communities

''For so long we were floundering and taking ad hoc measures, but the minute I understood what a downtown plan really was I said 'We need one of those!' As it turned out, it was the most fantastic vehicle I've ever seen,'' said Susan Moffat-Thomas of New Bern, North Carolina. Her hometown got a much-needed shot in the arm from a good downtown plan. Does yours need a similar boost?

Philip L. Walker, an experienced downtown-planning consultant, offers practical tips for preserving a sense of place, improving fiscal efficiency, and enhancing quality of life in Downtown Planning for Smaller and Midsized Communities.

Planners and revitalization officials will learn how to address physical components of the downtown, as well as economic development. Walker, an experienced downtown-planning consultant, also explains how to develop an organization to implement a downtown plan; how federal, state, and local policies may influence the planning process; and how to fund a downtown revitalization effort.

Downtowns and Town Centers

The Planning Commissioners Journal is the nation's principal publication designed for citizen planners, including (but certainly not limited to) members of local planning commissions and zoning boards. ''Downtowns and Town Centers'' is an index of journal articles on downtown topics such as Farmers' Markets, Historic Preservation Ordinances, Public Buildings, Parking, and more.

Draft Report on the Environment

The U.S. EPA's Draft Report on the Environment is a report that describes current national environmental conditions and trends using existing data and indicators. The report identifies data gaps and research needs, and discusses the challenges government and our partners face in filling those gaps.

Draft Vermont Pedestrian and Bicycle Policy Plan

The State of Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) has developed a draft Vermont Pedestrian and Bicycle Policy Plan to promote bicycling and walking as an integral part of the overall transportation network in Vermont.

Driven to Action: Stopping Sprawl in Your Community

Driven to Action encourages communities to reshape urban areas by helping to set the rules and making plans for sustainable cities.

Earth Day TV

Earth Day TV is providing streaming video and topical programming for environmental awareness. Look for feeds and live events in the program guide.

EcoDensity -- Vancouver

EcoDensity is a concept being discussed with the Vancouver community. In brief, EcoDensity is an acknowledgement that high quality and strategically located density can make Vancouver more sustainable, livable and affordable.

EcoIndustrial Strategies

Eco-industrial Strategies explores the key issues involved in eco-industrial development and identifies the stakeholders and their roles in such projects.

Ecological Design and Building Schools

Ecological Design and Building Schools is the first and only directory of ecological design and building schools in North America, featuring an annotated listing of schools and educational centers that offer top programs in ecological building design and construction.

Ecological Design Manual for Lake County, Florida

The goal of this manual is to illustrate how development objectives and natural resource protection needs within a high-growth area can be addressed through the physical design of residential projects.

Published December 2001. 42 pages; available online as a PDF document at the resource link below.

Ecological Riverfront Design

Ecological Riverfront Design puts forth a new vision for the nation's urban riverfronts and provides a set of planning and design principles that will allow communities to reclaim urban river edges in the most ecologically sound and economically viable manner possible.

Eco-Municipalities: A Model for Sustainable Communities in Wisconsin

The Ecomunicipality: Model for Sustainable Community Change describes a systems approach to creating sustainable communities. Written by Torbjörn Lahti and Sarah James, and adapted and updated by Lisa MacKinnon, this document provides an overview of what an ecomunicipality is, how it functions, and what it can achieve.

Economic Development and Redevelopment

Economic Development and Redevelopment: A Toolkit on Land Use and Health is a toolkit designed for nutrition and other public health advocates who need additional resources, beyond zoning and general plan revisions, to improve the food access in low-income neighborhoods and are seeking a fundamental, introductory understanding of the economic development and redevelopment tools available, their use, and how to effectively participate in decisions about their use.

Economic Development and Smart Growth

Economic development success and smart growth can go hand-in-hand. The International Economic Development Council's (IEDC's) Economic Development and Smart Growth presents eight case studies on communities that incorporated smart growth principles in their development projects and have experienced economic development improvements in the form of increased tax revenue, more jobs, higher income levels, downtown revitalization, business growth, and other indicators of economic success.

edra/Achievement Awards 2006

The Environmental Design Research Association invites applicants for their 2006 Achievement Awards, given in recognition of a specific contribution that advances the field of environmental design research through the generation of knowledge, public service, or professional practice, for a coherent recognizable body of work or activities by an individual or group.

Elder Friendly Communities

Elder Friendly Communities is the third component of the Successful Aging Initiative of the Cleveland Foundation, a multi-phased program that supports and promotes the assets and positive aspects of aging. The Successful Aging Initiative is focused on establishing elder-friendly communities, lifelong learning and development centers, and increased prospects for civic engagement, including meaningful volunteering and post-retirement employment opportunities.

Elder Friendly Communities Program

The Elder Friendly Communities Program supports seniors to connect with each other, contribute to their neighbourhoods, and effectively voice their concerns through senior-led initiatives. The Calgary, Alberta program promotes the use of promising practices for collaborative community development work with seniors as identified through research.

Electronic Green Government Network

The National Association of Counties (NACo) Electronic Green Government Network is a source for information on all things green for county officials, staff, and public and private companies with an interest in learning about county activities in this area.

Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Economic Development

This new book provides a refreshing look at how American cities are leading the way toward greener, cleaner, and more sustainable forms of economic development.

In Emerald Cities, Joan Fitzgerald shows how in the absence of a comprehensive national policy, cities like Chicago, New York, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle have taken the lead in addressing the interrelated environmental problems of global warming, pollution, energy dependence, and social justice. Cities are major sources of pollution but because of their population density, reliance on public transportation, and other factors, Fitzgerald argues that they are uniquely suited to promote and benefit from green economic development. For cities facing worsening budget constraints, investing in high-paying green jobs in renewable energy technology, construction, manufacturing, recycling, and other fields will solve two problems at once, sparking economic growth while at the same time dramatically improving quality of life.

Fitzgerald also examines how investing in green research and technology may help to revitalize older industrial cities and offers examples of cities that don't make the top-ten green lists such as Toledo and Cleveland, Ohio and Syracuse, New York. And for cities wishing to emulate those already engaged in developing greener economic practices, Fitzgerald shows which strategies will be most effective according to each city's size, economic history, geography, and other unique circumstances. But cities cannot act alone, and Fitzgerald analyzes the role of state and national government policy in helping cities create the next wave of clean technology growth.

Lucid, forward-looking, and guided by a level-headed optimism that clearly distinguishes between genuine progress and exaggerated claims, Emerald Cities points the way toward a sustainable future for the American city.

Enabling Source Water Protection

Expressions of interest are being sought from states that can lead the country in developing and showcasing innovative ways to protect drinking water sources through improved coordination among state land use management and water protection programs.

Energy and Smart Growth (Translation Paper #15)

This translation paper from the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities contends there is much to be gained by expanding the smart growth movement to include greater attention on energy. Through greater use of energy efficient design and renewable energy sources, the smart growth movement could better achieve its goals of environmental protection, economic security and prosperity, and community livability.

Energy Benefits of Urban Infill Developments, Brownfields and Sustainable Urban Development

In Energy Benefits of Urban Infill Developments, a report from the Northeast-Midwest Institute, sustainable urban redevelopment is shown to be a potential major source of greenhouse gas reduction.

Energy Guide for Campus Cost Savings

The Energy Smart Guide to Campus Cost Savings was created to help college and university managers sort through the opportunities and possibilities for saving energy and money on their campuses.

Energy Star Awards -- 2008

Each year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) honor organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through energy efficiency in the Energy Star Awards. On April 1, 2008, the EPA and DOE honored award winners at the 2008 ENERGY STAR Awards Ceremony in Washington, DC.

Energy Star Challenge

The ENERGY STAR Challenge is a national call-to-action to improve the energy efficiency of America's commercial and industrial buildings by 10 percent or more. Whether you're associated with a small school or a large corporation, a local government or a national association, a community hospital or a hotel group, a manufacturing plant or an architecture firm -- you can be part of the ENERGY STAR Challenge and help improve the energy efficiency of America's commercial and industrial buildings by 10 percent or more.

Energy Star Nominations -- 2009

Each year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) honor organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through energy efficiency. Award winners will be recognized at the ENERGY STAR Awards Ceremony on March 31, 2009, in Washington, DC.

Energy Star Successes

Thousands of organizations have made the commitment to superior energy performance. ENERGY STAR recognizes many of their successes and encourages every organization to play a critical role in environmental leadership through better energy management.

Energy Tax Incentives Website

The Tax Incentives Assistance Project (TIAP) is designed to give consumers and businesses information they need to make use of the federal income tax incentives for energy efficient products and technologies passed by Congress as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Enterprise at Home for Progress at Large: The Economics of Sustainability

This new report focuses on economies in transition—economies that are threatened by the consequences of environmental changes. The report explores how key civic leaders, faced with the challenge of ensuring the future strength of their economies, have employed creative new agendas that not only help reverse the effects of environmental degradation but also leverage the occasion for valuable economic gain.

While national debates rage over which production methods will lead to a stronger, more sustainable environment, and while research and development teams struggle to produce the next revolutionary technology, it is on the local level that incredible progress is being made in advancing sustainability measures beyond rhetoric. City governments and grassroots activists are often the most obvious players, but there is a powerful—and perhaps unexpected—player in the green arena that is leading the charge in cutting emissions and conserving energy while boosting regional economies: the business community.

These activities are not wild expansions of their mission, but are essential to fulfilling it. Businesses that emit little emissions and consume fewer resources are the stronger, leaner and more agile businesses of America’s future and as the organizations that work to support economic development and improve local quality of life, many chambers of commerce have dedicated themselves to aiding in the success of green businesses. The ingenuity and forward thinking exemplified by the chambers highlighted here are the first bold steps toward a more sustainable and robust American economy.

The report provides tells stories of entrepreneurship and success—stories of chambers of commerce throughout the country instituting green business recognition programs, working to attract clean industries, creating green jobs, and providing resources to local businesses to implement more sustainable practices.

Enterprise Resource Database

The Enterprise Resource Database is an extensive library of community-based resources from the Enterprise Foundation. Database categories include regional and neighborhood planning, housing, community safety, finance, and community building.

Environment Education Grants

The Grants Program sponsored by EPA’s Office of Environmental Education supports environmental education projects that enhance the public’s awareness, knowledge, and skills to help people make informed decisions that affect environmental quality.

Environment Performance Measurement Project

The Environmental Performance Measurement Project aims to shift environmental decision-making to firmer analytic foundations using environmental indicators and statistics.

Environment Program -- Kresge Foundation

The Kresge Foundation is a national foundation that has been advocating environmental conservation for many years, especially through its Green Building Initiative. In June 2008, the Foundation decided to elevate this interest and expand it into a major, comprehensive program -- the Environment Program -- to cultivate solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, accelerate renewable energy technologies, and support efforts to help society adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Environmental Assistance Grants -- Minnesota

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Environmental Assistance Grant Program is a competitive, two-stage application process to identify and assist projects that will be most beneficial in meeting the Agency's mission of working with Minnesotans to protect, conserve, and improve Minnesota's air, land and water resources.

Environmental Characteristics of Smart Growth Neighborhoods

This new study (also conducted for NRDC in cooperation with EPA) continues that research by comparing two neighborhoods in Nashville, Tennessee, and suggests that the combination of better transportation accessibility and a modest increase in land-use density can produce measurable benefits even when both sites are automobile-oriented and suburban in character.

Environmental Design Awards

The Environmental Design Research Association presents several awards annually for design competitions that recognize achievements in active place design, service efforts, and more.

Environmental Education Funding

The Washington State Environmental Education Initiative offers a section on Environmental Education grants on its website.

Environmental Health Perspectives: Built Environment

Built Environment is a collection of articles from Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed open access journal dedicated to the effect of the environment on human health.

Environmental Justice Achievement Awards -- 2008

The U.S. EPA's Environmental Justice Achievement Awards recognize organizations for their success in addressing environmental justice issues or by adopting the goals of environmental justice to positively impact their community.

Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative

The Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC) is a diverse coalition of U.S. environmental justice, religious, climate justice, policy and advocacy networks working for climate justice. This consensus-based coalition develops projects, programs and papers to educate policymakers and connect with thousands of people in communities across the country about the effects of climate change and environmental injustice.

Environmental Justice Grants

The New York State DEC Office of Environmental Justice is now accepting grant applications from community organizations for projects that address environmental and related public health issues. Projects must address multiple harms and risks to communities and communicate project results to the community residents.

Environmental Justice Small Grants Awards

Fiscal Year 2009 marks the 15th anniversary of the U.S. EPA's Environmental Justice Small Grants Program (EJSG). Since its inception in 1994, the Program has awarded more than $20 million in funding to 1,130 community-based organizations, and local and tribal organizations working with communities who are facing environmental justice issues.

Environmental Justice Small Grants Program -- 2008 Call for Applications

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published an Application Guidance document for its 2008 Environmental Justice Small Grants Program. Deadline for applications is June 30, 2008.

Environmental Justice Small Grants Program -- Fall 2006

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) provides financial assistance for local community-based organizations through the Environmental Justice Small Grants (EJSG) Program. Established in 1994, the purpose of this program is to provide financial assistance that will support and empower community-based organizations that are working on local solutions to local environmental and/or public health problems.

Environmental Justice Small Grants Program -- Spring 2006

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) provides financial assistance for local community-based organizations through the Environmental Justice Small Grants (EJSG) Program. Established in 1994, the purpose of this program is to provide financial assistance that will support and empower community-based organizations that are working on local solutions to local environmental and/or public health problems.

Environmental Justice, Urban Revitalization and Brownfields

''Environmental Justice, Urban Revitalization, and Brownfields: The Search for Authentic Signs of Hope'' is a report on equitable development endorsed by the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) at its May 29-31, 1996 meeting in Detroit, Michigan.

Environmental Justice: The Power of Partnerships

Environmental Justice: The Power of Partnerships is a documentary film from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that tells the story of how one man, a local community organization called ReGenesis, and a handful of partners turned a downtrodden community around. It's about the process of discovering -- after being exposed to environmental contamination -- a public health problem, working together to envision broad solutions, bringing people together, and creating change. It's about a place that ''couldn't get any worse,'' according to one resident, that is now being transformed.

Environmental Law Institute's ''Sustainability and Resource Protection''

Environmental Law Institute uses sustainability as an organizing principle to develop new strategies for the protection of land, water, and biological resources. ELI’s Sustainability and Resource Protection Programs improve our nation’s laws, policies, and institutions. Integrating environmental laws, tax laws, development laws, and other tools. ELI works with state, local, and federal agencies, citizen groups, non-profit organizations, and corporate partners to develop effective solutions to problems of land and resource use.

Environmental Merit Awards -- New England

The U.S. EPA-Region 1 (New England) is now accepting nominations for groups and individuals to be considered for an Environmental Merit Award. The nomination period closes January 22, 2007. The winners will be notified in late March and the Awards Ceremony will be held in Boston in mid April.

Environmental Merit Awards -- New England

For more than thirty years, EPA New England has honored those who have made outstanding contributions on behalf of the region's environment. EPA's Environmental Merit Award program has honored teachers, citizen activists, business leaders, scientists, public officials and others who have made outstanding contributions on behalf of the region's public health and natural environment.

Environmental Merit Awards -- New England

The U.S. EPA-Region 1 (New England) is now accepting nominations for groups and individuals to be considered for an Environmental Merit Award. The nomination period closes January 22, 2007. The winners will be notified in late March and the Awards Ceremony will be held in Boston in mid April.

Environmental Public Health Tracking

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is currently leading an initiative to build a National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network. The National Tracking Network is a web-based system that will bring together data from several systems that look at environmental hazard monitoring, human exposure surveillance and health effects surveillance.

Environmental Research and Education Needs

Environmental Research and Education Needs: An Agenda for a New Administration is report from the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), published in December 2008, that organizes the recommendations relating to research and education policy from NCSE's first eight national conferences (2000-2008). It identifies research needed to improve scientific knowledge, and education needed to improve public understanding, professional capacity and a strong workforce.

Environmental Restoration Program -- New York

Under the Environmental Restoration Program, the State of New York provides grants to municipalities to reimburse up to 90 percent of on-site eligible costs and 100% of off-site eligible costs for site investigation and remediation activities. Once remediated, the property may then be reused for commercial, industrial, residential or public use.

Environmental Stewardship and the Green Campus

Colleges and universities are ideally suited to implement sustainability practices through environmental programs, energy conservation, and recycling. Environmental Stewardship and the Green Campus outlines practical steps your campus or institution can take to promote sustainability, including solid waste reduction, water conservation, transportation solutions, new construction, grounds and land use, and more.

EnviroTools: State Brownfield Programs

EnviroTools is a website guide to involve your community in the cleanup of a polluted site. To help answer the question: ''How do we clean up this mess?'' EnviroTools has assembled a collection of educational materials on Superfund and Brownfields sites, along with sites cleaned up under state programs. The site also has a section on financing.

Envisioning Better Communities: Seeing More Options, Making Wiser Choices

Randall Arendt's work has shaped a generation of planners, designers, and landscape architects. In Envisioning Better Communities, he brings his insights to a broader public, with a profusely illustrated demonstration of how local officials, planning commissioners, and everyday citizens can work to make their communities more attractive, more habitable, and more sustainable.

Despite the widespread acceptance of good design and planning principles throughout the professions, too many of our towns and rural areas remain needlessly ugly and inefficient. In side by side comparisons of similar places and kinds of buildings, Arendt shows that we need not live amid sprawling, characterless visual blight. Simple design choices and effective municipal decisions can have tremendous impacts on the quality of our communities.

Written in Arendt's well-known clear, accessible, nontechnical style, this book creates a sense of hope for those who face the everyday challenges of working with developers and landowners to create places that make economic, environmental, and aesthetic sense. Arendt shows us that with diligence, thoughtfulness, and care, we can make our communities better in countless ways.

EPA 5th Annual P3 Awards: Student Design Competition

The U.S. EPA announces its 5th Annual P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet. As part of the P3 Award Program, EPA is seeking applications proposing to research, develop, and design solutions to real world challenges involving sustainability.

EPA 6th Annual P3 Awards: Student Design Competition

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) invite submissions to the 6th Annual P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability.

EPA Accepting Nominations for Watershed Protection Initiative

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting nominations for President Bush's Watershed Protection Initiative. Governors and Tribal leaders are invited to submit nominations for projects that would help promote and advance successes in up to 20 watersheds.

EPA Announces Funding for Baltimore Brownfields Assessments

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded the Baltimore Development Corp. $400,000 in EPA brownfields funding to help assess abandoned industrial properties in Baltimore.

EPA Announces New RFP: ''Smart Growth Streets and Emergency Response''

A new grant RFP issued by the U.S. EPA's Development, Community, and Environment Division seeks to bring together emergency response officials, local government officials, transportation experts, and developers to engage in a problem-solving process around the issue of simultaneously meeting the needs for emergency response with the design of smart growth streets. The goal is to create a solution or set of solutions that have the endorsement of these multiple interests and will be applicable nationally across the U.S. and/or in significant regions of the country. The RFP will also support outreach efforts to educate relevant stakeholders nationally.

EPA Announces Winners of the 2004 National Awards
for Smart Growth Achievement

On November 17, EPA announced five winners of the 2004 National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. This Award recognizes outstanding achievement in smart growth by tribal, local, or regional governments in five categories: Overall Excellence, Built Projects, Policies and Regulation, Community Outreach and Education, and Small Communities.

EPA Brownfields Cleanup Grants

The U.S. EPA offers brownfields cleanup grant opportunities that provide funding for a grant recipient to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites.

EPA Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund

The Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) grants provide funding for a grant recipient to capitalize a revolving loan fund and to provide subgrants to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites. Through these grants, EPA seeks to strengthen the marketplace and encourage stakeholders to leverage the resources needed to clean up and redevelop brownfields. When loans are repaid, the loan amount is returned into the fund and re-lent to other borrowers, providing an ongoing source of capital within a community.

EPA Brownfields Funding Information

This website from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency contains information on Brownfields funding for loans, job training, technical assistance, and other items related to brownfield remediation and management.

EPA CARE Grants 2006 -- Reduce Risks from Toxics

The US EPA announces availability of funds for its Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) Program. Proposals are being sought to meet financial assistance needs for eligible entities through the new CARE program.

EPA CARE Grants 2008 -- Reduce Risks from Toxics

The U.S. EPA announces availability of funds for its Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) Program. Proposals are being sought to meet financial assistance needs for eligible entities through the new CARE program.

EPA P3 Award Winners Announced at the 2006 National Sustainable Design Expo

George Gray, Assistant Administrator for U.S. EPA's Office of Research and Development, has announced winners of EPA's 2nd Annual P3 Awards -- People, Prosperity, and the Planet. Six student teams from Appalachian State University, University of Michigan, Lafayette College, Portland State University, University of Massachusetts -- Lowell, and Stanford University won the awards by competing at EPA's National Sustainable Design Expo.

EPA Region 3 Brownfields Grants -- EPA Region 3 (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, District of Columbia)

The U.S. EPA’s Brownfields Program provides direct funding for brownfields assessment, cleanup, revolving loans, and environmental job training. To facilitate the leveraging of public resources, EPA’s Brownfields Program collaborates with other EPA programs, other federal partners, and state agencies to identify and make available resources that can be used for brownfields activities. In addition to direct brownfields funding, EPA also provides technical information on brownfields financing matters.

EPA Region 4 Environmental Priorities

EPA Region 4 is soliciting proposals for projects for Fiscal Year 2006 to address regional and state strategic priorities that meet national Regional Geographic Initiative (RGI) and Environmental Priorities Program (EPP) funding criteria.

EPA Region 6 Brownfields Job Training Grants -- EPA Region 6 (New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana)

This resource lists EPA Region 6 Brownfields Job Training Grants recipients from 1998 through 2007. Region 6 serves Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and 65 Tribes. For Fiscal Year 2007, the U.S. EPA has selected the City of Camden, Arkansas, for a job training grant. Camden plans to train 30 participants and place at least 24 in environmental jobs. Students will be tracked using a specialized career planning system that will track graduates and provide them with support throughout their lifetime.

EPA Region 6 Brownfields Program -- EPA Region 6 (New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana)

As part of the U.S. EPA's initiative to reuse and revitalize contaminated property, the Brownfields Program provides funds and technical assistance to states, communities and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together to prevent, assess, safely cleanup, and sustainably reuse brownfields. This resource provides information on the U.S. EPA's Brownfields Program, including the Brownfields Revitalization Act, grants, technical tools and resources, as well as information on Brownfields projects across the country.

EPA’s Pollution Prevention Grant

EPA created the P2 grant program under the authority of the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990. The grant program provides matching funds to state and tribal programs to support P2 activities across all environmental media and to develop state programs. EPA believes state-based environmental programs have the best opportunity to promote P2 because states have closer, more direct contact with industry and are more aware of local needs.

EPA-NOAA Coastal Community Development Partnership

The EPA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have agreed to work together to help coastal communities grow in ways that benefit the economy, public health, and the environment.

EPA's Brownfields Job Training Grants

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers job training grants to teach environmental-cleanup job skills to individuals living in low income areas near Brownfields sites. Grants go to non-profit organizations, educational institutions, community colleges, tribes, and state and local governments.

EPA's Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Model

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Model is a handbook for all stakeholders to understand how equitable development and local environmental and/or public health issues can be addressed through the Collaborative Problem-Solving (CPS) Model.

EPA's Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Program

The U.S. EPA's Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Program (SGIA) is an annual, competitive solicitation open to state, local, regional, and tribal governments (and non-profits that have partnered with a governmental entity) that want to incorporate smart growth techniques into their future development.

EPA's Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Program: 2007 Communities

EPA developed the Smart Growth Implementation Assistance (SGIA) program in response to communities' requests for help in achieving their development goals. Through this program, EPA provides technical assistance from private-sector experts to help communities find the best tools and resources to plan for growth in ways that sustain environmental and economic progress and create a high quality of life.

Equitable Renewal: Ten Points to Guide Rebuilding in the Gulf Coast Region

Equitable Renewal: Ten Points to Guide Rebuilding in the Gulf Coast Region is an outline of steps from PolicyLink to help ensure that restoration of hurricane-damage communities is fair and just.

EquityBlog

EquityBlog is a project of PolicyLink to help nurture and inspire the nation's equity movement. The strong and growing equity community is united in bringing greater opportunity to all Americans, especially those from low-income communities and communities of color.

Essential Smart Growth Fixes for Urban and Suburban Zoning Codes

Across the country, local governments are searching for ways to create vibrant communities that attract jobs, foster economic development, and provide attractive places for people to live, work, and play. But many are discovering that their own land development codes and ordinances often get in the way of achieving these goals, and they may not have the resources or expertise to make the specific regulatory changes that will create more sustainable communities.

In response to this need, EPA's Smart Growth Program convened a panel of national smart growth code experts to identify the topics in local zoning codes that are essential to creating the building blocks of smart growth. The resulting document, Essential Smart Growth Fixes for Urban and Suburban Zoning Codes, presents the panel's initial work. This document explores 11 ''Essential Fixes'' that address the most common barriers local governments face in implementing smart growth. These actions are organized as modest adjustments, major modifications, or wholesale changes -- giving communities options based on their political will, financial resources, and organizational capacity.

This tool does not include model language, codes or ordinances. It can, however, help communities evaluate their existing codes and ordinances and apply that information to create more sustainable comunities. It is an evolving document that will be regularly revised and updated, and is intended to spark a larger conversation about the tools and information local governments need to revise their land development regulations.

European Urban Knowledge Network

The European Urban Knowledge Network (EUKN) shares knowledge and experience on tackling urban issues. Fifteen EU Member States, EUROCITIES, the URBACT Programme and the European Commission participate in this European initiative.

Excellence in Green Building Education Awards -- 2009

The U.S. Green Building Council's Excellence in Green Building Education Awards Program recognizes outstanding curriculum and teaching methods that incorporate the built environment to teach sustainability.

F as in Fat

F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America, 2005 from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH), reports that obesity rates in the United States continued to rise last year in every state but one.

Facing the Future

Facing the Future believes in the transformative power of widespread, systemic education to improve lives and communities, both locally and globally. The organization's positive, solutions-based programming is designed by and for teachers, and effectively brings critical thinking about global issues to students in every walk of life.

Fact Sheet: Making Streets Safe for Bicycling and Walking

America Bikes Complete the Streets, a two-page fact sheet that discusses the inadequacies of many streets for bicycle and pedestrian traffic, the safety risks for those who choose to ride or walk those streets, and ways to accommodate alternate transporation on new street projects.

Fair and Healthy Land Use

Fair and Healthy Land Use, a report from the American Planning Association's (APA's) Planning Advisory Services, explains how the principles of environmental justice can be incorporated into land-use planning processes.

Fall 2007 Walking School Bus Program -- Columbia, Missouri

The Columbia, Missouri, PedNet Coalition is hosting a Walking School Bus Program at seven area public elementary schools during the Fall 2007 semester.

Farm to Cafeteria Connections

This handbook is designed to be a resource for farmers, food service professionals and community members in developing Farm-to-Cafeteria programs in Washington state. It provides locally relevant information and an overall look at Farm-to-Cafeteria programs from all across the country.

Farm to Hospital

Farm to Hospital illustrates how improving health care can be accomplished by supporting local agriculture. Linking local farms and hospitals can improve the freshness, quality, and nutritional value of hospital food while opening new markets for small and medium sized farmers.

Farm to Table New Mexico

Farm to Table, a Santa Fe, New Mexico non-profit organization, focuses on linking local food and fiber production to local needs by improving communities' access to nutritious, affordable, locally grown and culturally significant foods.

Farmers Market Promotion Program Grants -- 2009

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting applications for competitive grants targeted to helping increase consumption of agricultural commodities by expanding direct producer-to-consumer market opportunities. This is the fourth year of the grant program, the Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP), which was authorized by the Farmer-to-Consumer Direct Marketing Act of 1976 and amended by the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (the Farm Bill).

Farming on the Edge

American Farmland Trust's Farming on the Edge conference brings together people from all across the country who want to create a sustainable future for America's working lands. It provides a forum for planners, land trusts, conservationists, farmers, ranchers and others to network and share their expertise and experience.

''Farming on the Edge'' State Maps Available

''Farming on the Edge: Sprawling Development Threatens America's Best Farmland'' uses the tool of compelling maps to lay out the threats and gives reasoned solutions-so communities, legislators and individuals can clearly see what needs to be done to protect the country's best farmland.

Federal Buildings MOU

The Federal Leadership in High Performance and Sustainable Buildings Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) became effective on January 24, 2006 when senior officials from 17 federal agencies signed the MOU during the first-ever White House Summit on Sustainable Federal Buildings. To date, 19 federal agencies, representing more than 95% of the total federal facility square footage, have joined the MOU.

Fertile Ground

Fertile Ground is a report on the first year of Green Communities, a five-year, $555 million initiative to build more than 8,500 environmentally healthy homes for low-income families. The report states that the initiative exceeded expectations in its first year, as a diverse array of partners embraced the initiative’s holistic, cost-effective approach to sustainable development in low-income communities.

FHWA Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program

The US Federal Highway Safety Administration Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Program has the goal of reducing these pedestrian fatalities. To accomplish this goal FHWA provides guidance on street and intersection design improvements that promote pedestrian safety.

FHWA Safe Routes to School

The Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Office of Safety offers a web site dedicated to the new Safe Routes to School Program (SR2S). The web site provides preliminary information about the program passed by Congress in 2005.

Field Guide to Green Homes and Green Mortgages

The National Assocation of Realtors® has produced an online Field Guide to Green Homes and Green Mortgages. This web digest of published articles covers many topics, including how to finance a green home, incorporating green home elements such as solar power and Energy Star appliances, and environmentally friendly building materials.

Financial Incentives for Building Green Affordable Housing in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) has produced a two-page chart that provides information on funding resources for building green affordable housing.

Financial Resources for California Brownfields

Financial Resources for California Brownfields is a 2008 publication from the Center for Creative Land Recycling (CCLR) that provides an overview of the available financial mechanisms for funding brownfield redevelopment in California and describes several new and innovative programs.

Financial Resources for California Brownfields -- California

Financial Resources for California Brownfields is a packet that provides an overview of the available financial mechanisms for funding brownfield redevelopment in California and describes several new and innovative programs.

Financing Brownfield Development in Small Towns and Rural Areas

The Northeast-Midwest Institute examines ways that how rural communities successfully finance the redevelopment and reuse of brownfield sites in their report Financing Brownfield Development in Small Towns and Rural Areas.

Financing Greenways

The Environmental Finance Center (EFC) at the University of Maryland features a web resource that includes trail-building cost estimates from several Virginia communities as well as techniques to help partner with community members, raise funds, and seek grants for greenway programs.

First Stop Shop for Water Resources

The First Stop Shop for Water Resources from the Local Government Commission (LGC) is a clearinghouse for information and resources related to the co-management of land and water resources. This website is dedicated to providing the most relevant, up-to-date, and useful information about water resource management and putting it all in one place that is easy to navigate so you can find what you need when you need it.

Florida Brownfields

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) maintains a website on the state's brownfield program, including information on state and federal initiatives, locations of active projects and designated brownfield areas, and more.

Florida Brownfields Grants

The Florida Brownfields Association (FBA) has announced that five Florida communities have received new U.S. EPA Brownfields Grants: Treasure Coast RPC, City of Clearwater, City of Homestead, City of Miami, and City of Tampa.

Florida Brownfields Redevelopment

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection maintains a website for the Florida Brownfields Redevelopment Program. Covered topics include Targeted Brownfield Assessment, Petroleum Storage Systems, Solid and Hazardous Waste, Waste Cleanup, and Publications and Reports.

Florida Brownfields Success Stories

The Florida Brownfields Association (FBA) offers this select list of success stories in its ongoing efforts to promote Brownfields redevelopment in the sunshine state.

Florida Department of Health -- Smart Growth Presentation

The Florida Department of Health (FDOH) offers a smart growth presentation that provides an overview of smart growth in the context of public health. This resource emphasizes the connection between public health and the built environment, and how following Smart Growth principles can benefit Florida.

Florida Parks in the 21st Century

Florida Parks in the 21st Century, a report from the Trust for Public Land (TPL), catalogues $8.3 billion in both land conservation and park development needs of local governments. Co-produced by the Florida Recreation and Park Association, Florida League of Cities, and TPL, the report catalogues the need for $8.3 billion in land conservation and park development as derived from locally-approved comprehensive plans prepared by Florida's cities and counties.

Florida Parks in the 21st Century: 2008 Report

Florida Parks in the 21st Century 2008, a report from Trust for Public Land (TPL) that is based on data provided directly from city and county park departments, suggests that the need for local parks in Florida is growing. Local park departments have documented $10.5 billion they'll need to acquire land for new parks and maintain existing parks.

Florida Smart Growth Advocates

1000 Friends of Florida has compiled this list of local advocacy groups that are dealing with the impacts of growth on a daily basis. This online resource contains contact information for more than a dozen organizations.

Focusing Our Vision: Planning for Sustainability in the San Francisco Region

The Vision was created in 2002 by individuals and organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area who believe that the region's population growth can be accommodated in a sustainable way. The Vision calls for the Bay Area to develop as a ''network of neighborhoods,'' where future growth is concentrated near transit and in the existing communities that surround the San Francisco Bay. Focusing Our Vision is the most recent effort to realize the Vision. Referred to as FOCUS, the program's nickname is fitting because it requires a FOCUS of efforts, resources and housing development in areas that will promote the long-term sustainability of the region.

Food, Markets, and Healthy Communities

Food, Markets, and Healthy Communities, a new report from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), discusses how food markets can affect low-income neighborhoods and provides several strong case studies that illustrate their significant impact, emphasizing that the presence of a high-quality food market is a critical component to a community’s physical and economic health.

Footloose and Fancy Free -- Walkable Urbanism

Footloose and Fancy Free: A Field Survey of Walkable Urban Places in the Top 30 U.S. Metropolitan Areas from The Brookings Institution is a field survey that attempts to identify the number and location of ''regional-serving'' walkable urban places in the 30 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., where 138 million, or 46 percent, of the U.S. population lives.

For the Greener Good: Public Lecture Series

For the Greener Good is a public series that affirms the National Building Museum's commitment to environmental sustainability. It calls on experts from diverse backgrounds to investigate links between environmental sustainability and design, public health, energy policy, bioscience, infrastructure, education, and even popular culture.

Forum on Children and Nature

The National Forum on Children and Nature is a diverse group of public and private leaders dedicated to reconnecting kids with nature. Hosted by The Conservation Fund hosts and comprised of four governors, three mayors, corporate CEOs, parks officials and others, the Forum's goal is to improve children's health and overall well-being, while encouraging them to rediscover America's landscape.

Free Legal Resources Available

The American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy and Resources has initiated a new pilot program that offers free legal assistance to support community-based environmental protection efforts.

Fresh Food Financing Initiative Award

The Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative, a public-private financing program that provides innovative financing solutions to supermarket operators in underserved communities to improve access to healthy and affordable food, was named one of the Top 50 Government Innovations for 2006 by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

From Brownfields to Housing

Brownfield redevelopment -- the cleanup and reuse of abandoned properties with real or suspected contamination -- offers communities a range of housing opportunities, especially where market factors or a property's size or location restrict possibilities for commercial and industrial reuse.

From Rags to Riches: Innovations in Petroleum Brownfields

Almost every city and town contains a site with an underground storage tank (UST) that is affected by petroleum contamination or impacted by the perception that contamination exists. From Rags to Riches: Innovations in Petroleum Brownfields from the Northeast/Midwest Institute, describes the progress states and communities have made in addressing UST situations.

From Sprawl to Smart Growth: Sacramento as a Case Study

Mike McKeever, the executive director of the Sacramento Council of Governments, talks to GreenBiz Radio about implementing the area's widely praised smart growth strategy and how smart growth is changing how businesses plan their own growth.

From Wall Street to Your Street: New Solutions for Smart Growth Finance

Commissioned by the Funders' Network, From Wall Street to Your Street: New Solutions for Smart Growth Finance reassess the current methods for smart growth finance and sketches out two different ''fixes'' for the problem of financing smart growth.

Frontera Farmer Foundation Grants -- 2009

The Frontera Farmer Foundation is committed to promoting small, sustainable Midwestern farms serving the Chicago area, by providing them with capital development grants. Small local farms, which often struggle financially, are more likely to promote biodiversity by planting a wide range of produce and operate using organic practices. By their artisanal approach to agriculture, the freshness of their product and the variety of their offerings, these farmers insure the highest quality food while they add immeasurably to the fabric of their local rural community.

Funders' Network Publishes Health and Smart Growth Translation Paper

The Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities has published its most recent translation paper: Health and Smart Growth: Building Health, Promoting Active Communities.

Funders' Network: Looking Back

To acknowledge and celebrate its 10th Anniversary in 2009, the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities commissioned Looking Back: Influencing, Networking, Facilitating, a retrospective on the efforts undertaken by the Network and its members over the past ten years.

Funders' Network: Looking Forward

To acknowledge and celebrate its 10th Anniversary in 2009, the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities Looking Forward: Perspectives on Future Opportunities for Philanthropy, a compilation of essays from leading thinkers in the movement for smarter growth policies and practices that challenge philanthropy to think about its role over the next ten years.

Funding Brownfield Redevelopment

The Community/School Partnership for Brownfields Development offers an online guide to funding brownfields redevelopment. The guide is part of the school curriculum developed by the Purdue EPICS team for the ''Our Town Project'' (OTP).

Funding Resources for Farmers Markets

The Farmers' Market Project promotes awareness among farmers' market managers of the increasing attention farmers' markets are receiving from private foundations, national-level non-governmental organizations, and new and existing opportunities for assistance from federal agricultural programs. The Project website includes a funding resources page, which provides information on financial assistance for local markets.

Funding Sources -- Bike and Pedestrian

New York Bikes! -- the official website of the New York Bicycling Coalition (NYBC) -- provides a list of funding sources for bicycle- and pedestrian-related projects.

Funding Sources -- Trails and Greenways

National Trails Training Partnership has added a list of funding sources for trails and greenways proponents to the resources and archives section of its website.

Gardening with Kids Awards

Kids eat better and develop positive attitudes towards fruits and veggies when they grow and prepare these healthful foods themselves. The Wild Oats Gardening with Kids award will give 10 schools and youth organizations supplies to establish kitchen gardens, and provide tools and training for preparing nutritious meals with the resulting produce.

Genius of Common Sense: Jane Jacobs and the Story of the Death & Life of Great American Cities

Here is the first book for young people about Jane Jacobs, a heroine of common sense, a woman who never attended college but whose observations, determination, and independent spirit led her to far different conclusions than those of the academics who surrounded her. Illustrated with almost a hundred images, including a great number of photos never before published (with many by Robert Otter), this story of a remarkable woman will introduce her ideas and her life to young readers, many of whom have grown up in neighborhoods that were saved by her insights. It will inspire young people - and readers of all ages - and demonstrate that we learn vital life lessons from observing and thinking, and not just accepting what passes as ''conventional wisdom.''

Getting Density Right

Getting Density Right from the Urban Land Institute is a book that describes tools used to better support compact development, including visioning, planning, and new regulations. Case studies profile the experiences of eight communities, the policy tools they used to encourage compact development, and the development projects built using the new regulations.

Getting in Step: A Guide to Conducting Watershed Outreach Campaigns

Nonpoint source pollution is our nation’s largest remaining water quality problem. This guide offers advice on how watershed groups, local governments, and others can maximize the effectiveness of public outreach campaigns to reduce nonpoint source pollution and protect the lakes, rivers, streams, and coasts that we treasure.

Getting on Message: Making the Biodiversity-Sprawl Connection

This message kit is a resource for outreach by nonprofits on issues related to biodiversity and sprawl.

Getting Real about Urbanism

How do you create a flourishing, livable place appealing to residents and visitors of all ages, incomes, and backgrounds? Offering a ground-breaking alternative to uniform, ''cookie-cutter'' urban designs, Getting Real About Urbanism is a book that describes techniques for creating ''Real Urbanism'' -- designing places with personality that reflect what is distinctive and original in a neighborhood, district, city, or region.

Getting Smart about Climate Change

Addressing climate change is a key component of creating more sustainable communities, and smart growth offers practical guidelines for communities looking to develop sustainably: it addresses new growth and development in a way that reduces their impact on the environment and their contributions to global climate change while supporting economic development and social equity–related goals.

This report outlines nine strategies for successfully applying smart growth principles to climate concerns on the local and regional levels.

The report can be downloaded free at the link below.

Getting Started: A Guide for Creating School Gardens as Outdoor Classrooms

Getting Started is a free 51-page guide designed and published by the Center for Ecoliteracy in collaboration with Life Lab Science Program, a national leader in garden-based education.

Getting the Growth You Want: A Citizens Guide to Subdivisions and Smart Growth

Getting the Growth You Want: A Citizens Guide to Subdivisions and Smart Growth is the first of a two-part series from the Montana Smart Growth Coalition and the Great Yellowstone Coalition designed to help communities approve good subdivisions and deny bad ones.

Getting the Message Out: Promoting Active Living

This PowerPoint presentation examines ways to promote active living and pedestrian-friendly elements within communities.

Using examples from Colorado communities, the presentation shows how a vision for active living can be defined in the comprehensive plan, and what language may be used to build these features into local government codes.

Available online at the resource link below.

Getting to Smart Growth

This popular, 100-page primer from the ongoing series by ICMA and the Smart Growth Network describes concrete techniques of putting the ten smart growth principles into practice. The policies and guidelines presented in this primer have proven successful in communities across the United States, and range from formal legislative or regulatory efforts to informal approaches, plans, and programs.

Getting to Smart Growth II

Getting to Smart Growth II: 100 More Policies for Implementation is the newest primer in the ongoing series from the Smart Growth Network and ICMA, and follows on the heels of the extremely popular first volume of Getting to Smart Growth. The publication serves as a road map for states and communities that have recognized the need for smart growth but are unclear on how to achieve it. Spanish language version now available!

Getting to Smart Growth: 100 Policies for Implementation (Spanish Version)

Getting to Smart Growth: 100 Polices for Implementation has been made accessible for Spanish readers and speakers. The document has been translated in its entirety, complete with all policies and practice tips.

Getting to Smart Growth: Puerto Rico

Getting to Smart Growth has been adapted for Puerto Rico. Hacia el desarrollo inteligente: 10 principios y 100 estrategias para Puerto Rico is an adaptation of the popular, 100-page primer from the ongoing series by ICMA and the Smart Growth Network.

Getting to Work: Reconnecting Jobs with Transit

Getting to Work: Reconnecting Jobs with Transit from New Jersey Future reports that New Jersey residents spend more time getting to and from work than their counterparts in 48 of the 50 states -- but the state could reduce the stress and frustration of commuting, and advance several important public policy goals, by employing strategies to link job sites with public transportation, according to a research report released today by New Jersey Future.

GIS and Brownfields

International City/County Management Association (ICMA) has produced a brochure that provides an introduction to geographic information systems (GIS) products and their importance in the brownfields redevelopment systems.

Global Age-Friendly Cities

To help cities make the most of an ever growing older population, the World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing the Global Age-friendly Cities Guide in several cities around the world. WHO recognizes that population ageing and urbanization are two global trends that together comprise major forces shaping the 21st century. At the same time as cities are growing, their share of residents aged 60 years and more is increasing.

Global Alliance for Ecomobility

The Global Alliance for EcoMobility was founded by a group of leading organizations on the occasion of the Climate Change Conference in Bali in December 2007. The Alliance works to promote EcoMobility and reduce citizens' dependency on private motorized vehicles worldwide.

Global Development Awards

The Global Development Network is accepting submissions for the Eighth Annual Global Development Awards and Medals Competition 2007. Carrying prizes in cash and travel worth nearly $240,000, this is the largest international competition on development research.

Global Planners Network

Recognizing that planners and their organizations throughout the world provide leadership in addressing many societal issues, the Global Planners Network was initiated to further the goal of globally connecting planning groups to assist each other and share best practices.

Global Sustainability Centers: The 20 Cities of 2020

Ethisphere magazine reports on The 20 Cities of 2020 as centers for global sustainability, with an emphasis on how density and mixed-use development provide more advantages for a vibrant, healthy community than subsurban sprawl.

GLS Greenlinks

As part of an ongoing focus on regional land use issues and as a means of building awareness about the value of green and open space, GLS Greenlinks was formed by the Flint River Watershed Coalition and the University of Michigan -- Flint's Center for Applied Environmental Research -- in the fall of 2003.

Glynwood Harvest Awards -- 2005

Glynwood Center created the Harvest Awards program in 2003 to highlight work by individuals and organizations who are doing an exceptional job of supporting local and regional agriculture in order to inspire others to take action within their own communities. The Awards help to identify and disseminate “best practice” ideas which will inspire others to take action within their own communities and build urban/rural coalitions in support of responsible farmers.

Glynwood Harvest Awards 2007

Glynwood Center is preparing for the 5th Annual Harvest Awards which recognize innovative farmers, organizations, and businesses that are supporting sustainable regional food systems. The Center seeks your help in recognizing outstanding work by nominating someone whose work you admire.

Go Green Competition

The James River Green Building Council (JRGBC) is calling for submissions to its third Virginia Go Green Competition. The program was created to highlight design that supports the principles of sustainability in Central Virginia.

Go Green Winston Salem

Celebrate with the City of Winston-Salem as they highlight the city's growing ''Green'' influence in everything from transportation to business, in a week-long celebration. A series of events is planned for September 15-19, including several elementary school presentations with the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system, three unique forums focusing on ''Greening Your Business,'' ''Green Building and Sustainable Community,'' and ''Transportation.''

Going from Good to Great: Livable Communities Surveys in Ohio

Are Marietta, Ohio, and Clermont County, Ohio, livable communities? This report from AARP reports on results of a telephone survey of the general populations age 45 years and older of Clermont County and Marietta, Ohio, to ask them about what they would need and want as they got older to make their community a great place to grow old.

Going to Town: New Urbanism Arrives in Northwest Michigan

Going to Town: New Urbanism Arrives in Northwest Michigan, a new report from the Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI), discusses a new approach to residential and commercial development that is saving tax dollars, protecting the environment, and increasing prosperity and quality of life in northern Lower Michigan.

Golden Lands, Golden Opportunity: Preserving Vital Bay Area Lands

Ridges and farms, watersheds and forests in the San Francisco Bay Area provide vital public benefits -- but many are still unprotected. Golden Lands, Golden Opportunity is a landmark report on the region's green infrastructure by hundreds of Bay Area land use leaders that calls for action to fully protect its greenbelt.

Goldman Environmental Prize -- 2007 Awardees

An Irish farmer jailed for his work in opposing Shell Oil's natural gas pipeline through his land and an Icelandic entrepreneur saving North Atlantic wild salmon by brokering innovative fishing rights buyouts with North Atlantic governments and commercial interests are among the winners of the 2007 Goldman Environmental Prize.

Goldman Prize

The Goldman Environmental Prize, established in 1990 by San Francisco civic leader and philanthropist Richard N. Goldman and his late wife, Rhoda H. Goldman, is the world's largest prize honoring grassroots environmentalists. Now in its 17th year, it has been awarded to 113 people from 67 countries. Prize winners are selected by an international jury from confidential nominations submitted by a worldwide network of environmental organizations and individuals.

Golf Course Environmental Principles

A group of leading golf and environmental organizations have jointly developed a set of principles that seek to produce environmental excellence in golf course planning and siting, design, construction, maintenance and facility operations.

Grants Available for Community Forestry Projects

Preproposals for Community Forestry Projects grants are due by December 10, 2002. More information on the program that will award grants in the categories of Promotion of Livable Communities through Urban and Community Forestry, Creative and Innovative Urban and Community Forestry Research and Technology Development is available at http://www.treelink.org/nucfac

Grants for Educators -- S.F. Bay Region

The Watershed Project is the sponsor of the Teacher Action Grants (TAG) program, which has distributed almost $380,000 to San Francisco Bay Area educators who have taken Kids in Creeks, Kids in Gardens, and Watching Our Watersheds workshops. By providing seed money in amounts up to $2,000 to cover direct expenses for classroom-based environmental studies, gardening, and restoration projects, Teacher Action Grants have educated and involved tens of thousands of students in local watershed-based projects, and increased awareness about natural resources in Alameda and Contra Costa counties for thousands of residents.

Great Neighborhoods: How to Bring them Home

The 1000 Friends Great Neighborhoods Project is intended to help teach the residents and developers in Wisconsin about the social, environmental and economic benefits of building compact, mixed-use, aesthetically appealing neighborhoods; and to offer professional and layperson guidance for how to advocate for and create these neighborhoods.

Great Places Awards -- 2009 Call for Nominations

Places: Forum of Design for the Public Realm and EDRA, the Environmental Design Research Association, in cooperation with Metropolis Magazine, announce the twelfth annual Great Places Awards (formerly EDRA/Places Awards) for Place Design, Planning and Research.

Great Plans, Great Communities

Looking to illustrate the connection between planning and great places? APA's Community-Wide Audio/Web Conference Great Plans, Great Communities provides a striking introduction to planning and makes the case for the importance and wide-ranging benefits of planning.

Greater Lansing Go Green Initiative

The Greater Lansing Go Green! Initiative is working to promote environmental and economic health for all those who live, work, and play in Greater Lansing.

Green Affordable Housing

Center for American Progress has released the proposal ''Green Affordable Housing: Within Our Reach,'' which provides suggestions for policy changes to help reduce energy consumption, curb greenhouse gas emissions, and create a viable green jobs sector through the greening of existing affordable housing.

Green Apple Awards -- 2007

The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) recognized notable leaders of high performance school building at the Greentools for Healthy Schools Conference awards luncheon, held September 27, 2007, in San Francisco, California. The Green Apple Awards were distributed to outstanding California school districts, school projects and industry leaders for their contributions to the green school movement.

Green Building

In the last few years, there has been a greater recognition within the green building field that sustainability is not just about buildings, but includes a focus on where and how we site our buildings, how the buildings are served by transportation, and the overall health of the communities that these buildings shape.

Green Building Awardees

The Kresge Foundation’s Green Building Initiative, launched in 2003, is intended to increase the awareness of sustainable or green building practices among nonprofits and encourage them to consider building green. Upfront planning and an integrated design process are necessary to achieve the full benefits of a green building. The Initiative offers educational resources and special grants to help nonprofits during this planning phase.

Green Building by the Numbers

Green Building by the Numbers from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is a three-page report with statistics on the state of green buildings in America.

Green Building Competition -- NYC

The New York City Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning & Sustainability, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency Region 2 are co-sponsors of the New York City Green Building Competition. Previously co-sponsored by the Office of Environmental Coordination in 2004 and 2006, this competition has attracted professionals and students from across the nation to present their innovative green building design projects and ideas for New York City.

Green Building Funders Directory

The Green Building Funders Directory, from the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, was produced in conjunction with ''It's So Easy Funding Green: The First National Conference for Funders on Green Building and Green Neighborhoods,'' held in Cleveland in October 2005.

Green Building Funding

Numerous sources of funding for green building are available at the national, state and local levels for homeowners, industry, government organizations and nonprofits. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides this webpage with links to help you find a variety of funding sources including grants, tax-credits, loans, or others.

Green Building Funding

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains a webpage that lists funding resources for green building initiatives. EPA provides the links on this page to help users find a variety of funding sources including grants, tax-credits, loans, or others.

Green Building Funding

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains this web page on green building funding opportunities.

Green Building Funding

Numerous sources of funding for green building are available at the national, state and local levels for homeowners, industry, government organizations and nonprofits. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides this webpage with links to help you find a variety of funding sources including grants, tax-credits, loans, or others.

Green Building Guidelines -- Fifth Edition

The Green Building Guidelines is an easy-to read, builder-friendly primer for homebuilders across the nation. The Guidelines book was originally developed by a committee of builders, architects, building scientists, product manufacturers. This publication from Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC) was the first national green home building resource. Their work was supported by the Department of Energy's Building America Program through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Consortium for Advanced Residential Buildings.

Green Building Impact Report 2008

GreenBuilding.com's Green Building Impact Report 2008 is the first-ever integrated assessment of the land, water, energy, material and indoor environmental impacts of the LEED for New Construction (LEED NC), Core & Shell (LEED CS) and Existing Building Operations and Maintenance (LEED EBOM) standards.

Green Building Incentives -- California

California's Sustainable Schools website, produced by the Division of the State Architect (DSA), offers a diverse collection of sustainable building resources. The site is geared toward those interested and involved in designing, developing, and constructing high performance schools, such as school administrators and board officials, developers, architects, planners, researchers, teachers, parents, and others.

Green Building Policy in a Changing Economic Environment

Green Building Policy in a Changing Economic Environment is a new report that provides an inventory of policies and best practices intended to help policymakers advance a more sustainable legislative agenda for growth and development. The report also contains detailed case studies of the green building programs in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, Nashville, and Grand Rapids, Mich.

According to the report, the number of U.S. cities with green building programs has increased 50% in two years. Green buildings generally include energy-efficient designs and other sustainable features. Among AIA’s findings, 138 cities have green building programs, compared with 92 cities in 2007, and 24 of the 25 most populated metropolitan regions are built around cities with a green building policy.

The report also notes that DOE's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is providing ''an unprecedented opportunity for the advancement of green building and sustainability efforts in our nation's cities.'' AIA has stated a goal of making all building designs carbon neutral by 2030.

Green Building Research Funding

Green Building Research Funding: An Assessment of Current Activity in the United States is a report by the 2007 U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Ginsberg Sustainability Fellow that tracks recent federal, state and trade association contributions to green building research funding.

Green Building Research Grants

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has announced recipients of its 2008 Green Building Research Fund grants. The Green Building Research Fund was created to spur research that will advance sustainable building practices and encourage market transformation.

Green Building Tax Credits

The Apollo Alliance offers a summary of green building tax credit programs and how they have been implemented in state governments. This discussion includes model language for a good general Green Building tax credit bill, and includes a copy of the State of New Jersey's legislation allowing for additional tax credits for developments that adhere to other smart growth principles, such as redeveloping brownfields, locating near public transit, and limiting land use for parking.

Green Buildings for All

The City of Portland, Oregon's Office of Sustainability has developed this ''G/Rated'' website, a depository of green building technologies, case studies, specifications, and other technical resources.

Green Buildings on Brownfields Initiative: Pilot Projects Fact Sheet

EPA has selected eight communities for Green Buildings on Brownfields pilot projects. Through the Green Buildings on Brownfields Initiative, EPA works with communities, on a pilot basis, to incorporate environmental considerations into the planning, design and implementation of their brownfields redevelopment projects.

Green By Design Conference Presentations

Nearly 20 presentations from the Minnesota Green By Design Conference are now available at the conference website. The two-day event was hosted by Minnesota Green Communities in April 2006.

Green Cities Report

Green Cities, a report from Living Cities, is one of the first assessments of exactly how 40 of the country's largest cities are trying to limit their carbon footprints and take the steps needed to raise these efforts to the next level.

Green Cities: Urban Growth and the Environment

What exactly is a green city? What does it mean to say that San Francisco is greener than Houston, or that Vancouver is a green city while Beijing is not? When does urban growth lower environmental quality, and when does it produce environmental gains? These are the questions that drive Green Cities, a smart and engaging book from Brookings Institution Press.

Green Collar Jobs

The renewable energy and energy efficiency (RE&EE) industries represented more than 9 million jobs and $1,045 billion in U.S. revenue in 2007, according to a new report offering the most detailed analysis yet of the green economy. The renewable energy industry grew three times as fast as the U.S. economy, with the solar thermal, photovoltaic, biodiesel, and ethanol sectors leading the way, each with 25%+ annual revenue growth.

Green Communities Developer Incentives

Green Communities is designed to help developers, investors, and builders make the transition to a greener future for affordable housing. Led by Enterprise, The Enterprise Social Investment Corporation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, Green Communities provides a package of financial incentives and other resources to affordable housing developers across the country.

Green Communities' Green Tour

Take a Green Community Tour with Enterprise's Green Communities. Trolley Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a 40-unit building that incorporates both retail and residential space. The location and neighborhood were chosen to minimize the building's environmental impact as well as to make the best use of available natural light and passive heating and cooling opportunities. The City of Cambridge identified Trolley Square, located on the site of a former trolley storage facility, as a critical location in the revitalization of the neighborhood.

Green Communities Loans

As part of The Green Communities Initiative, the Enterprise Community Loan Fund offers several lending products to support the development of affordable rental and homeownership housing that adheres to Green Communities Criteria.

Green Communities News

The February 2008 Green Communities News reports on ''Landmark Green Affordable Policy Advances in Congress,'' ''Denver Adopts Green Communities for Affordable Housing,'' and ''Enterprise Launches Fund for Green Affordable Development in Atlanta.''

Green Communities News -- October 2008

New opportunities in green affordable housing, sustainable Green Communities projects, and how HUD is promoting energy efficiency are all topics of discussion in the October 2008 Green Communities newsletter from Enterprise.

Green Communities Newsletter -- July 2008

News about winners in the first annual Sustainable Cities Awards program, a call for Congress to pass the Green Resources for Energy Efficient Neighborhoods Act of 2008, and Rebuilding a Greener New Orleans are all topics of discussion in the July 2008 Green Communities newsletter from Enterprise.

Green Communities Newsletter -- May 2008

Green Affordable Housing, the Green Communities Developers Summit, and information on Federal Grant Funds for Green Affordable Developments are all topics of discussion in the May 2008 Green Communities newsletter from Enterprise.

Green Communities Offset Fund

Enterprise Community Partners has launched the Green Communities Offset Fund, an innovative new program that provides carbon offsets to create green homes for low-income families.

Green Communities Program

Green Communities is a web-based toolkit and planning guide from the U.S. EPA that is designed to help communities access the tools and information to help them become more sustainable, Green Communities.

Green Community: Essays on Community Health

Based on the National Building Museum's exhibit, Green Community is a collection of thought-provoking essays that illuminate the connections among personal health, community health, and our planet's health.

Green Government Initiative

Launched in 2007, the NACo Green Government Initiative provides comprehensive resources for local governments on all things green, including energy, air quality, transportation, water quality, land use, purchasing and recycling.

Green Government Initiative Publications

NACo's Green Government Initiative Publications are free resources for local governments on all things green, including energy, air quality, transportation, water quality, land use, purchasing and recycling. Includes fact sheets, guidebooks, and case studies of Green Initiatives from throughout the country.

Green Government Initiative Webinar Presentations

NACo has posted presentations from its Green Government Initiative on its website. The presentations and recordings are from seminars, webinars, and workshops beginning with the May 2008 event, ''Green Counties 101.''

Green Ground Zero International Design Competition

The WTC site in New York City is focus of the Green Ground Zero International Sustainable Design Competition. Entries should focus on ways to ''green'' the buildings that will surround the memorial on the World Trade Center grounds.

Green Guide for Health Care™

The Green Guide for Health Care™ is the health care sector’s first quantifiable sustainable design toolkit integrating enhanced environmental and health principles and practices into the planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance of their facilities.

Green Health Care

Hospitals in the Premier healthcare alliance are taking the lead in helping healthcare organizations advance environmental sustainability to lower costs, promote quality and preserve the communities they serve. These efforts have been recognized for since 2004 by Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E), now known as Practice Greenhealth.

Green Healthcare Institutions

The Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine has released a summary of its workshop Green Healthcare Institutions; Health, Environment, and Economics. The workshop focused on the environmental and health impacts related to the design, construction, and operation of healthcare facilities, which are part of one of the largest service industries in the United States.

Green Highways and Green Infrastructure

The Green Highways approach to infrastructure planning, design, and construction is a revolutionary approach to resource protection and environmental compliance. The approach is based on providing predictable pathways to streamline the delivery of transportation projects by the use of incentives and recognition for the use of innovate stormwater and environmental designs that are done in the context, or framework, of a watershed approach.

Green Infrastructure Case Studies

Green Infrastructure describes our nation's natural life support system -- an interconnected network of protected land and water that supports native species, maintains natural ecological processes, sustains air and water resources and contributes to the health and quality of life for America's communities and people.

Green Infrastructure Demonstration Projects

The Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) has received a grant from the U.S. EPA to identify and demonstrate cost-effective, community-based green infrastructure Best Management Practices (BMPs) that effectively reduce the volume of runoff to local sewers. Partners on this project include CNT, City of Chicago Departments of Environment (DOE) and Water Management (DWM), and the U.S. EPA. The BMPs will be constructed by Greencorps, a City of Chicago agency.

Green Infrastructure Funding -- Canada

More than $42 million in funding for green infrastructure projects has been designated for unincorporated areas of Canada's New Brunswick Province. The funds will be used for water, wastewater and other infrastructure improvements.

Green Infrastructure Maps

Natural Connections has produced a website offering a database of Green Infrastructure Maps that covers 14 counties extending out from the greater Chicago region, including the counties bordering the Wisconsin-Illinois and Illinois-Indiana state lines.

Green Infrastructure: A Framework for Smart Growth

This resource introduces the key elements of Green Infrastructure, the network of natural lands, open space, waterways, and smart growth design measures that form the framework for healthy and sustainable communities.

Green Infrastructure: A Strategic Approach to Conservation

Green Infrastructure is our nation's natural life support system -- an interconnected network of protected land and water that supports native species, maintains natural ecological processes, sustains air and water resources and contributes to the health and quality of life for America's communities and people.

Green Leases Toolkit

The ''Green Leases Toolkit'' from the California Sustainability Alliance (CSA) is an online toolkit designed to help integrate sustainability practices into the state's commercial leasing process.

Green Living Toolkit

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) website offers a Green Living Toolkit, a listing of tips and tools to help to bring a little green into your life. These guides include information to help you save energy, protect your health, give green gifts, and more.

Green Maps

The Green Map® System promotes inclusive participation in sustainable community development worldwide, using mapmaking as our medium.

Green Metropolis

Just about everything you think you know about the environment is wrong. Solar panels, electric cars, ethanol, big urban parks, and locavorism aren’t green; traffic jams, congestion, office towers, and crowded cities are. Green is not the country home in Vermont with the compost heap and the photovoltaic panels; it’s the concrete high-rise in New York City.

In a persuasive and provocative challenge to established environmental thinking, David Owen’s Green Metropolis: What the City Can Teach the Country About True Sustainability challenges much of the conventional wisdom about being green and shows how the greenest place in the United States isn’t Portland, Oregon, or Snowmass, Colorado, but New York, New York.

Owen—a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1991—states that while most Americans view congested cities as environmental calamities, with their pollution, garbage, and gridlock, residents of dense urban environments individually drive, pollute, consume, and throw away less than other Americans. Residents of New York City—the most densely populated community in the U.S.—consume less electricity than the average inhabitants of any other part of the country, generate greenhouse gases at a level far below the national average, and rank last in gasoline consumption and first in use of public transportation.

New York City’s environmental efficiencies are the result of its extreme compactness: being forced to live in small spaces sharply reduces opportunities to be wasteful; gridlock and a scarcity of parking spaces makes driving prohibitive while proximity simultaneously renders walking, bicycling, and public transportation viable means of getting around. Put simply, it’s easier to be green in a crowded city. The ecological innocuousness of leafy exurban areas long favored by environmentalists is an illusion—spreading people thinly across the countryside may make them feel greener, but in fact it increases their damage to the environment. In the face of rapidly dwindling nonrenewable resources, we should not look to the country, but to the dense metropolis as a model of true environmentalism.

In a radical departure from environmentalist dogma, David Owen’s Green Metropolis redefines what it means to be green, and offers vital insights into how to make our way to a more sustainable future. In this eye-opening and meticulously researched polemic, Owen argues that sustainability doesn’t depend on the acquisition of fancy new “green” gadgetry or the advent of new energy-related technologies, but on lo-fi solutions already at work in dense cities around the globe. We already have a good idea of what we need to do, or at least how to get started.

Publisher: Riverhead Books. ISBN: 978-1-59448-882-5

Green Office Buildings

Green Office Buildings: A Practical Guide to Development, from the Urban Land Institute, is a how-to book that gives you information on how to cost-effectively develop an environmentally sustainable office building.

Green Playbook

The Playbook, a web-based resource, provides strategies, tips, and tools that cities and counties can use to take immediate action on climate change through: Green building, green neighborhoods, and sustainable infrastructure. The Playbook is designed both for communities that are considering making the first steps toward these, as well as for those who want to take existing efforts to a new level.

Green Rehab Guide for Multifamily Properties

The Green Guide for Rehab from Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is an accessible and in-depth tool to help affordable housing owners and their consultants integrate green building and energy efficiency into the upgrades of their multifamily properties.

GREEN reModel Initiative

As part of the Earth Day Network's Green Schools Campaign, the GREEN reModel Initiative will carefully select five public low-income, urban schools and transform them into national models of high performing and sustainable schools over the next five years.

Green Retrofit Funding for Multifamily Housing

$250 million in loans and grants for energy and green retrofits in the multifamily assisted housing stock are the basis of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD's) Office of Affordable Housing Preservation (OAHP) Green Retrofit Funding for Multifamily Housing program.

Green Roof Awards

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities established the Green Roof Awards of Excellence to recognize green roof projects which exhibit extraordinary leadership in integrated design and implementation. The awards also increase general awareness of green roof infrastructure and its associated public and private benefits, while recognizing the valuable contributions of green roof design professionals.

Green Roof Awards of Excellence -- 2006 Nominees

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities established the Green Roof Awards of Excellence in 2003 to recognize green roof projects which exhibit extraordinary leadership in integrated design and implementation.

Green Roof Awards of Excellence -- 2009 Nominees

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities established the Green Roof Awards of Excellence in 2003 to recognize green roof projects which exhibit extraordinary leadership in integrated design and implementation.

Green Schools Fact Sheet

Earth Day Network's Green Schools Campaign, in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and The Clinton Foundation, aims to green all of America's K-12 schools within a generation. This Green Schools Fact Sheet provides information on why green schools make sense.

Green Schools for Southern California

In 2004, Global Green launched a new effort focused on K-12 schools in Southern California. This effort integrates the green building principles developed by Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) with broader neighborhood and regional issues including energy generation, stormwater management, joint-use of school facilities, and the growing movement to use school buildings as teaching tools.

Green Schools Funding -- City of San Jose

The City of San Jose, California, maintains a web page on Funding for Green Schools on the Environmental Services pages of its website.

Green Schools Grants -- Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) manage the Green Schools Initiative, a funding program that helps communities conserve energy and use clean energy technologies to power school projects approved for construction by the MSBA.

Green Space Funding -- Atlanta, Georgia

The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation aims to help develop a system of ''Great Parks'' in Atlanta, tied to the larger vision of how public space connects the entire community. By providing support, the Foundation wants to help create parks and ensure that they are high quality, well-maintained and protected. Most of all, they must be accessible and available to all the citizens.

Green Squad

An interactive website that outlines steps for reviewing practices in and around schools and their effects on health and the environment. This program is suited for both youth and adults.

Green Streets: Cross-Bureau Team Report

Green Streets: Cross-Bureau Team Report, a report from March 2006, documents Portland, Oregon's efforts to manage stormwater runoff through a ''Green Streets'' progam. A green street describes a street with vegetated facilities that manages stormwater on site. Portland has become a leader in integrating site-specific stormwater strategies that manage stormwater runoff, enhance community character, and strengthen the local economy.

Green the Capitol Initiative

On March 1, 2007, the Speaker and the Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives directed the Chief Administrative Officer of the House to develop a Green the Capitol Initiative that would demonstrate leadership to the nation by providing an environmentally responsible and healthy working environment for employees. This report on the ''Green the Capitol Initiative'' meets the directives set out in that request. This report, and its recommendations, will enable the House to be a leader in sustainable operations.

Green Values Stormwater Toolbox

Green infrastructure is the interconnected network of open spaces and natural areas, such as greenways, wetlands, parks, forest preserves and native plant vegetation, that naturally manages stormwater, reduces flooding risk and improves water quality. The Green Values Stormwater Toolbox provides an overview of how the Great Lakes landscape works and offers details on methods to minimize stormwater runoff without expensive infrastructure projects.

Greenbelt Alliance Wins Award for Smart Growth Scorecard

Greenbelt Alliance received the 2007 Education Project Award for its Bay Area Smart Growth Scorecard from the California chapter of the American Planning Association (APA).

Greenbuild 2005 Proceedings

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) offers the Greenbuild 2005 Proceedings CD-ROM, a compilation of events and resources from the 2005 conference.

Greener by Design

The Natural Resources Defense Council offers an interactive web resource on how to incorporate green design in buildings -- specifically, the work completed on its new office in Santa Monica, California.

Greener Policies, Smarter Plans: Creating Affordable Green Housing

Greener Policies, Smarter Plans is Enterprise's annual analysis of state policies to encourage environmentally sustainable housing through states' Low-Income Housing Tax Credit programs. For the third consecutive year, this report shows a remarkably promising trend: states' growing, deepening commitment to greener affordable homes.

Greener, Greater Buildings Plan: PlaNYC

PlaNYC sets a goal of achieving a 30 percent reduction in New York City’s annual greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030. Acknowledging that nearly 80 percent of our citywide emissions result from the energy that we use in buildings, PlaNYC has set out to improve the energy efficiency of New York City’s buildings.

GreenInfrastructure.net

GreenInfrastructure.Net seeks to illustrate that identifying and planning for Green Infrastructure - multi-purpose green space networks - provides a framework for smart conservation and smart growth.

Greening America's Capitals

Greening America's Capitals is a project of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities between EPA, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to help state capitals develop an implementable vision of distinctive, environmentally friendly neighborhoods that incorporate innovative green building and green infrastructure strategies. This program will assist three to four communities per year, with the first projects beginning in the fall of 2010.

EPA will offer technical assistance by funding a team of designers to visit each city to produce schematic designs and exciting illustrations intended to catalyze or complement a larger planning process for the pilot neighborhood. Additionally, these pilots could be the testing ground for citywide actions, such as changes to local codes and ordinances to better support sustainable growth and green building. The design team and EPA, HUD, and DOT staff will also assist the city staff in developing specific implementation strategies.

The assistance may include, but is not limited to, the following issues:

• Brownfield or infill redevelopment
• Aligning transportation and housing choice
• Climate change response planning
• Engaging disadvantaged communities
• Public art and civic design strategies
• Green and energy efficient building strategies
• Green infrastructure for multiple community benefits

EPA is providing this design assistance to help support sustainable communities that protect the environment, economy, and public health and to inspire state leaders to expand this work elsewhere. Greening America's Capitals will help communities consider ways to incorporate smart growth strategies into their planning and development to create and enhance interesting, distinctive neighborhoods that have multiple social, economic, and environmental benefits.

This design assistance is being made available to all 50 state capital cities, plus the District of Columbia. EPA is soliciting letters of interest from mayors of state capitals. Any city department, office, or agency may submit the letter of interest, but only one proposal should be submitted on a city's behalf.

Greening of the Great Lakes

Greening of the Great Lakes is an organization providing information and insight into groups committed to making the Great Lakes region a leader in environmental practices.

Greening Parking Lots

The City of Toronto's draft Design Guidelines for 'Greening' Surface Parking Lots provide specific strategies and measures which developers, designers and reviewers of surface parking lots can apply to help meet Official Plan policies and environmental performance targets of the Toronto Green Development Standard.

Greening the Metropolitan Washington Region's Built Environment

This report by the Intergovernmental Green Building Group (IGBG) of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) explores issues related to building practices and the region's environment, reviews best practices and green building standards, and offers recommendations that local governments and COG can implement to improve the performance of buildings region wide.

Greening the World's Capital Cities

How do some of the world's best-known national capitals contribute to creating an environmentally and socially sustainable world? And how do they build successful support for sustainable development? Learn what capital cities are doing to lead the way to a greener planet in this report from the Capitals Alliance.

Greentips Podcasts from Earth Day 2008

The U.S. EPA offers archives of its Earth Day 2008 podcasts (MP3 sound files) on its Earth Day website.

GreenWorks Grants: Fall 2009

GreenWorks! grants engage educators and their students with their local community in ''learning-by-doing'' environmental projects. Student leadership, service-learning, and community participation are the cornerstones to GreenWorks! projects. These grassroots action projects enable schools and youth organizations across the country to make a positive impact on their communities. Applications are now open for Fall 2009.

Groundswell: Stories of Saving Places, Finding Community

Published by the Trust for Public Land, Groundswell: Stories of Saving Places, Finding Community celebrates the role of land conservation in preserving community character and connecting people to the land and to each other.

Growing a Healthier DC

Why is green infrastructure important, and how can it be incorporated as business districts grow and schools are renovated, for example? To answer these questions Casey Trees has developed a series of issue briefs, Growing a Healthier DC, that are available for free download on their website.

Growing by Choice or Chance

Growing by Choice or Chance details how South Carolina communities have an opportunity to direct their growth through more efficient land use that decreases the amount of land developed to accommodate population growth, and offers more variety in how people live, work and shop.

Growing Cooler -- Urban Development and Climate Change

''Growing Cooler: Urban Development and Climate Change'' is a new ''virtual'' workshop from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) that examines the relationship between land use patterns, travel and CO2 emissions. The workshop will demonstrate the impact current development and transportation patterns are having on our environment.

Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change

In Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change, a 2007 book published by the Urban Land Institute, a team of leading urban planning researchers report that the key to mitigating climate change is less auto-dependent development, and that key changes in land development patterns could help reduce vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.

Growing Green Awards

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is honoring leaders in the field of sustainable food through the Growing Green Awards.

Growing Power: Developing Community Food Systems

Growing Power, a national nonprofit organization and land trust, transforms communities by supporting people from diverse backgrounds and the environments in which they live through the development of Community Food Systems.

Growing Safer: Improving Roadways for Everyone

The Spring 2009 issue of the Planning Commissioners Journal from PlannersWeb includes the feature article ''Growing Safer: Improving Roadways for Everyone,'' which looks at the growing number of communities and transportation agencies that have adopted complete streets policies to make their roadways safe and accessible for people of all ages and abilities traveling by all modes -- pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders, as well as drivers.

Growing Smarter

Growing Smarter from the MIT Press is a book that examines smart growth from an environmental justice/equitable development perspective.

Growing Smarter at the Edge

Growing Smarter at the Edge, a new publication from the Sonoran Institute, reviews and evaluates urban edge development associated with large-scale planned communities, or master-planned communities.

Growing Smarter, Living Healthier: A Guide to Smart Growth and Active Aging

This guidebook is intended for older adults who are interested in how our communities work and how we might help them become more 'age-friendly.' Many of us have longed for the kind of age-friendly neighborhood that has different types of homes for people at different stages of life; walking paths and public transit to make it easy to get around without a car; and parks, shops, services, and homes that are closer together. Older adults are finding that by designing new neighborhoods differently — as well as redeveloping existing neighborhoods and roadways — we can make places that are healthier for ourselves, our neighbors, and the environment. Rather than let aging limit our options, we can actually become more independent by reducing our dependence on the auto, increasing our travel choices, and improving our quality of life right when we've started to have time to enjoy it. We can enrich our own remaining decades, as well as hand off a more sustainable community to future generations. That is, if we decide to do something about it.

In this guide, we address the basic principles of neighborhood and town design. But it is also intended to help you understand why community design matters, and how becoming involved in your community's decisions about growth can make it a better place in which to grow old. You'll find suggestions for ideas to try, and links to resources to learn more about how to remake your neighborhoods to be easier to get around, whether you live in a city, suburb, or small town. We’ll also give you a few ideas for getting involved and staying engaged, providing more housing options and gathering places, eating healthier, and making it easier to carry out your daily activities. After all, our age group spans decades, and some of us are very active, while others have limited mobility.

Active Aging concepts (activities that increase endurance, strength, flexibility, balance, and the principles of injury prevention) can also be built into community design and development to encourage walking, biking, and active use of parks, so that people of all ages get exercise in the course of daily life. This is an image of a group of senior women doing water aerobics in a pool

The first chapter, Staying Active, Connected, and Engaged, outlines why our choices of where and how to live can have an impact on our health and wellbeing. The next three chapters — Development and Housing, Transportation and Mobility, and Staying Healthy — outline strategies and include project examples that address these key issues. Within each chapter, the What You Can Do section provides some ideas for what you can work on with your friends and neighbors. The Conclusion: Next Steps chapter summarizes additional follow-up ideas. In the Resources chapter, you’ll find links to more detailed strategies, websites, and information about each of the ideas discussed in the guide. We included a community self-assessment checklist for you to identify what your community is already doing, and where you might want to focus your energy — so get together, and get moving!

Growing Smarter, Living Healthier: Age-Friendly Neighborhood Design Guidebook

Growing Smarter, Living Healthier is a guidebook from the U.S. EPA intended for older adults who are interested in how our communities work and how we might help them become more ''age-friendly.''

Growing with Less Greenhouse Gases

This National Governors Association report cites expanding transportation choices, conserving greenspaces, and promoting new community designs as effective smart growth strategies for reducing greenhouse gases.

Guide to Greener Living

This web resource includes tips on how to save energy at home, work, and on the road.

Guide to Neighborhood Placemaking in Chicago

Guide to Placemaking in Chicago provides basic instruction on Placemaking at the local level and highlights specific examples of citizen-led Placemaking that has already led to sweeping improvements in Chicago neighborhoods. The book encourages citizen action and provides a framework to engage local businesses and government in helping create positive change.

Guide to Transit-Oriented Development

The Minnesota Metropolitan Council's Guide for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) highlights key ideas about TOD and shows how these ideas have been put to work within the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Guidelines for Walking School Bus -- Spanish

The Atlanta Bicycle Campaign offers a Walking School Bus Guidelines fact sheet in Spanish. This two-page fact sheet is part of an educational program package designed to promote alternative means for children to get to school.

Guides and Manuals of “Better Practice” -- UK

This three-part essay discusses the general national planning situation in Britain, specifically dealing with that in force in England. Urban Design Issues, Planning Tools, and Planning Guidelines are discussed in the context of recent British development trends.

Guiding Growth and Development in Georgia Handbook

Georgia's land use laws, together with innovative planning and fresh approaches to community engagement, provide the tools needed to build strong communities that are sustainable both economically and environmentally. Guiding Growth and Development in Georgia: A Handbook on Planning and Land Use Law and Practices was created by the Livable Communities Coalition for elected officials and interested citizens. This guide is intended to provide an overview of those planning tools and the laws, terms, and concepts essential for using them wisely.

Happy Planet Index

The Happy Planet Index is a website that reveals the ecological efficiency with which human well-being is delivered.

Harvard Green Campus Initiative: Vision 2020 Event Resources

The ''Harvard Vision 2020: A Bridge to Campus Sustainability'' Conference featured three days of discovery and discussion involving prominent keynote addresses, interdisciplinary panels of faculty, staff, students and alumni, corporate and government leaders, workshops, special events and networking opportunities. Resources from this event are now available online.

Health Issues, Access to Healthy Foods Are Focus of November 2006 Getting Smart! Newsletter

The latest issue of Getting Smart! is now available for all Smart Growth Network members in the Members Section. This edition of Getting Smart! brings health issues front and center, with a particular focus on access to healthy food. Featured articles include ''Linking Land Use Planning and the Food Environment'' and ''Food Policy Councils: Access to Healthy Foods as an Element of Smart Growth.''

Healthy and Sustainable Food Policy for San Francisco

On July 9, 2009, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom Issued an Executive Directive 09-03: ''Healthy and Sustainable Food for San Francisco.'' In this directive the city ''declares its commitment to increasing the amount of healthy and sustainable food.''

Healthy Communities and Environmental Justice

The Conservation Law Foundation's (CLF's) Healthy Communities and Environmental Justice Program works to ensure that New England's communities are vibrant and healthy places for people of all ages, regardless of race, ethnicity, or economic status, today and in future generations.

Healthy Communities Grant Program

The Healthy Communities Grant Program integrates nine EPA New England programs – Assistance & Pollution Prevention: Schools Sector, Asthma, Children’s Environmental Health, Community Air Toxics, Pesticides, Smart Growth, Tools for Schools, Toxics, and the Urban Environmental Program working in partnership to best identify competitive projects that will achieve measurable environmental and human health improvements in communities across New England. The Healthy Communities Grant Program is EPA New England’s main grant program to work directly with communities to reduce environmental risks to protect and improve human health and the quality of life. The Healthy Communities Grant Program will achieve this through identifying and funding projects that: Target resources to benefit communities at risk (environmental justice areas of potential concern, places with high risk from toxic air pollution, urban areas) and sensitive populations (e.g. children, elderly, others at increased risk). Assess, understand, and reduce environmental and human health risks. Increase collaboration through community-based projects. Build institutional and community capacity to understand and solve environment and human health problems. Achieve measurable environment and human health benefits.

Healthy Communities Initiative

The Regional Plan Association Healthy Communities Initiative, supported by the Centers for Disease Control, the Milbank Memorial Fund, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, restores the historic relationship between the disciplines of town planning and health science.

Healthy Community Design

Healthy Community Design: Success Stories from State and Local Leaders profiles the notable efforts of elected and appointed government leaders who are supporting healthy community design across the nation. Some of these efforts stem from a desire to support economic development, others to decrease environmental degradation or improve residents’ quality of life. But all of the policy changes and programming efforts have a positive effect on health because they support community design that provides more opportunities for people to engage in routine physical activity.

Healthy Community Design Video

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have posted a streaming video, Healthy Community Design, that discusses the benefits of walkable communities as they relate to health, the environment, and social interaction. Dr. Howard Frumkin, Director of the National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR), hosts the video.

Healthy Community Grant Program

The Healthy Community Grant is a competitive program funded by Ward Edwards to encourage creative solutions for existing environmental problems, plant seeds for innovation in stewardship, and recognize tangible efforts that lead to long-term sustainable benefits. Ward Edwards will invest up to $10,000 in projects that promote or improve environmental sustainability in coastal South Carolina and Georgia.

Healthy Eating, Active Living Convergence Partnership

In 2006, a collaboration of funders came together to create the Healthy Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership, with the shared goal of changing policies and environments to better achieve the vision of healthy people living in healthy places.

Healthy Food, Healthy Communities

Healthy Food, Healthy Communities: Improving Access and Opportunities through Food Retailing, is a PolicyLink report that outlines how the lack of local access to healthy, affordable food affects what people eat, and ultimately threatens both individual and community vitality -- residents risk obesity and other poor health conditions, and communities suffer. this issue and provides solutions. Healthy Food, Healthy Communities highlights three of the most promising strategies: developing new grocery stores, improving the selection and quality of food in existing smaller stores, and starting and sustaining farmers’ markets.

Healthy Kids Healthy Communities

The Local Government Commission (LGC) offers Healthy Kids Healthy Communities, a brochure that provides examples of cities, counties and school districts working together to address childhood obesity. It offers ideas and guidance that will help local government officials leverage community resources and identify opportunities for collaboration, and also provides resources and references to assist policy-makers in developing and implementing new initiatives.

Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities Call for Proposals -- 2009

Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) whose primary goal is to implement healthy eating and active living policy- and environmental-change initiatives that can support healthier communities for children and families across the United States. Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities places special emphasis on reaching children who are at highest risk for obesity on the basis of race/ethnicity, income and/or geographic location.

Healthy Living Resource Guide

This website from the Michigan Department of Community Health and the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness is designed to help communities promote healthy physical activity.

Healthy Places, Healthy People: Promoting Public Health & Physical Activity Through Community Design

October 2001. A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report of a meeting held in November 2000 in Washington, DC, in which 26 experts exchanged information, identified barriers, and formulated possible strategies for reintegrating physical activity into community design.

Healthy Rural Communities: A Resource and Action Guide for North Carolina

Healthy Rural Communities: A Resource and Action Guide for North Carolina describes growth and development issues in rural North Carolina, and provides insight based on the North Carolina Smart Growth Alliance's (NCSGA) Principles of Smart Growth.

Healthy School Environments

The U.S. EPA's Healthy School Environment Resources website offers information and links to school environmental health issues.

Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool

The Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool (HealthySEATv2) is a fully customizable and easy to use software program designed to help school districts evaluate and manage all of their environmental, safety and health issues.

Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool

The new Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool (HealthySEAT) from the U.S. EPA is designed to be customized and used by district-level staff to conduct completely voluntary self-assessments of their school (and other) facilities and to track and manage information on environmental conditions school by school.

Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities and Youth Obesity

Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities and Youth Obesity is a report from the the NACo Center for Sustainable Communities that looks at how the effects of obesity are disproportionately felt by certain segments including minorities, the poor -- and youth.

Healthy Streets Campaign

The goal of the Healthy Streets Campaign is to make physically active transportation safe, convenient and fun. The Campaign is working to redesign streets around the needs of people rather than motor vehicles alone. The Healthy Streets Campaign aims to effect a balanced transportation environment that more wisely allocates resources and space to encourage walking, bicycling and public transit -- and re-creates streets to better serve all aspects of community life.

Healthy Transportation Network

The Healthy Transportation Network website provides walking and bicycling safety information -- doing it safely, for everyday transportation, and in supportive environments.

Healthy Urban Design -- UMD Presentation

Healthy Urban Design: Maryland’s Smart Codes and the Pedestrian Environment examines Maryland’s Smart Codes, a state initiative that encourages local communities to adopt principles of Smart Growth. The paper examines the efforts of three communities that participated in the Smart Codes initiative and the potential for these codes to transform the walkability of neighborhoods and town centers.

Hidden in Plain Sight: Capturing the Demand for Housing Near Transit

Hidden in Plain Sight: Capturing the Demand for Housing Near Transit, a new study by Reconnecting America’s Center for Transit Oriented Development, shows that demand for compact housing near transit is likely to more than double by 2025.

High Performance Building Grant -- Virginia

The James River Green Building Council (JRGBC), a Chapter of the US Green Building Council, will be awarding a $10,000 grant to promote the inclusion of green features to schools and affordable housing projects in Central Virginia.

High Performance School Award

For their integration of energy efficiency with outstanding architectural design, three nonresidential projects have received Awards of Honor as the culmination of the 2004 Savings By Design Energy Efficiency Integration Awards Competition. The jurors cited the projects’ masterful use of design to overcome constrained sites and orientation and seamlessly integrate energy efficiency into elegant building design.

High Performance School Buildings Resource and Strategy Guide

This nationally vetted and easy-to-read guidebook describes the characteristics and benefits of high-performance school buildings and details the process to help school planners ask the right questions of their design professionals to ensure the best school design possible.

High Performance School Buildings Resource and Strategy Guide

The second edition of this nationally vetted and easy-to-read guidebook describes the characteristics and benefits of high-performance school buildings and details the process to help school planners ask the right questions of their design professionals to ensure the best school design possible.

High Performance Schools Presentations

Presentations from ''High Performance Schools: A Regional and International Perspective,'' a one-day symposium co-sponsored by the Virginia Sustainable Building Network (VSBN), are now available online at the VSBN web site. The event was held in Washington, DC on April 24, 2006, and featured Regional Best Practices, winners of the Montgomery County, Maryland and USGBC-NCR Emerging Green Builders Portable Classroom Design Challenge, and a special evening speaker, Stefan Behnisch.

High Performance Schools Recognition Program -- California

The Collaborative of High Performance Schools (CHPS) facilitates the design of high performance schools: environments that are not only energy efficient, but also healthy, comfortable, well lit, and containing the amenities needed for a quality education.

Higher-Density Development -- Myth and Fact

Higher-Density Development -- Myth and Fact from the Urban Land Institute examines eight widespread misconceptions about higher-density development and dispels them with well-researched facts and examples of quality, compact developments.

Historic Neighborhood Schools in the Age of Sprawl: Why Johnny Can't Walk to School

National Trust for Historic Preservation. This report looks at how public policies are contributing to mega-school sprawl -- giant education facilities in remote locations that no child can walk to -- and at what citizens and public officials are doing to change them.

Historic Preservation and Sustainability

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has created a webpage that focuses on how historic preservation can help the environment, and is part of the organization's Sustainability Initiative that will demonstrate how older buildings can ''go green.''

Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction

Following five regional competitions, 15 Award-winning projects will now compete in the first global Holcim Awards competition for sustainable construction projects. The global phase of the competition showcases the best entries from more than 1500 submissions from 118 countries, and encourages innovative, future-oriented and tangible approaches within the building and construction industry.

Holding The Line: Urban Containment In The United States August 2002

Policies designed to deliberately control the spread of urban areas are increasing in popularity throughout the United States. Several states, and many local governments in the west, are adopting urban growth boundaries and other containment measures in their land-use planning laws and legislation. Whatever the primary purpose, it is clear that the precise impacts of containment policies are not well understood. This paper reviews the research on urban containment generally, and also examines the experience of such policies in particular metropolitan areas. It discusses some lessons learned and raises relevant research questions for practitioners as well as policymakers at the state and local level.

Home Depot Building Healthy Communities Grant Program

The Home Depot is accepting proposals from registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, public schools or tax-exempt public service agencies in the U.S. who are using the power of volunteers to improve the physical health of their community. This program supports community improvement projects that include, but are not limited to: improving energy efficiency and sustainability; landscaping and planting native trees; community facility improvements; and the development and/or improvement of green spaces.

Grants are made in the form of The Home Depot gift cards for the purchase or tools or materials.

Only grants submitted through the online application process will be considered for funding. All unsolicited donation requests received via mail, phone or e-mail will be referred to this online grant program. Responses are due December 15, 2009.

Housing and Transportation Affordability Index

The Housing and Transportation Affordability Index, a pilot pilot project led jointly by Reconnecting America's Center for Transit-Oriented Development and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, integrates housing and transportation costs into a single measure, correcting a pervasive information gap. The index will help local and regional planners understand the housing costs and ''location costs'' of building housing and transportation. Potential home buyers and renters, finance agencies, public and private-sector real estate developers, housing lenders, and secondary market actors can use the index to better understand the full cost of the homes they purchase.

Housing Policy Solutions Toolkit

Older adults face an array of housing challenges. Many live in homes that lack accessibility features, are unaffordable or energy inefficient, or are located far from important destinations and amenities. Others need various kind of assistance to maintain their independence and autonomy but cannot afford the supportive services that would allow them to age successfully in a residential environment.

This toolkit provides a detailed exploration of these and other challenges facing older adults and describes a range of promising policies that some communities are adopting to address them.

Houstonians Discuss Growth: 3-Part Video

Shaping Our Future Growth, a local, town-hall-meeting-style discussion on improving quality of life in Houston, Texas, is available for video streaming online. This three-part series was aired by Houston 8 PBS television on their ongoing local issues show, ''Houston Have Your Say.''

How Cities Use Parks

The City Parks Forum has begun an initiative to produce a series of briefing papers on ''How Cities Use Parks For ...'' to provide information on how healthy parks are fundamental to many aspects of community prosperity.

How Counties are Going Green

This PowerPoint presentation from the National Association of Counties (NACo) provides an overview of NACo's Green Government Initiative, outling the economic, environmental, and social benefits of building with green principles.

How Green is My Town

''How Green Is My Town?'' is a project of Grassroots Environmental Education, a non-profit organization based in Port Washington, New York. It began with a simple question from one of the organization's board members: ''How do I know if my town is really green?''

How Portland Does It.

The Atlantic Monthly, November 1992. A city that protects its thriving, civil core.

How Shall We Grow: Creating a Shared Vision for Central Florida

As Central Florida faces the opportunities and challenges associated with the projected doubling of our population from 3.5 million citizens in 2006 to 7.2 million in 2050, the region has been given the opportunity to be the first in Florida to create a shared vision to answer the question, ''How Shall We Grow?''

How to Create a Vibrant Waterfront

This resource from the Project for Public Spaces (PPS) offers 19 tips on how to create a vibrant waterfront, drawing on success stories from around the world.

How to Develop a Pedestrian Safety Action Plan

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) have produced this guidebook to help state and local officials address pedestrian safety issues.

How We Live: A NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

The first installment of a new series examining issues affecting people's daily lives. Ray Suarez has the first report which looks at urban sprawl in Atlanta, Georgia.

Available in transcript, streaming video, and RealAudio.

HUD, DOT Create Sustainable Communities Partnership

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood announced a new partnership to help families gain better access to affordable housing, more transportation options, and lower transportation costs.

Humanitarian Award

American Farmland Trust (AFT) has been named the winner of Bon Appétit magazine’s Humanitarian Award for 2004. AFT Board Chairman Doug Wheeler is one of 12 American Food & Entertainment Award winners featured in the October 2004 issue of the leading culinary magazine.

Hyperlocavore Website

Hyperlocavore, a ''free yard sharing community,'' is a social network site that wants to see ''healthy kids who love the smell of dirt, blocks with foreclosed homes becoming vibrant neighborhoods, plates full of delicious safe food at costs we can all afford, and neighbors who become real friends.''

ICLEI Case Studies Available Online

The ICLEI Case Studies series is now available online. The Series dates back to the late 1990s and chronicle locally-based projects that support sustainability. Each study documents:

• the local context of the project
• the anatomy of the project
• results
• lessons learned
• the project's replication potential
• budgeting and financial

ICMA to Host Urban Forestry Webcast; Free to First 100 Registrants

On May 18, 2004, the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) will host a webcast, Seeing Green with Trees The Economic and Environmental Benefits of Urban Forests, to provide an overview of how trees have been used by local governments to meet their regulatory requirements, save money, and improve community quality of life.

ICMA TV

ICMA TV is a web television channel dedicated to covering the events and issues of importance to International City/County Management Association (ICMA) members. The channel is regularly updated with new films, features and coverage on topics which emerge at home and overseas.

Idaho Grow Smart Awards

Idaho Smart Growth created the Grow Smart Awards program in 2005 to recognize exemplary efforts in planning and development that keep our communities vibrant and our lands healthy.

Idaho Smart Growth Awards -- 2008

Now in its fourth year, Idaho Smart Growth's statewide ''Grow Smart'' awards program recognizes the successful use of smart growth principles to encourage vibrant communities and healthy lands through sensible growth. Winners of the 2008 competition are featured on this website.

Illinois Greening Main Street Grants 2006

Illinois' Lt. Governor Pat Quinn Genoa announced the inaugural round of Greening Main Street grants. These six unique projects will strengthen the economies of local communities while improving the health of their environments.

Imagine Green Madison

Imagine Green Madison was a three-day community gathering and the first step in a long-term action agenda to create and implement new networks, partnerships and activities to promote sustainability and a healthier urban environment in and around Madison, the fastest-growing city in Wisconsin.

imagineCALGARY plan

What are your hopes and dreams for Calgary's future? By answering these four simple questions, Calgarians began the process of shaping their city's future. Launched in January 2005 with the goal of producing a 100-year vision for Calgary based on what today's Calgarians want their city to look like, more than 18,000 Calgarians have added their voices to imagineCALGARY, making this the largest community visioning process of its kind anywhere in the world.

Implementing Smart Growth Streets

The U.S. EPA Office of Development, Community and Environment (widely known as the ''Smart Growth'' office) is sponsoring a study on ''Implementing Smart Growth Streets'' that is being conducted by ICF International and Ellen Greenberg. Readers of Smart Growth Online are invited to participate in this work by bringing candidate case studies to the attention of the project team.

Improving Conditions for Bicycling and Walking

A best practices report that provides information on pedestrian and bicycle projects that have been recognized for increasing walking and bicycling and improving user safety in communities across the US.

Improving Indoor Air Quality in Rental Dwellings

This report reviews state and local policies that address indoor air quality-related problems in residential rental housing, and describes the government programs charged with carrying out those policies.

Improving the Pedestrian Environment Through Innovative Transportation Design

Improving the Pedestrian Environment, a report from the Institute of Transport Engineers, features samples of how transportation professionals and citizens have brought walking back into focus, not only in the capital budgets of government agencies but also in the lives of citizens.

In Chicago, A Green Economy Rises

This essay by Keith Schneider of the Great Lakes Bulletin News Service reviews how the city of Chicago has successfully used a ''green'' smart growth strategy to blossom into one of America's finest cities.

Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design

Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design focuses on how to make communities more bicycle-friendly and walkable.

Index of Smart Growth Scorecards

The Growth Management Leadership Alliance has prepared a resource listing numerous scorecards development by states and cities throughout the U.S. to help determine if a project meets principles of smart growth.

Indiana Brownfields Funding

The Indiana Brownfields Program works in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other Indiana agencies to assist communities in making productive use of their brownfield properties. The program mission is to encourage and assist investment in the redevelopment of brownfield properties by helping communities via educational, financial, technical and legal assistance to identify and mitigate environmental barriers that impede local economic growth.

Indiana Brownfields Funding

The Indiana Department of Commerce (IDOC) offers a brownfields redevelopment program funded through federal Community Development Block Grants (CDBG).

Indiana Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence -- 2008

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), in cooperation with the Lieutenant Governor's Office of Energy and Defense Development, the Indiana Department of Administration, and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, is seeking nominations for the 2008 Governor's Awards for Environmental Excellence.

Infill Philadelphia: Food Access

It is estimated that low-income neighborhoods have 30% fewer grocery stores per capita than higher income neighborhoods. Living in one of our nation's ''food deserts'' can mean an unreliable and limited diet, high food prices, soaring diabetes rates, and childhood obesity. Infill Philadelphia: Food Access looks at how innovative design can improve access to fresh, healthy food in urban neighborhoods.

Innovation Leadership in Sustainable Tourism Awards

TIES Innovation Leadership in Sustainable Tourism Awards recognizes individuals and organizations who have demonstrated leadership in innovative actions that effectively promote sustainable tourism and bring tangible benefits to communities and conservation.

Each year, one individual and one organization (non-profit, business, community) will be honored for their contributions, best practices, and most of all leadership in innovative actions supporting sustainable tourism. Innovation Award applicants are judged based on one example of an innovative project, product, or program developed in the previous year that advocates for uniting communities, conservation, and sustainable travel.

Deadline for nominations is August 2, 2010.

Innovations Award in Affordable Housing

The city of Los Angeles' Systematic Code Enforcement Program received the Fannie Mae Foundation's 2005 Innovations Award in Affordable Housing in July. SCEP inspects more than 760,000 rental units in Los Angeles for habitability and enforces state health and safety codes.

Innovative Bicycle Treatments

This report identifies and shares information on approximately 50 bicycle treatments including shared bike/bus lanes, bicycle boulevards, raised bike lanes and colored bike lanes.

Innovative Communities: Community-Centered Environmental Management -- Cases in Asia and the Pacific

Innovative Communities: Community-Centered Environmental Management from The Brookings Institution looks at nine case studies from the Asia-Pacific region where communities are adopting innovative methods to address complex and unpredictable environmental problems.

Institute for Comprehensive Community Development

The Institute for Comprehensive Community Development was established to advance the field of comprehensive community development and the positive impact it has in urban and rural communities across the country. This is done by:

• Building the capacity of community development practitioners;
• Providing on-site support and technical assistance to comprehensive community development initiatives in cities across the U.S.;
• Applying lessons learned through research and performance evaluation to continually improve on-going comprehensive community development initiatives and to develop new initiatives;
• Supporting the development of public policies which integrate government programs in order to effectively facilitate and support comprehensive community development;
• Communicating broadly the best there is in practice and theory in the field of community development.

The Institute is a place where the community development field can take what it learns from practice and use it as a base from which to provide training, to promote research in comprehensive community development, and to investigate the public policies that would best advance this work locally and nationally. The Institute is the locus where practice and theory meet, and where experimentation and innovation – grounded in real-world experience – flourish.

The Institute for Comprehensive Community Development is a venture of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).

Integrating Planning and Public Health

Integrating Planning and Public Health, published by the APA Planning Advisory Service, examines collaborations between planners and public health professionals committed to building healthy communities. It outlines the five strategic points of intervention at which planners and public health professionals can coordinate their efforts, and uses case studies to illustrate the specific tools used in such collaborations. The report also examines the role of universal design in creating healthy communities.

Integrating Schools into Healthy Community Design

The National Governor's Association (NGA) has prepared this Issue Brief that examines state policies on school siting, school construction financing, and Safe Routes to School programs focusing on how policies can benefit communities, improve children's health, and reduce the need for infrastructure expansion.

Integration of Planning, Public Health Builds Active Communities

The American Planning Association (APA) has released preliminary findings of a nationwide survey to measure how communities can create opportunities for citizens to be more physically active.

Introduction to New Urbanism

Introduction to New Urbanism is a PowerPoint presentation from CNU that introduces the key principles of New Urbanism, describes the growth and development challenges around which the movement has rallied, and provides examples of New Urbanism playing a strong role in improving communities.

Introduction to Smart Growth: More Choices for Our Families

This presentation has been developed through a collaborative project involving individuals and organizations operating under the guidance of Smart Growth America. Research assistance was provided by the U.S. EPA. The presentation is intended to be used by individuals and organizations committed to helping communities achieve the objectives of Smart Growth. If you have any questions about the use of this presentation, please contact John Bailey (jbailey@transact.org) at Smart Growth America.

Is Your City a Great City?

The Project for Public Spaces (PPS) offers a checklist on its website that provides benchmarks of a Great City.

Issue Papers from TrailLink 2007

Issue papers from TrailLink 2007, hosted by the by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy in August 2007 in Portland, Oregon, are now available online. This event featured the launch of the 2010 Campaign for Active Transportation, a nationwide campaign that aims to elevate biking and walking as mainstream transportation options in communities across America.

JAMA -- Barriers to Children Walking to or from School

The Journal of the American Medical Association reports on barriers to children walking to school in its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (November 2, 2005).

James D. MacConnell Award Nominations

CEFPI's James D. MacConnell Award recognizes an outstanding, comprehensive planning process, which results in educational facilities that serve the needs of students, staff, and the community, and facilitates student achievement.

James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards Nominations 2007

Nominations are being accepted for the 2007 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. The Leadership Awards recognize Californians who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to significant issues for the state's future.

James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards Nominations 2008

Nominations are being accepted for the 2008 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. The Leadership Awards recognize Californians who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to significant issues for the state's future. Individuals working within any sector -- nonprofit, public or private -- and within any field -- such as education, health, housing, economic development or the environment -- are eligible.

James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards Nominations 2009

Nominations are now open for the 2009 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. This annual competition recognizes individual leaders who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to significant issues in California.

JRGBC 2009 Green Spaces Competition

The James River Green Building Council (JRGBC) sponsors the 2009 Green Spaces competition. The 2009 ''Play Space'' challenge is to design a sustainable outdoor play space that will serve as a cultural, environmental, and economic amenity for the surrounding neighborhood as well as a teaching tool to educate children and adults about their environment.

June 2008 Getting Smart! Newsletter

The June 2008 edition of Getting Smart! is now available for all Smart Growth Network members in the Members Section. This issue takes a look at the critical role citizens play in advocating for smart growth, and attempt to answer the question, ''What can I do?''

KaBoom Grants

One of the biggest challenges facing any community-built playground project is fundraising. That is why KaBOOM! offers communities occasional grant opportunities to begin or complete playspace projects.

Kaiser Permanente Community Fund

The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund (KPCF) at Northwest Health Foundation was established in late 2004 to advance the health of the communities served by Kaiser Permanente Northwest.

Kansas City's Metro Green: 1,144 Miles of Public and Private Trails, Open Spaces

MetroGreen is a proposed 1,144-mile interconnected system of public and private open spaces, greenways and trails designed to link seven counties in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Kansas Green Schools Grants

Kansas Green Schools Grants are intended to encourage schools to develop creative, innovative, effective environmental projects to improve the environment; make schools a healthier place to learn, play, and work; and save money through reduced use of resources.

Kansas Green Schools Network

The Kansas Green Schools Network is the place to come for information about environmental projects and environmental education activities and resources.

Katrina Index: Tracking Variables of Post-Katrina Reconstruction

The Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program offers the Katrina Index: Tracking Variables of Post-Katrina Reconstruction. This publication provides a benchmark for reconstruction progress, indexing nearly 50 economic and social indicators that measure the impact of rebuilding efforts in Orleans Parish, the New Orleans metropolitan area, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Key Regional Appropriations, 2008-2009

Northeast-Midwest Institute publishes a chart that illustrates key federal appropriation distributions by region. This chart list figures for Fiscal 2008, the President's Request for Fiscal 2009, and Final 2009.

Kids and Community

Kids and Community is a website for young people developed by America's city planners. Explore how you create communities, how you live in them, and how you change them.

Kids on the Move

''Kids on the Move in Halton-Peel,'' a project of The Centre for Sustainable Transportation, was conducted from March through September 2003. The project took its name from the European Union publication Kids on the Move, manual for European local government officials, teachers, and others who want to create better ways of making children's mobility more environmentally sound, safer, healthier, more helpful, and more enriching.

Kids Walk to School

To support the national goal of better health through physical activity, the Center for Disease Control's Nutrition and Physical Activity Program has developed this community-based program that aims to increase opportunities for daily physical activity by encouraging environments in which children can walk to and from school.

KidsWalk-to-School

To support the national goal of better health through physical activity, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Nutrition and Physical Activity Program has developed KidsWalk-to-School. This is a community-based program that aims to increase opportunities for daily physical activity by encouraging children to walk to and from school in groups accompanied by adults.

KnowledgePlex

KnowledgePlex is a comprehensive interactive resource for the affordable housing and community development field. Designed for practitioners, scholars, and policy makers, the website offers practical solutions and innovative ideas, timely news and authoritative information, and collaboration with other housing leaders.

Kodak American Greenways Awards Program -- 2005

Eastman Kodak, The Conservation Fund, and the National Geographic Society provide small grants to stimulate the planning and design of greenways in communities throughout America with the Kodak American Greenways Awards Program. Read about recipients of the 2005 awards at the resource link below.

Kodak American Greenways Awards Program -- 2008

The Kodak American Greenways Awards Program, a partnership project of the Eastman Kodak Company, The Conservation Fund, and the National Geographic Society, provides small grants to stimulate the planning and design of greenways in communities throughout America.

Kuna, Idaho: Where a Community Pulls Together to Face Growth

What does a community do when it becomes big almost overnight? In this story booklet published by Everyday Democracy, Kuna residents came together in study circles to face the community's explosive growth.

LA Brownfields Program

LA Brownfield Program, the City of Los Angeles' nationally recognized brownfields program, has a web presence that provides details for individuals and groups who would like to redevelop abandoned and underutilized urban properties.

Land and People Magazine

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) is offering free subscriptions to its magazine, Land&People, a full-color, semi-annual, national magazine that documents the lands we love and the people who work to protect them.

Land Bank Authorities

Land Bank Authorities: A Guide for the Creation and Operation of Local Land Banks from Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC) explores the development of land banks in St. Louis, Cleveland, Louisville, Atlanta, and Genesee County, Mich., addressing the conditions, history, and legal structures of each.

Land Policy Institute Ask the Expert

Ask the Expert forums at Michigan State University's Land Policy Institute include nine online discussion forums for public dialogue with academic and other experts related to land use, economic development, and sustainability.

Land Use Presentations

MPOs in the Atlanta and San Francisco regions used DOT funds to promote smart growth through planning studies and transportation improvement projects. Learn how they are implementing a regional approach to linking transportation and land use planning through nonprofit and public sector agency efforts.