Workplace Challenge

Workplace Challenge Logo

The concept for the municipal workplace challenge stems from the Mayor Karl Dean’s Mayor’s Workplace Challenge started in Nashville.

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PROFILE: Nick Deffley, Sustainability Officer, Savannah, GA

Nick Deffley, Sustainability Officer, Savannah, GA

Despite growing up and going to school in the Midwest at the University of Minnesota, Savannah has always felt like a home away from home for Nick Deffley. Much of Nick’s family relocated to Savannah over the years and Nick even lived in Savannah for short period of time in the late 1990s.

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Public Engagement Tools

Community engagement tools in Durham, NC

The “Charge Ahead Durham” initiative increased community awareness and involvement in sustainable activity by engaging the public in weekly online challenges, or “charges.”

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Urban Agriculture

Kids in a community garden

Urban agriculture can range from rooftop gardens to large-scale brownfield site or vacant lot reuses.

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Education vs. Social Marketing

Education versus social marketing graphic

A team from Mecklenburg County’s Land Use and Environmental Services Agency (LUESA) put Doug McKenzie‐Mohr’s behavior modification theory to the test by developing a “lights out” campaign for County employees. McKenzie‐Mohr’s “Community Based Social Marketing” (CSBM) is considered an attractive alternative to information‐based campaigns.

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Better Buildings Challenge

The better buildings challenge in Atlanta, Georgia, and SSDN

In 2012, the President challenged all sectors to commit to an energy savings pledge, a showcase building, and sharing progress. Two communities in the Southeast signed on.

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Renewable Energy Planning

Solar panels are renewable energy sources SSDN

Generating electricity from Renewable Energy (RE) sources can play a significant role in advancing cities sustainability goals and reducing carbon outputs.

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Public-Private Partnerships 101

Public private partnerships 101 SSDN

The term “public private partnership” is elusive, because it can take many contractual forms, address any number of local initiatives, and be subject to local guidelines like procurement, zoning, and tax increment finance arrangements.

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LEDs: The New Normal

LEDs improve energe efficiency in Fayetteville, Arkansas

In February 2015, an LED Street Light replacement project was completed in the City of Fayetteville’s Entertainment District.

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