Sustainable Funding

Sustainable funding graphic

Securing funding for sustainability projects can be a daunting task. Local government too often must devote the bulk of its resources to projects that are long overdue, leaving little or nothing for proactive projects.

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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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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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Partnership for Resilience and Planning (PREP)

This project launched the Partnerships for Resilience and Empowered Planning (PREP) program to provide education on community resilience planning, promote network collaboration and to developed an online Community Resilience Planning Handbook for communities across the Southeast.

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