LGEAN - General & Sustainable Environmental Management

General & Sustainable
Environmental Management

Latest News and Updates

Local Governments Role and Liability Concerns in the Clean-up and Redevelopment of Contaminated Properties
A new fact sheet is available as a resource for local governments concerned about incurring potential CERCLA liability as a result of their activities to facilitate cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated properties.

ICMA 2010 Sustainability Survey Results
The survey was sent to 8,569 local governments. The survey response rate is 25.4%, with 2,176 local governments responding. Highlights include: 63% of local governments report conducting energy audits of government buildings 34% have taken actions to conserve the quantity of water from aquifiers 14% have established greenhouse gas limits for the local government.

Study Finds City Planning Can Reduce Gas Consumption
Some cities in the USA are better positioned to deal with rising gas prices than others because of their design and transit systems, according to a national non-profit group that works to build stronger cities.

Discover the Rewards of Bringing Local Economic Development and Sustainability Goals Together
Get this informative report and learn great ideas on how you can grow your local economy with innovative and sustainable projects.

Growing Wealthier: Smart Growth, Climate Change and Prosperity
Growing Wealthier, a report by the Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP), examines how smart growth can enhance prosperity. According to the report, efficient urban planning, or smart growth, generates economic benefits for local businesses, households and governments.

Envisioning Better Communities:
Seeing More Options, Making Wiser Choices
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, the author 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.

Creating More Sustainable Communities--Brownfields 2011
The National Brownfields Conference is the largest, most comprehensive conference in the nation focused on environmental revitalization and economic redevelopment. Whether you’re a newcomer to the world of economic and environmental redevelopment, or a seasoned professional looking to make new connections and increase your business, Brownfields 2011 offers something for you.

Smart Growth: A Guide to Developing and Implementing Greenhouse Gas Reduction Programs
Smart growth development, based on 10 key principles, benefits the economy, the community, the environment, and public health. This guide provides information on how local governments have planned, designed, and implemented approaches that encourage smart growth in their communities.

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.

ASTSWMO releases new report on State Emergency Response Preparedness and Responses to Hazardous Releases
The Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO)'s CERCLA and Brownfields Research Center has released a new paper entitled "State Emergency Response Preparedness: State Emergency Response Programs Analysis". The paper addresses effective planning and preparation by State environmental agencies to ensure that releases of hazardous substances during an emergency are addressed. Additionally, coordination with multiple local, State, federal and private entities provides an effective response that minimizes adverse impacts of the incident. The core of the report looks at State program elements, protocols, and strategies that enhance abilities to prepare for and respond to the release of hazardous substances during large-scale emergencies.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeks applications for Tribal Wildlife Grants
On May 1, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a request for grant proposals from federally recognized tribes for projects that will conserve fish and wildlife resources on tribal lands. The Tribal Wildlife Grants program funds projects on a competitive basis that benefit habitat, fish and wildlife, including species that are not hunted or fished. This grant request is for fiscal year 2010.

Proposals and grant applications must be postmarked by Sept. 1. The maximum award for any one project under this program is $200,000. For more information and to obtain a copy of the grant application kit, or to find a regional tribal grants contact visit the FWS Web site.

EPA Offers Tips to Save Energy and Fight Climate Change this Summer
With summer and the high costs of cooling right around the corner, EPA is offering advice to help Americans reduce both energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions by one third through Energy Star. The energy used in an average home costs more than $2,200 a year and contributes more greenhouse gas emissions than a typical car.

New Brownfields Policy Research Newsletter
The Northeast-Midwest Institute has released the latest Brownfields Policy Research newsletter. The featured article covers the most recent Northeast-Midwest report: The Cleanup War Chest: State Bond Financing for Environmental Initiatives and Brownfields Redevelopment. The report details some of the largest state-level financial commitments to brownfield remediation and environmental protection. The April newsletter also covers The National Brownfields Coalition’s new and revised proposals for reauthorizing the EPA Brownfields program, as well as the new tax credit (H.R. 1724) introduced in the House by Representatives Michael Turner (R-OH) and Betty Sutton (D-OH).

Trust for Public Land Launches Park Equity and Public Health Toolkit
Studies show that people with access to parks and playgrounds exercise more. Unfortunately, many Americans lack adequate access to public recreation opportunities, a situation that contributes to the nation's current epidemic levels of obesity and associated diseases.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) believes that very American should enjoy convenient access to a nearby park or playground, and facilitates efforts to build and mobilize a constituency for parks among communities most in need of park space and recreational facilities for physical activity. This effort requires public education; community outreach and organizing; and policy and advocacy.

Intended for park and public health professionals and community advocates, TPL's Park Equity and Public Health Toolkit provides training materials to help increase awareness of the link between accessible parks and physical activity; introduce the concept of local public finance for parks; and demonstrate the park equity mapping model.

Topics include:

Parks & Health Overview
Park Access & Health Disparities
Paying for Parks
Building Support for Parks & Health
Case Studies

When There's Nothing to Conserve, Create!
Says Trust for Public Land
The Role of Parks in Redevelopment Projects—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. As a result, many city parks aren't being created by park and recreation departments but rather by redevelopment authorities.

A 2008 survey of big cities by the Center for City Park Excellence found 75 parks created by redevelopment and housing authorities. In an article that appeared in the December 2008 issue of the Journal of Housing and Community Development, the Center looks into how and why these agencies are creating urban parks.

Green Schools Toolkit
Green Schools Toolkit is a web-based resource designed to provide K-12 schools with resources specifically geared for school designers and builders, energy and facility managers, superintendents and boards of education, as well as teachers, students and parents.

Green Infrastructure Municipal Handbook Grows

EPA is developing The Municipal Handbook to help local officials implement green infrastructure in their communities. The handbook is presented as a series of documents (as separate chapters) that cover issues such as financing, operation and maintenance, incentives, designs, codes and ordinances, and a variety of other subjects. The handbook chapters are intended to serve as "how to" manuals on these topics, written primarily from the standpoint of municipal implementation. EPA is producing the handbook in sections, with each new element being released as it is completed. To date, EPA has released chapters on funding options, retrofit policies, green streets, and rainwater harvesting policies. EPA expects to release two additional chapters in 2009, the first focusing on green infrastructure incentives and the second on codes and ordinances.

Sustainable Sites Initiative Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks

Focuses on measuring how a site can protect, restore and regenerate ecosystem services -- benefits provided by natural ecosystems such as cleaning air and water, climate regulation and human health benefits. This report contains over 50 draft prerequisites and credits that cover all stages of the site development process from site selection to landscape maintenance.

Resources

Making Land Development Regulations Work for Smart Growth
by: Smart Growth Network Land Development Regulations Subcommittee
This presentation discusses the kinds of land development regulations found in many communities. It explains how outdated land development regulations may inhibit smart growth and how such regulations can be revised to promote it instead.
PowerPoint format: click here (6042kb)

Local Planning: Contemporary Principles and Practice
Local Planning: Contemporary Principles and Practice is the all-new edition of the popular book, The Practice of Local Government Planning, which has been the valued resource for preparing for the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) exam. This new edition helps the reader understand the complexities of planning at the local level, and prepare to make decisions in a challenging environment.

EPA Smart Growth Grants and Other Funding
The EPA smart growth program sometimes offers grants to support activities that improve the quality of development and protect human health and the environment.

Smart Growth Toolkit
The tools in the Smart Growth Implementation Toolkit can help community leaders take the first step of removing the regulatory obstacles to smarter growth. The tools can help your community level the playing field to encourage development that meets your community's goals and your citizens' aspirations.

Footprint Calculator
Take this quiz to find out your Ecological Footprint, discover your biggest areas of resource consumption, and learn what you can do to tread more lightly on the earth.

Making Land Development Regulations Work for Smart Growth
Presentations are available that discusses the kinds of land development regulations found in many communities. It explains how outdated land development regulations may inhibit smart growth and how such regulations can be revised to promote it instead.

Funding Opportunities
Enterprise Community Loan Fund offers a variety of short-term loan products are available through the Enterprise Community Loan Fund -- a certified Community Development Financial Institution -- for predevelopment, acquisition, working capital and other financing needs.

Physical Education Grants provides grants to local educational agencies (LEAs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) to initiate, expand, or enhance physical education programs, including afterschool programs, for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Deadline for applications is March 6, 2009.

Historic Preservation Funding is available through the National Trust for Historic Preservation focusing on Nonprofit Organization and Public Agency Funding for nonprofit organizations and federal, state, or local government agencies.

EPA

EPA Sustainability Program Office provides a one-stop access to EPA and related programs and the latest research and activities related to Urban Sustainability and the Built Environment; Water and Ecosystem Services; Energy, Biofuels and Climate Change; and Materials Management and Human Health.

Local Governments and Schools: A Community-Oriented Approach
This guide provides local government managers with an understanding of the connections between school facility planning and local government management issues.

Best Management Practices Resources
Best management practices are methods that have been determined to be the most effective and practical means of preventing or reducing pollution. These practices are often employed in agriculture, forestry, mining and construction. The EPA, working with partners in industry and the academic community, has established and published best management practices for soil erosion, wastewater treatment, fuel storage, pesticide and fertilizer handling and the management of livestock yards. The ultimate goal of these practices is to increase efficiency while reducing pollution.

Links