The Grow Community Institute For Sustainable Infrastructure | Rating System Envision™ Sustainable Infrastructure Rating System Envision™ is the product of a joint collaboration between the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure. Introduction Envision™ provides a holistic framework for evaluating and rating the community, environmental, and economic benefits of all types and sizes of infrastructure projects. Who Can Use Envision™ Envision™ can be used by infrastructure owners, design teams, community groups, environmental organizations, constructors, regulators, and policy makers to: Meet sustainability goals. The Envision™ tools help the project design team: Assess costs and benefits over the project lifecycle. Envision™ has assessment tools that can be used for infrastructure projects of all types, sizes, complexities, and locations. The Assessment Tools Envision™ checklist. The People Envision™ Credits and Scoring Module A Few Ways to Get Involved
Puget Sound Sage Clean & Safe Environment Puget Sound Sage and its allies are building a broad-based constituency for a sustainable, equitable, and clean energy economy in the metro Seattle region. We are dedicated to ensuring that our region’s growing green economy will create quality jobs, career opportunities for workers who need jobs the most and healthier and safer communities. This is a triple bottom line for the planet and for regional equity. Sage is approaching the new, green economy as an opportunity to simultaneously lift families out of poverty and provides a cleaner environment for all communities. On the one hand, low-income urban communities and people of color tend to suffer more from pollution, brownfields and unhealthy environments – including lack of access to nutritional food. Triple-bottom line outcomes can be achieved in many sectors that provide the foundation for a cleaner economy, including:
The Portland Plan About the Portland Plan Developed in response to some of Portland’s most pressing challenges, including income disparities, high unemployment, a low high school graduation rate and environmental concerns, the Portland Plan presents a strategic path forward. This is not your typical plan. The Portland Plan requires us to work smarter, be more practical, partner across jurisdictions and be ready to have difficult conversations. This is how real progress will be made in Portland. So, how is this plan different? Advancing equity is the foundation of the plan. The Portland Plan is also practical, in that it does not assume new money. Several years in the making and reflecting more than 20,000 comments from residents all over the city, the Portland Plan comprises the following elements.
Compact and Complete Communities The Office of Sustainability & Environment (OSE) collaborates with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders to develop innovative environmental solutions that foster equity, vibrant communities and shared prosperity. Information on OSE's work as well as Seattle's citywide environmental programs is also included in this site SEATTLE BUILDING ENERGY: NEXT STEPSMonday, September 14, 11 am Building owners and managers can learn about Seattle's climate goals, proposed next generation building energy efficiency policy, and resources available from local utilities and partner organizations. Monday, September 14, 2015 11 am to 1 pm Bertha Knight Landes RoomSeattle City Hall - 600 4th Ave. More information on this work here. The Office of Sustainability and Environment delivers cutting-edge policies and effective programs to address Seattle's environmental challenges while creating vibrant communities and building shared prosperity. We develop and test forward-looking approaches.
The Future of Architecture in 100 Buildings A pavilion made from paper. An inflatable concert hall. A building that eats smog. A bridge that grows grapes. The Future of Architecture in 100 Buildings captures the soaring confidence, the thoughtful intelligence, the futuristic wonder, and at times the sheer whimsy of the world's most inspired and future-looking buildings. As author Mark Kushner explains, "The future of architecture is not one of any dominant style, but rather a world of constant innovation and experimentation." In the age of social media, buildings speak louder than ever. Aimed at this new, broad audience for architecture, this is an essential and delightful guide to the future being built around us.
Environmental Justice 2020 Action Agenda | EPA Background EPA is seeking input on its draft EJ 2020 Action Agenda framework (PDF) (5 pp, 162K). EJ 2020 will help EPA advance environmental justice through its programs, policies and activities, and will support our cross-agency strategy on making a visible difference in environmentally overburdened, underserved, and economically distressed communities. Strengthening our collaborations with the communities we serve, our governmental partners and all other interested stakeholders will be key to achieving meaningful outcomes in these communities. EJ 2020: over next five years, EPA will focus on Deepening environmental justice progress in EPA’s programs to improve the health and environment of overburdened communities Collaborating with partners to expand our impact in overburdened communities Demonstrating progress on outcomes that matter to overburdened communities EJ 2020 is a strategy for advancing environmental justice ... Top of Page Building on Plan EJ 2014 Plan EJ 2014 Accomplishments
Kirkland Green - City of Kirkland Kirkland is known for its green spaces, parks and waterfront. The City is committed – through many “green" initiatives – to preserve, protect and sustain our natural resources. Through a variety of efforts, the City is also addressing sustainable development, green buildings and climate change. Kirkland recognizes the interdependency of our natural resource systems: Water: Our streams, lakes, wetlands, storm water runoff, groundwater and shorelines Land: The soils, vegetation, rocks, geology, and topography Air: Climate change, air quality, microclimates and macroclimate. Keeping It Green: City Initiatives Kirkland's Comprehensive Plan calls for the community vision to have Kirkland be an “attractive, vibrant, inviting place to live and work,” and to provide an “extensive park system and to preserve open space and waterfront trails and vistas.” The City is implementing its green initiatives using a multi-departmental approach. Making It Green: Community Involvement
Built Green Carbon Tracker CarbonTracker CT2013B CarbonTracker is a CO2 measurement and modeling system developed by NOAA to keep track of sources (emissions to the atmosphere) and sinks (removal from the atmosphere) of carbon dioxide around the world. CarbonTracker uses atmospheric CO2 observations from a host of collaborators and simulated atmospheric transport to estimate these surface fluxes of CO2. The current release of CarbonTracker, CT2013B, provides global estimates of surface-atmosphere fluxes of CO2 from January 2000 through December 2012. CarbonTracker CO2 weather for June-July, 2008. Executive Summary Estimates of CO2 sources and sinks over North America From 2001 through 2012, ecosystems in North America have been a net sink of 0.4 ± 1.3 PgC yr-1 (1 Petagram Carbon equals 1015 gC, or 1 billion metric ton C, or 3.67 billion metric ton CO2). Figure 1. Our observing system did not detect an effect from another significant drought, that in 2007 in the U.S. Spatial distribution of surface fluxes Figure 2.
King County Equity & Social Justice Initiative Plan Executive Constantine has announced an initiative—called Best Starts for Kids—that will provide the resources needed to prevent negative outcomes in the community and put every child on a path toward lifelong success. He has also framed his policy agenda for meeting the key challenges facing our region. Best-run government Being the nation's best-run government is really about people; what our employees do to effectively serve the public and make our communities the best places to live. Building equity and opportunity We must do better to ensure that King County remains a place where everyone has an opportunity to succeed, regardless of where they started out in life. Confronting climate change We can see the impact climate change is having right here in King County. Regional mobility Demand for transit is at an all-time high, but the Central Puget Sound region is growing faster than anywhere in the U.S. Priorities: Infographics [view, share, and download]: Get updates from the Executive: