GTLC Resources

Annual Reports

Energy:

• Achieving 25×25 Goals for Energy Independent Communities
• Best Practices Review: Reducing Energy Costs in Local Government
• City of Calgary Energy Challenge
• Clean Cities
• Cool Roofs
• Efficiency Cities
• Energy Independent Communities
• Energy On Wisconsin
• LED Street Lighting Cost Benefit Analysis Tool– (The U.S. Department of Energy’s Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium has created an economic cost-benefit analysis tool to help cities and utilities estimate the costs and impacts associated with switching to LED street lighting.)
• Municipal Energy Planning: An Energy Efficiency Handbook – UW Extension
• Sustainable Cities Capacity Center

Forestry

• Stevens Point Pamphlet on the Benefits of Urban Trees
• Philadelphia Tree Map

Funding Calendar

Guide to Outdoor Safety and Health

Healthy Communities

Implementation Tools

• A Review of Health Impact Assessments in the U.S.: Current State-of-Science, Best Practices, and Areas for Improvement, Office of Research and Development, US Environmental Protection Agency
• Action Resources: Dementia-Friendly Communities, Act on Alzheimer’s
• Active Community Environments (ACEs) Initiatives, Wisconsin Department of Health Services
• Active Design Guidelines, Promoting Physical Activity and Health in Design (2010) and supplements on Promoting Safety, Affordable Designs for Affordable Housing, and Shaping the Sidewalk Experience, Center for Active Design, et. al.
• Building Healthy Communities,” pages 243 to 265 in “Cities at Work: Progressive Local Policies to Rebuild the Middle Class, Joel Rogers and Satya Rhodes-Conway, COWS [Center on Wisconsin Strategy] (February 2014)
• Built Environment and Public Health Clearinghouse, Georgia Institute of Technology School of City & Regional Planning
• California Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Cities Campaign
• Center for Health Equity and Place, including a tool group, PolicyLink
• Change Lab Solutions
• Cities for Workforce Health, League of California Municipalities
• Design for Health
• Designing and Building Healthy Places, Center for Disease Control and Prevention
• Food System Initiatives, Wisconsin Department of Health Services
• Form-Based Codes Institute
• Health in All Policies: A Guide for State and Local Government
• Healthier Communities Initiative, YMCA of the USA
• “Inclusive Design for Getting Outdoors,” I’DGO
• Planning and Community Health Planning Center, American Planning Association
• The Neighborhood Improvement Districts (NID) Handbook
• Toward a Sustainable Community: A Toolkit for Local Government,” Volume 2, University of Wisconsin-Extension, chapter on Local Food (2013)

Reports

• Beyond Storms & Droughts: The Psychological Impacts of Climate Change, ecoAmerica and the American Psychological Association (2014)
• Developing Built Environment Programs in Local Health Departments: Lessons Learned From a Nationwide Mentoring Program” American Journal of Public Health: May 2014, Vol. 104, No. 5, pp. e10-e18.
• Do health impact assessments make a difference? A national evaluation of HIAs in the United States, Bourcier, E., Charbonneau, D., Cahill, C., & Dannenberg, A.. Center for Community Health and Evaluation (2014)
• Green Cities:  Good Health, Urban and Community Forestry, Forest Service, US Departmnt of Agriculture and University of Washington
• Landscape and Human Health Laboratory
• Places in the Making: How placemaking builds places and communities, Susan Silberberg, et. al., MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning (2013)
• Time to Act: Investing in the Health of Our Children and Communities,” Recommendations From the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America

Metrics

• County Health Rankings and Roadmaps
• Community Healthy Living Index, YMCA of the USA
• Creating a Health Profile of Your Neighborhood, A How-To Guide, Center for Disease Control and Prevention
• The Anchor Dashboard: Aligning Institutional Practices to Meet Low-Income Community Needs, Steve Dubb, Sarah McKinley and Ted Howard, The Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland, chapter (2013), includes outcome metrics on safe streets and campuses, healthy community residents, and healthy environment
• Wisconsin Environmental Public Health Tracking, Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Case Studies

Examples of community initiatives in Wisconsin implementing 1 or more of the strategies in the recommendations.

• Health Chapter – Comprehensive Plan, City of Eau Claire
• La Crosse Area Climate Adaptation Study, Sally J. Kefer, Miscellaneous Publication PUB- SS-1119 2013. Bureau of Science Services, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
• Limiting Retail Alcohol Outlets in the Greenbush-Vilas Neighborhood, Madison, Wisconsin: A Health Impact Assessment, E. Feder, et. al., University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (2013)
• Safe Communities MedDrop Program, Dane County

Contacts

• Nutrition and Physical Activity Program, Wisconsin Department of Health Services:
  • Jon Morgan, Physical Activity Coordinator
    morgan@wisconsin.gov
    608-266-9781
  • Kelli Stader, Nutrition Coordinator
    stader@wisconsin.gov
    608-267-2282

Land Use

• A Conservation Design Scorecard
• Greening America’s Capitals
• Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Materials and Land Management Practices
• Putting Smart Growth to Work in Rural Communities
• Jonathan Foley: The Other Inconvenient Truth

Miscellaneous

• 23 Most Cost-Effective Policies for Stopping Climate Change
• Alliance for Sustainability
• C40 Cities
• CA CAN: Best Practices Framework for Local Agencies
• Carbon Disclosure Project
• Climate Change 101: Adaptation
• EPA Region 5 Climate Change
• Green Infrastructure Municipal Handbook
• How to Harness the Power of Your Community to Address Climate Change
• International Standard for Determining Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Cities
• Minnesota GreenStep Cities
• National League of Cities Municipal Action Guide
• New Best Practices Framework to Assist Local Governments
• Opportunities to Reduce GHG Emissions through Materials and Land Management Practices
• Partnership for Sustainable Communities: A Year of Progress for American Communities
• Pathway toward a Sustainable 2050
• STAR Community Index
• Sustainable Maryland Certified
• US Global Change Research Information Office

PACE Wisconsin

Sustainable Communities

• Sustainable Cities Institute
• Sustainable City Network
• Bird City Wisconsin: Unique program to encourage urban bird conservation
• City of Madison Sustainability
• Federal Resources for Sustainable Rural Communities
• The Sustainable Sites Initiative
• STAR Sustainability Goals and Guiding Principles
• Urban Heat Island Mitigation
• Cool Roofs
• Sustainable Cities – Ten Steps Forward, from NLC’s Sustainability Program
• Sustainability Best Practices for Minnesota Cities
• Sustainability Reporting Guidelines
• Toward a Sustainable Community: A Toolkit for Local Government, Prepared by UW Extension
• Sustain Dane Eco-Municipalities Resources
• How to Harness the Power of Your Community to Address Climate Change
• Climate Communities
• ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability
• UW Extension’s Sustainable Communities Capacity Center

Sustainable Strategies Analyses

• Wisconsin Legacy Communities’ Sustainability Practices: From Proficiency to Powerhouses!

– A Green Tier Legacy Communities and CHANGE Project Report by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers

• Green Tier Legacy Communities: A Guide to Sustainability Practices

-A report by Fei Ma, Kathryn Kirchgasler, and Kyle Bartowitz, graduate students in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2012).

Sustainable Strategies Webinars

Transportation

• Inventory of TOD Programs: A National Review of State, Regional and Local Programs That Fund Transit-Oriented Development Plans and Projects
• Action Plan for Bicycle Friendly Communities
• Built In Ohio
• CDC Transportation Recommendations
• Citywide Transportation Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories: A Review of Selected Methodologies
• Driven Apart
• Europe’s Parking U-Turn: From Accommodation to Regulation
• Evaluating Public Transportation Health Benefits
• Getting Back on Track: Climate Change and State Transportation Policy
• Next Stop: New Jobs
• “Street Smart” Walk Score
• Tools of Change
• Transit Oriented Development and the Potential for VMT-Related GHG Emissions Growth Reduction

Water

• Climate Ready Water Utilities Initiative
• Climate Ready Water Utilities Wiki
• Climate Resilience Evaluation Tool
• Curbing Stormwater and Creating Communities: The Case for Low-Impact Development
• Final Report of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council
• Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act of 2010
• Green Strategies for Controlling Stormwater and Combined Sewer Overflows – (Milwaukee and other Cities)
• Minnesota Water Sustainability Framework
• NYC Green Infrastructure Plan
• Proposed Requirements and Timelines to Update Development Codes to Incorporate LID
• Rubber Ducky
• Tabletop Exercise Tool for Water Systems: Emergency Preparedness, Response, & Climate Resiliency
• The Value of Green Infrastructure
• WaterStar Wisconsin