Highly Rated Resources
Matt Gray rated the following resources with four or five stars.
Resource
October 2013
Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson’s Office of Sustainability convened a 50-member Climate Action Advisory Committee with representatives of leading organizations from the commercial, industrial, educational, government, and non-profit sectors to inform and create Cleveland's Climate Action Plan (CAP). 33 actions are outlined in the plan, within 6 focus areas including: Energy Efficiency and Green Building; Advanced and Renewable Energy; Sustainable Mobility; Waste Reduction and Resource Conservation; Land Use and Clean Water; and Community Engagement and Public Health.
Related Organizations: City of Cleveland, Office of Sustainability, City of Cleveland, Ohio
Resource Category: Planning
See Resource
Resource
April 2019
Developed by the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) in 2019, this report summarizes the findings of a survey of 15 Regional Climate Collaboratives (RCCs) that are supporting climate change action at the regional scale in the United States. RCCs are networks that coordinate adaptation (and sometimes mitigation) work across jurisdictional boundaries in municipal regions of the U. S. and often include local and state government representatives as well as nonprofit, academic, and private partners.
Related Organizations: Institute for Sustainable Communities
Authors or Affiliated Users: Steve Adams, Karina French
Resource Category: Solutions
See Resource
Resource
May 2017
From the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), this guide is aimed at local government and outlines a framework for designing and implementing a community-driven, equitable climate preparedness planning process. Community-driven planning empowers those experiencing the greatest climate risks to co-define the solutions. Rather than treating equity as a component of climate preparedness planning, this guide suggests that equity should be at the center of any adaptation approach. It outlines why traditional planning falls short of supporting equity, describes why climate change vulnerability is not evenly spread, and identifies how typical adaptation strategies can be reframed to focus on equity. Throughout the document, examples from cities are presented to showcase real-world applications.
Explore more resources like this by joining our Adaptation Equity Portal
Related Organizations: Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN)
Authors or Affiliated Users: Tina Yuen, Eric Yurkovich, Beth Altshuler, Lauren Grabowski
Resource Category: Planning
See Resource
Resource
July 7, 2016
The Newark Municipal Council passed the Environmental Justice and Cumulative Impacts Ordinance to address long standing health disparities among Newark’s poorest communities. While the ordinance is not specifically about climate change, it does provide a mechanism to address cumulative environmental impacts that lead to the disproportionate climate risks on low-income residents and people of color. This ordinance requires industrial and commercial development proposals to include information about cumulative environmental impacts that will allow decisionmakers and the public to make an informed decision if the development meets the city’s sustainability goals.
Related Organizations: City of Newark, New Jersey
Resource Category: Law and Governance
See Resource
Resource
September 21, 2018
The Cleveland Climate Action Plan (CAP) addresses the need to build climate change resilience while prioritizing social and racial equity and the development of “green jobs.” The CAP was developed through twelve workshops held throughout the city, and the majority (54%) of the 300 attendees were people of color. The CAP is supported by a 90 member Climate Action Advisory Committee (CAAC) that includes membership from a number of environmental and community based organizations. A subset of the CAAC developed a Racial Equity Tool that was used to review each action item under consideration for the plan. The CAP aims to reduce flooding, increase water supply, and improve water quality by promoting green spaces that reduce runoff and combined sewer overflows (CSOs). This plan has resulted in improved water efficiency and the amount of wastewater overflow in the city decreasing from 5 billion gallons per day (Bgal/d) in 2011 to 4.1 Bgal/d in 2015.
Related Organizations: City of Cleveland, Office of Sustainability
Resource Category: Planning
See Resource
Resource
March 16, 2015
The Neighborhood Climate Action Toolkit is intended to help residents of Cleveland, Ohio work in neighborhoods to take actions to advance their goals of sustainability and climate resilience, while also furthering the City’s climate action goals.
Related Organizations: City of Cleveland, Office of Sustainability, City of Cleveland, Ohio
Resource Category: Solutions
See Resource
Resource
2016
In September 2015, the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), in partnership with the Government Alliance on Race and Equity and the Center for Social Inclusion, launched a professional development program for sustainability directors and their staff for advancing racial equity into sustainability planning and development. The program became available online and includes a holistic curriculum of five webinars, videos and worksheets to support local government staff in applying an equity lens to sustainability projects.
Related Organizations: Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN)
Resource Category: Education and Outreach
See Resource
Resource
2011
The Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) Innovation Fund is a financial-investment resource governed by USDN members to promote collaboration among cities to develop, test, and spread high-impact solutions for advancing urban sustainability. The goals for the Fund are to spur active collaboration among members, accelerate on-the-ground impact of key practice fields, and position local government leaders as “go to” sources for sustainability innovation.
Related Organizations: Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN)
Resource Category: Funding
See Resource
Resource
July 12, 2016
Climate Action through Equity, produced by the City of Portland, Oregon Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, provides an overview of how equity in Portland and Multnomah County was integrated in Portland’s 2015 Climate Action Plan. The case study educates users on city and county initiatives to serve communities of color and low-income populations, what actions the city took to support equity in the 2015 plan, and lessons learned from that process.
Related Organizations: City of Portland, Oregon
Authors or Affiliated Users: Desiree Williams-Rajee, Taren Evans
Resource Category: Solutions
See Resource
Resource
2016
The Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) in partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Communities evaluated seven existing sets of climate indicators to determine if any of these frameworks could be adapted to serve city-level needs for evaluating and reporting progress on climate adaptation goals. This report summarizes their assessment. They determined that none of the existing frameworks serve the needs of cities perfectly, but many offer insights that can guide USDN members as they develop their own sets of indicators.
Related Organizations: Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), Institute for Sustainable Communities
Resource Category: Monitoring and Reporting
See Resource
