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Sustainable Communities

ICMA Program Centers / Sustainable Communities / Publications

Center for Sustainable Communities

The Center for Sustainable Communities produces a number of publications, in collaboration with partners and funders, that identify best practices, tools, and resources that assist local governments in building sustainable communities.

Featured publications

Putting Smart Growth to Work in Rural Communities -- discusses smart growth strategies being used in small towns around the country.
Getting Smart About Climate Change -- a new report about how some communities are applying smart gowth approaches to reduce their carbon footprint (produced as part of ICMA's cooperative agreement with the U.S. EPA)
Safe Routes to School: Collaboration and Participation in Albany, Oregon and Healthy Decatur: A Holistic Approach to Sustainability --two reports from ICMA's active living project with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
This is Smart Growth, Getting to Smart Growth I: 100 Policies for Implementation and Getting to Smart Growth II: 100 More Policies for Implementation --three popular guidebooks for communities interested in smart growth strategies
Hampton 311 Customer Call Center -- a case study from one of the pioneers in customer contact centers with an in depth exploration of the role the system played in the aftermath of a destructive hurricane

Archive

Title	Focus Area	Date	Description
Recommended Practices for 311/CRM Data Reporting	Technology	January 2011	311/CRM data reports come in many different variations. This list of recommended practices for producing data reports provides guidance to 311 directors and managers on generating reports for citizens, elected officials, and department managers as well as for their own internal purposes.
Putting Smart Growth to Work in Rural Communities	Smart Growth	August 2010	Many rural communities are facing challenges, including rapid growth at metropolitan edges, declining rural populations, and loss of working lands. This report focuses on smart growth strategies that can help guide growth in rural areas while protecting natural and working lands and preserving the rural character of existing communities.
Getting Smart About Climate Change	Smart Growth	March 2010	Addressing climate change is a key component of creating more sustainable communities, and smart growth offers practical guidelines for communities looking to develop sustainably: it addresses new growth and development in a way that reduces their impact on the environment and their contributions to global climate change while supporting economic development and social equity–related goals. This report outlines nine strategies for successfully applying smart growth principles to climate concerns on the local and regional levels.
Safe Routes to School: Collaboration and Participation in Albany, Oregon	Livable Communities	November 2009	The Safe Routes to School Committee in Albany, Oregon, was founded in 2005. The city and the school district have actively collaborated on the SRTS program, seeing it as an important way to keep children healthy and active, as well as to reduce morning traffic and build community.
Public Engagement Project on Medical Service Prioritization During an Influenza Pandemic	Citizen Engagement and Community Building	September 2009	A severe influenza pandemic will have profound impact on the health care delivery system. Rationing of scarce resources and alterations in the standards of health care delivery are widely acknowledged to be necessary components of the response to large scale health emergencies; yet, there has been little public dialogue on these issues and detailed guidelines are not yet available. To address these gaps, Public Health - Seattle & King County (PHSKC) engaged the public to better understand their values and priorities regarding the delivery of medical services and how those services will be allocated during a severe pandemic influenza.
Healthy Decatur: A Holistic Approach to Sustainability	Livable Communities	April 2009	Decatur, Georgia, has long focused on building a community that supports active living. The city has developed a Community Transportation Plan that focuses on making active modes of transportation an easy choice, created an Active Living Division to oversee programs, and worked to promote mixed-use development has had a number of benefits for the community.
Hampton 311 Customer Call Center	Technology	September 2008	Local governments provide a wide range of services to citizen customers. In the early and mid-1990s, city management in Hampton noted a downward trend in citizen satisfaction with local government services, service delivery, and information sharing and embarked on an effort to reverse it. The outcome was a 311 non-emergency Customer Contact Center.
Local Government Managers and Public Libraries: Partners for a Better Community	Public Libraries	October 2007	Once considered quiet havens for study and research, modern public libraries are creating a new niche for themselves in community life. This four page Management Perspective describes the strategic role that libraries can play in a community and how the manager's leadership can contribute to the success of libraries.
This is Smart Growth	Smart Growth	November 2006	Many people want to know what smart growth looks like; This Is Smart Growth illustrates and explains smart growth concepts and outcomes. The publication features 40 places around the country, from cities to suburbs to small towns to rural communities, where good development has improved residents' quality of life.
Getting to Smart Growth II: 100 More Policies for Implementation	Smart Growth	September 2003	This publication from the series by ICMA and the Smart Growth Network describes concrete techniques of putting the 10 smart growth principles into practice. The policies and guidelines presented in this primer have proven successful in communities across the United States, and range from formal legislative or regulatory efforts to informal approaches, plans, and programs. Similar in format to the first volume of Getting to Smart Growth, this new volume lists and describes an entirely new set of 100 policies for implementation.