One of the most daunting barriers against moving forward with sustainability and greening initiatives in our communities is the tremendous costs associated with such projects. It can be tough to justify such a cost to them without knowing the ins-and-outs of the green technology industry.  One of the best ways to reduce the cost of introducing sustainable initiatives is to have a firm handle on what green technology adoption entails.

 The following list of documents provides great information about the process of adopting green technologies to sustain your community and the world around you:

• “Fifteen Tips for Going Green, Recycling” contains an inclusive checklist of greening initiatives that you can adopt in your community. While not every sustainable initiative will fit your community’s needs, this article is a great starting point for thinking about possible approaches.
• “Green Infrastructure Investment Program” offers a great walkthrough for developing a plan to implement green systems in your community.
• Read about how green initiatives are good for your bottom line in the recent PM Magazine article, “Growing a Green Economy”.
• Discover what may be the easiest way to improve the health of your community in the “Seeing Green with Trees” presentation.
• “City of Virginia Beach Green Ribbon Initiative" describes how a  group of 30 people, including land developers, builders, attorneys, non-profit representatives, planning commissioners, city council members, city staff, professional engineers, landscape architects and private citizens, united to rewrite  the pollution regulations for one of the largest cities in the United States.

These articles and presentations should offer you most of what you need to know as you approach the idea of implementing green technologies in your community.  If you still have any questions, though, you would do well to check out the air, climate and water, energy efficiency, environment, renewable energy, solar energy and sustainability topic pages, or the sustainability group. And if you have any lessons that will help out your fellow managers, feel free to share them in the comment section below.

Happy Greening!

Aloha,

James Davidson

ICMA's Knowledge Network Intern

jdavidson@icma.org