December 2014 Urban Sustainability Innovation Report
The Ins and Outs of "Smart Parking:" Eleven USDN cities convened to learn more about how their parking systems--public garages and on-street spaces, parking apps, private parking lots, and more--could contribute more to city sustainability. They had a lot of ground to cover. More »
Urban Agriculture Keeps Spreading: During the past few years, USDN has held workshops and annual meeting sessions about urban agriculture, while the USDN Innovation Fund has made grants to support reports about the topic. Now some cities are funding urban agricultureprojects with support from local community foundations. More »
Getting Smart about "Smart Cities:" The promise is enticing: use smart city technologies--Big Data, civic engagement apps, and more--to help cities achieve their sustainability goals. But the reality is confusing and daunting. With a grant from the USDN Innovation Fund, 10 cities came together with selected experts to study the problem and develop a path forward for themselves and other cities. More »
Cities Striving for Carbon Neutrality: When 17 of the leading cities pursuing carbon neutrality converged in Copenhagen, they found they had some lessons learned about how to advance carbon neutrality and a lot of common concerns. More »
Compostable Plastics Toolkit: This online, interactive website can help your city understand the opportunities and issues presented by compostable food serviceware, bags and other compostable plastic products, and allow each stakeholder in the lifecycle of compostable plastics to determine the best method to manage these products in their unique circumstances. The toolkit was developed by the U.S. Composting Council's Compostable Plastics Task Force, supported by a grant from the USDN Innovation Fund and guided by Asheville, Gaithersburg, and San Jose. More »
Urban Water System Performance Scorecard: Using a framework for sustainable water management, Milwaukee and several other communities in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative have piloted the use of a scorecard with key indicators to deepen a community's understanding of its water system and to increase the water system's accountability for its performance. On a USDN webinar in July, Matt Howard, Milwaukee's environmental sustainability director, presented the scorecard's background, contents, and lessons learned. More »
USDN Innovator Profile: Jennifer Green (Burlington, Vermont) is getting things moving with a half-dozen other USDN members on "smart parking." More »
USDN now helps partners, sustainability professionals, and our followers stay up to date with USDN members' innovations through the Urban Sustainability Innovation Report. This newsletter highlights our members' work on the cutting edge of urban sustainability innovation.
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