July 2016 Urban Sustainability Innovation Report

July 2016 - USDN Member Impact Insights

2016 USDN Member Impact Survey: Members Identify Biggest Opportunities for Sustainability Impact – Have you ever wondered which local initiative has the greatest effect on reducing GHGs or building support for sustainability programming – and how much investment it takes to pull it off? USDN conducted a survey in the spring of 2016 of 112 diverse cities and counties in the United States and Canada to answer these questions. MORE » 

Social Equity: USDN Survey Reveals “Sweet Spots” for Triple Bottomline Progress – The 2016 USDN Member Impact Survey revealed a great deal about which actions make a project a strong contributor to community sustainability.  MORE »

Energy Transformation: USDN Members Note Greatest GHG Reduction Potential Requires Political Will – The local government focus on individual initiatives is shifting to a more comprehensive approach to energy system planning. The 2016 USDN Member Impact Survey revealed that energy actions in particular have high potential for impact - but also have high costs or many barriers to implementation.  MORE »

Planning Processes: A Tool that Builds Local Political Support – Dwight Eisenhower once said “Plans are nothing. Planning is everything.” Throughout the 2016 Member Impact Survey, creating and adopting plans was ranked as a relatively easy way to set a community up for future GHG and Quality of Life Impacts, while having strong potential to build political support.  MORE »