2014_0714_CCpacket - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

"good" (1-star) level, "better" (2-star), or "best." Cities self-report howthey have completed an action, and GreenStep Cities staff mark each action (in consultation with the city) as complete at a 1-, 2- or 3-star level. Guidance for what constitutes completion at different star levels is found on the web site by clicking on the text of a best practice action and then clicking on the Guidance tab. This star guidance provides more detail than is included in the action text, and sometimes clarifies that a city need do only one part of an action to have their work marked as complete at a 1-star level. The star guidance text is rarely absolute criteria for assignment of a star level for a particular action a city has completed. This is because the guidance is continually being refined as cities report more actions, and report actions in more creative/unanticipated ways. Cities are encouraged to attempt to complete an action at a 2- or 3-star level, but completion of all actions at a 1-star level is sufficient for cities that are recognized as Step Two and Step Three cities. Can my city calculate the benefits of a contemplated or completed action? For many of the 163 GreenStep actions, yes. Within each best practice sheet is a"Benefits" section that lists, where we have indentified them, web sites with calculators of environmental, financial and social benefits of implementing the GreenStep actions, or similar actions. As of 2010 there e�asts one large, free, downloadable spreadsheet - The Climate & Air Pollution Planning Assistant (CAPPA) — comprising over 100 separate calculators that are relevant to a majority of the 163 GreenStep City best practice actions. CAPPA can provide useful estimates for planning purposes, but it might not be an appropriate substitute to some other kind of ineasurement and verification in order to officially claim reductions. In some cases it appears that CAPPA simply uses educated, best estimates for what sort of greenhouse gas reductions a specific action can achieve. CAPPA has default settings for the degree to which a city government and/or a community would implement a specific action, and changeable factors such as the price of electricity. Each calculator then produces numbers for money invested and saved, energy use reduced, carbon reduced, calculations of criteria pollutants reduced, and other calculations dealing with, for e�mple, water. There is also an estimate, on a 1-5 scale, of: • Initial implementation cost • Operation and maintenance costs • Financial return on investment • Implementationtimeframe • Levelofeffortrequiredbylocalgovernmentstaff • Degree of implementation conVol held bylocal government Download the CAPPA spreadsheet and the CAPPA User Guide. For an annotated guide from the Great Plains Institute that correlates CAPPA calculators with GreenStep actions, contact the GreenStep program coordinator. Can I be certified as a green city, as opposed to being recognized as one? The short answer is yes but not until 2011. The STAR Community Index, to be launched later in 2010, is a national framework for gauging the sustainability and livability of U.S. communities. The Index appears to be appropriate for large Minnesota cities that want to spend money measuring and more rigorously certifying their sustainability achievements. It is being developed through a partnership between ICLEI USA, the U.S. Green Building Council, and the Center for American Progress. What LEED certification has become for buildings, the Index aims to become for entire communities. When the Index is completely up and running, it could be that certification under it would automatically constitute Step Three or Step Four GreenStep City recognition. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency � Contact � Web site policy