Just Communities Information Exchange

An Online Library to Advance Neighborhood Equitable & Regenerative Development

The Just Communities Information Exchange is an ever-expanding online library of original and curated resources designed to support the application of best practices, innovative solutions, and her to peer exchange for those looking to advance Just Growth.

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Reports and Master Plans

City of Chicago Equitable Transit Oriented Development (ETOD) Policy Plan

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Built Environment, Equity, Resilience

The Chicago eTOD Policy Plan outlines a comprehensive set of actions for the City to take to advance racial equity, wealth building, public health and climate resilience goals through equitable Transit-Oriented Development (eTOD). Recommendations were informed through a cross-sector engagement process and analysis of City programs, and an evaluation framework focused on outcomes, equity, and implementation criteria. In partnership with Elevated Chicago, an eTOD Work Group was created to engage over 70 stakeholders representing numerous City departments, community-based organizations, the private sector, philanthropies, and regional non-profit and governmental partners.

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Reports and Master Plans

The Salzburg Statement on Confronting Power and Privilege for Inclusive, Equitable and Healthy Communities

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Built Environment, Community, Equity, Health and Wellbeing, Resilience

By: Salzburg Global Seminar

The scale of current and potential inequalities in the urban environment demands a revolution of purpose and accountability. The challenges we face in building and sustaining healthy and equitable communities demand new forms of thinking, problem-solving, governance, and decision making. Most importantly, it requires that we learn the skills of interrogating power and analyzing privilege.

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Toolkits and Guides

The Tale of Two Zip Codes

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Community, Equity, Health and Wellbeing

By: Health Happens Here: The California Endowment

A short video detailing life expectancy differences between people based on the built environment, policies, and access to health resources in their neighborhood, often due to racial and economic discrimination. The video shows how zip code can be more influential to health than genetic code.

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Reports and Master Plans

SoMa EcoDistrict Roadmap

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Accredited Professionals, Annual Report, Community, Connectivity, District Utilities, District Water Systems, Engagement, Equity, Featured, Governance, Health and Wellbeing, Innovation District, Portland Pilot, Protocol, Resilience, Roadmap

By: Portland Sustainability Institute

The SoMa EcoDistrict Roadmap includes an assessment of baseline conditions, adopted performance goals, and recommended strategies to support the Soma EcoDistricts aspirations to foster a new model of urban sustainability. As part of the EcoDistricts Portland Pilot, this guide from SoMa showcases a well-curated report that could be modeled by other districts.

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Reports and Master Plans

Breathe Easy Millvale Air Quality Planning

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Annual Report, Built Environment, Climate Protection, Community, Equity, Health and Wellbeing, Protocol, Resilience

By: evolveEA

This Air Quality Planning guide is an example of a high-quality indicator report from an EcoDistricts Project. The Breathe Easy project recommends future actions and projects to catalyze change at the individual scale, in the borough, and in the region. This initiative, supported by the Heinz Endowments, is a result of Millvale's EcoDistrict Pivot 2.0 Plan led by evolveEA.

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Reports and Master Plans

The Empty House Next Door: Understanding and Reducing Vacancy and Hypervacancy in the United States

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Built Environment, Community, Equity

By: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

This report lays the groundwork for exploring the issue of vacancy by defining what is meant by a “vacant” property, what constitutes a “healthy” vacancy rate, how vacant properties are measured, and why properties become vacant and abandoned. It discusses the impact of vacant properties on the communities in which they are situated. The report gives a definition of vacant properties in the context of the overall housing market, explains the negative effects of vacant properties on the overall community wellbeing, and concludes with recommendations on how to curb the vacancy problem.

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Reports and Master Plans

Facilitator’s Guide for Continuous Improvement Conversations with a Racial Equity Lens

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Equity

By: Living Cities

This guide has been designed to support facilitators and leaders to advance cross-sector conversations and efforts aimed at population-level impact. The tools in this guide can support you in having productive conversations and allow you and your diverse partners to achieve dramatically better results in your community.

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Reports and Master Plans

A Placemaking Vision for Downtown Detroit

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Equity, Place, Roadmap

By: Opportunity Detroit

This report focuses on how the public spaces, and particularly the three major downtown parks, can be transformed, both in the long and short term so that they support this exciting commercial and residential rebirth in the downtown Detroit, and also become destinations in their own right.

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Reports and Master Plans

Growth and Equity: Analyzing Impacts on Displacement and Opportunity Related to Seattle’s Growth Strategy

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Affordable Housing, Community, Equity, Living Infrastructure, Prosperity, Resilience

By: City of Seattle Department of Planning and Development

This is an equity analysis of the city of Seattle and part of their comprehensive planning process. Its goals are to inform future elected officials about Potential future impacts of the four growth alternatives on marginalized populations and strategies for mitigating identified impacts and increasing access to opportunity for marginalized populations.

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Case Studies

Building Public Data Capacity and Partnerships For Racial Equity In Oakland

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Community, Equity, Performance

By: National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership

This case study is part of a series, including an overview brief, that demonstrates how local governments benefit from engaging with data intermediaries. The Case Shows how Data Intermediaries can provide topical, analytical and community expertise and can provide impartial analysis of community issues community engagement.

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Toolkits and Guides

Equity Foundations: A USDN Capacity Building Program

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Climate Protection, Community, Engagement, Equity, Prosperity

By: Urban Sustainability Directors Network

In September 2015, USDN developed a holistic curriculum of webinars, videos, and worksheets to help local government staff to apply an equity lens to a sustainability project, including choosing a good project, communicating about the project and racial equity, building a team, applying proven equity tools, and designing the project to embed an equity lens in local government practice.

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Toolkits and Guides

Equity in Sustainability: An Equity Scan of Local Governments Sustainability Programs

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Climate Protection, Community, Engagement, Equity, Governance, Prosperity, Roadmap

By: Urban Sustainability Director's Network

This guide from the Urban Sustainability Directors Network is an important read that highlights the interdependence between socioeconomic and racial equity and sustainability. It highlights 10 “Good Practices” for community leaders to help integrate equity into sustainability efforts, and highlights cases from around the country using the “Good Practices.”

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Toolkits and Guides

Introduction to EcoDistricts Webinar

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Protocol

By: EcoDistricts

View a complimentary webinar about the EcoDistricts Protocol. This introduction includes an overview of the EcoDistricts Protocol, a framework for community development. Learn about the exemplary projects using the Protocol, and understand how to apply EcoDistricts in your community. 

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Toolkits and Guides

Community Energy: Planning, Development, and Delivery

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Built Environment, Climate Protection, Commercial District, Community, District Energy + Water Academy, District Utilities, Governance, Prosperity, Resilience, Roadmap

By: International District Energy Association

District Energy is the local production and distribution of thermal energy used for residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. This guide is an important read for municipal officials, planners, and neighborhood champions interested in building a district energy system in their community.

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Toolkits and Guides

The Community Engagement Guide for Sustainable Communities

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Community, Engagement, Equity, Formation, Resilience

By: Policy Link and The Kirwan Institute

The Community Engagement Guide for Sustainable Communities includes the essential framework for effective community engagement. The guide covers the benefits of community engagement from hyper-local to regional planning projects, explains practical strategies, highlights case studies, and answers frequently asked questions about the topic.

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Toolkits and Guides

Neighborhood Climate Action Planning Handbook

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Built Environment, Climate Protection, Community, Engagement, Governance, Performance, Resilience, Resource Restoration, Roadmap

By: Portland State University

Developed by Portland State University, this handbook details climate action strategies to help neighborhoods reduce carbon footprint and fossil fuel dependency. While primarily focused on planning for Southeast Portland, this tool is certainly applicable to any neighborhood planner or advocate that is looking to bring the community together to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change.

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Toolkits and Guides

Asset Based Community Development

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Community, Engagement, Formation, Performance, Roadmap

By: Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center

The Organizer’s Workbook is an easy-to-follow guidebook that provides the fundamental guidelines and tools for neighborhood planning and community engagement strategies through the framework of Asset Based Community Development. The framework is a great tool for community members who are beginning their first neighborhood project, seasoned planners working on a multi-district development, or anyone in-between.

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Toolkits and Guides

Certification Informational Webinar

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Certification, Climate Protection, Equity, Protocol, Resilience

Join us for a complimentary webinar about EcoDistricts Certified. This introduction includes an overview of the EcoDistricts Protocol and Certification, which are based on 1) equity, resilience, and climate protection imperatives; 2) formation of a governance structure; 3) development of a roadmap; and 4) ongoing performance reporting. Learn about the exemplary projects pursuing this new standard and understand how to apply EcoDistricts in your community. The presentation will be brief and include time for questions.

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Toolkits and Guides

Industrial EcoDistricts

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Commercial District, District Utilities, District Water Systems, Innovation District, Resilience

There are over 950,000 more manufacturing jobs in the U.S. today than in 2010. This resurgence presents a major opportunity for communities. As a segment of manufacturers turns away from the inefficiencies of sprawling suburban industrial parks and re-onshores production from overseas locations there is growing demand for urban locations. But cities that want to take advantage of manufacturing’s return need to prepare themselves. An EcoDistrict approach to industrial revitalization can help keep costs down and bring the benefits of manufacturing to a community, while reducing the environmental burdens.

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Toolkits and Guides

Making Microgrids Work

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Climate Protection, Commercial District, District Energy + Water Academy, District Utilities, Resilience

The growing popularity of microgrids reflects their proven ability to deliver resilience and clean, alternative energy sources for diverse types of communities. This webinar explores how local governments, real estate owners and private developers can implement successful district energy and microgrid projects. You'll hear from Bracken Hendricks of Urban Ingenuity on how to navigate development, tight timelines and the competing pressures facing microgrid development.

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Toolkits and Guides

A Local Leader’s Guide to Community Engagement and Building Public Trust

(1 votes) 5/5

By: International City/County Management Association

Community Engagement and Building Public Trust provides the tools needed to help local leaders build and maintain public trust, plan for bumps in the road, and develop relationships with residents to mitigate alienation, anger, and a lack of trust.

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Reports and Master Plans

Advancing Social Equity Goals to Achieve Sustainability

(1 votes) 3/5

By: International City/County Management Association

This report describes the current activities, leading practices, and achievements of sustainable communities. It examines the extent to which social equity activities are included within an integrated approach to sustainability, how social equity is defined, and the level of commitment of local governments in addressing equity issues.

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Toolkits and Guides

Racial Equity Toolkit

(0 votes) 0/5

By: Government Alliance on Race and Equity

The Racial Equity Toolkit is designed to help practitioners integrate explicit consideration of racial equity in decisions, including policies, practices, programs and budgets and develop strategies and actions that reduce racial inequities and improve success for all groups.

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Data Tools

Arup City Resilience Index

(1 votes) 5/5

Categories: Resilience

By: Arup

Developed by Arup with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the City Resilience Index enables cities to measure and monitor the multiple factors that contribute to their resilience.

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Toolkits and Guides

Zero Net Energy Communications Toolkit

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Built Environment, Climate Protection

By: New Buildings Institute and Resource Media

The Zero Net Energy Communications Toolkit is a set of online resources developed by the New Buildings Institute and Resource Media to address zero net energy (ZNE) communications goals. The toolkit answers commonly asked questions about ZNE and provides messaging for consistent communications around this ultra-efficiency goal.

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Toolkits and Guides

Participatory Asset Mapping Toolkit

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Formation, Governance

By: Healthy City

Healthy City's Participatory Asset Mapping Toolkit is an instructional guide that provides community-based organizations with concepts, methods and tools to collect knowledge and experiences from community members about local assets.

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Toolkits and Guides

Arup Cities Alive Workshop Cards

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Engagement, Resilience

By: Arup

Arup's Cities Alive workshop cards communicate 100 issues that cities will face in the future. The cards are designed to help stakeholders at all levels prioritize and explore issues that will shape the future of their city and explore the notion of city vitality thinking.

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Reports and Master Plans

2015 Pittsburgh 2030 District Project Report

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Performance

By: Pittsburgh 2030 District and Green Building Alliance

The Pittsburgh 2030 District Progress Report summarizes the Pittsburgh 2030 District’s 2015 progress toward attaining the bold sustainable building performance goals pursued by its participants.

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Reports and Master Plans

Millvale Ecodistrict PIVOT 2.0 Plan

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Resilience, Roadmap

By: EvolveEA

The Borough of Millvale, Pennsylvania's PIVOT 2.0 Plan harnesses an ecodistrict planning model that builds community resiliency by mobilizing and connecting food, water and energy networks to achieve neighborhood goals.

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Reports and Master Plans

Capitol Hill Ecodistrict 2015 Annual Report

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Performance

By: Capitol Hill Housing

The Capitol Hill Ecodistrict is a neighborhood-based sustainability initiative serving the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, the most densely populated urban village in the Pacific Northwest. The Capitol Hill Ecodistrict 2015 Annual Report details significant achievements by the district, including formal recognition by Seattle's City Council and progress made toward eight performance indicators, such as energy and transportation.

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Case Studies

Verde and Living Cully: A Venture in Placemaking

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Equity, Prosperity

By: Ecotrust and Economics for Equity and Environment Network

"Verde and Living Cully: A Venture in Placemaking" profiles the non-profit organization Verde and the Living Cully initiative in the highly diverse, low-income Cully neighborhood of Portland, Oregon.

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Toolkits and Guides

Building Healthy Places Toolkit

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Built Environment, Equity, Health and Wellbeing, Place

By: Urban Land Institute

ULI’s Building Healthy Places Toolkit: Strategies for Enhancing Health in the Built Environment outlines evidence-supported opportunities for enhancing health outcomes in real estate developments. The toolkit is a useful complement to the EcoDistricts Protocol Health + Wellbeing Priority area.

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Case Studies

Lloyd EcoDistrict

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Climate Protection, Connectivity, Health and Wellbeing, Innovation District

By: EcoDistrict

The Lloyd Ecodistrict in Portland, OR was formed in 2009 with a goal of becoming one of North America’s most sustainable living-and-working districts. In the seven years since its formation, the ecodistrict is well on its way to becoming a case study in effective district-scale regeneration, thanks in large part to the emphasis project leaders have put on strategic partnerships and stakeholder engagement.

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Case Studies

Stockholm Royal Seaport

(2 votes) 4/5

Categories: Built Environment, Climate Protection

By: EcoDistricts

Formerly a brownfield site, the Stockholm Royal Seaport is designed to be a world-class waterfront urban district with a strong focus on sustainability. When completed in 2030, it will provide 10,000 apartments and 30,000 workspaces. The Stockholm Royal Seaport aims to be a diverse neighborhood combining offices and climate-adapted housing with a green inner-city character.

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Case Studies

Hammarby Sjöstad, Sweden

(1 votes) 4/5

Categories: Built Environment, Climate Protection

By: EcoDistricts

The Hammarby Sjöstad area was originally intended to be an olympic village for Stockholm’s application to the 2004 summer Olympics. Instead, Hammarby Sjöstad is now the result of a long process of converting a brownfield area into a sustainable waterfront residential neighborhood.

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Case Studies

Augustenborg, Sweden

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Climate Protection, Engagement

By: EcoDistricts

In 1998, the Augustenborg district in Malmö, Sweden, initiated a renovation process through an urban renewal program at the community and household scales. They focused at the household level to improve energy efficiency, create green roofs, and improve access to recycling facilities.

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Case Studies

Mobile Grocery Store Units

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Engagement, Equity, Health and Wellbeing

By: EcoDistricts

Mobile grocery units are gaining momentum as a way of combatting food deserts. The USDA defines food deserts as “a census tract with a substantial share of residents who live in a low income area that have low access to a grocery store or healthy affordable retail outlet.” Their mobility allows for outreach to multiple neighborhoods at a time.

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Case Studies

Transportation Demand Management

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Built Environment, Connectivity

By: EcoDistricts

Transportation demand management (TDM) refers to various strategies that change travel behavior (how, when, and where people travel) in order to increase the efficiency of transport and parking systems in alignment with planning objectives. Many factors affect people’s transport decisions, including the relative convenience and safety of travel modes, cost and land use.

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Case Studies

District Wastewater Management

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Built Environment, Climate Protection, District Water Systems, Living Infrastructure

By: EcoDistricts

District wastewater management systems provide collection, treatment and dispersal or reuse of wastewater from individual buildings or clusters of buildings near the location where the waste is generated. Studies indicate that more distributed methods of wastewater collection, which rely mostly on gravity-fed pipes, will have fewer negative environmental impacts than systems that expend large amounts of energy for conveyance.

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Case Studies

Bicycle Trains

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Health and Wellbeing

By: EcoDistricts

A bicycle train is a group of people bicycling together along a structured route with a set schedule and meeting places — most commonly seen in the form of parents leading a group of children to school, but also including adults commuting to work. This alternative form of transportation is popular because it improves bicyclist safety and can help new cyclists acclimate to commuting via bicycle.

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Case Studies

Active Living

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Built Environment, Health and Wellbeing, Living Infrastructure

By: EcoDistricts

According to the Active Living Research program from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, active living integrates physical activity into the daily routines of people — 30-60 minutes per day. To facilitate and support opportunities for active living, a focus on the built environment and good urban design is essential—including neighborhoods, transportation systems, buildings, street and sidewalk design, parks and open space.

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Case Studies

District Stormwater Management

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Living Infrastructure

By: EcoDistricts

District-scale “green” infrastructure helps preserve the local on-site water balance. They not only reduce the amount of stormwater available for runoff, but also the pollution from urban nonpoint sources that enter local streams. Neighborhood-scale stormwater management should begin with rainwater management at the site or individual property level and then scale up to the watershed level.

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Case Studies

District Energy

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Climate Protection, District Utilities, Living Infrastructure

By: EcoDistricts

District energy systems provide an energy-efficient and cost-effective option for heating and cooling many buildings in a given locale, from a central plant. They use a network of underground pipes to pump steam, hot water, and/or chilled water to multiple buildings in an area such as a downtown district, college or hospital campus, airport or military base.

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Case Studies

Cultural Programming

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Engagement, Place

By: EcoDistricts

Creative place making and cultural programming are becoming increasingly popular economic development strategies. Neighborhoods and local cultural organizations are banding together to transform their cultural attributes into celebrations that attract people into the area.

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Case Studies

Commercial Energy Retrofits

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Climate Protection, Performance

By: EcoDistricts

The two main forms of energy retrofits – conventional and deep energy retrofits – can be applied to commercial buildings, including offices, public buildings, schools and other institutions. Deep energy retrofits achieve much greater energy efficiency by taking a whole-building approach to address many systems at once.

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Case Studies

Bike Sharing

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Connectivity, Health and Wellbeing

By: EcoDistricts

Bike-sharing systems are public active transportation programs comprised of interconnected stations that exchange bicycles for free or at an affordable rate for short distance trips in urban areas. These programs offer an alternative to motorized transportation to prevent its negative externalities, and present opportunities for increased physical activity.

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Case Studies

Engagement Technologies

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Climate Protection, Community, Engagement

By: EcoDistricts

A number of emerging community engagement programs use technology to empower local organizations with data, tools and fundraising resources to connect with communities, attract funders and inspire behavior change. Online forums, web services and social media are used to connect groups working on environmental and community enhancement projects to interested volunteers and donors.

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Case Studies

Residential Energy Retrofits

(0 votes) 0/5

Categories: Climate Protection, Equity

By: EcoDistricts

In the U.S., residential energy retrofit programs support single-family homeowners through the process of retrofitting their homes to increase energy efficiency and/or to lower energy costs, and were initially developed in response to increased interest at all levels of government to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of buildings.

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