Tools and Resources for Sustainable Communities
Introduction
One of the goals of the HUD-DOT-EPA Partnership for Sustainable Communities is to help communities develop and support neighborhoods that provide transportation choices and affordable housing while increasing economic competitiveness and directing resources toward places with existing infrastructure. To help support these communities, EPA has compiled this list of useful tools and key resources. This page will be periodically updated.
- More resources from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and EPA, including grant programs, are listed in Leveraging the Partnership: DOT, HUD, and EPA Programs for Sustainable Communities.
- Federal resources specifically for rural communities are discussed in Supporting Sustainable Rural Communities, a report from HUD, DOT, EPA, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture that presents sample funding and technical assistance opportunities and performance measures rural communities can use.
- Other resources from HUD, DOT, and EPA are listed on the Partnership for Sustainable Communities' website.
Tools for Sustainable Communities
Climate Change
Household Carbon Footprint Calculator
This calculator can help communities educate residents about their personal greenhouse gas emissions, which can help support community-wide efforts to reduce climate impacts.
Clean Energy Resources Database
This searchable database describes key resources and documents relevant to the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency, which addresses: evaluation, measurement, and verification; energy efficiency potential studies; cost effectiveness; program design and implementation; dynamic rates; resource planning; cost recovery and incentives; and codes and standards. The database also includes information on funding and incentives, emissions trading, state management best practices, air quality, clean energy supply, local government, and portfolio standards.
Transportation and Climate Change Clearinghouse
The Transportation and Climate Change Clearinghouse (TCCC) website replaces the DOT Center for Climate Change and Environmental Forecasting web site. In addition to new resources and content, the TCCC includes information from the previous site, as well as information about the center and its activities. DOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration maintains the clearinghouse.
State and Local Climate and Energy
This EPA program provides technical assistance, analytical tools, and outreach support to state, local, and tribal governments on climate change and energy issues.
Smart Growth and Climate Change
This page describes how smart growth and climate change intersect in two main areas: mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions from development) and adaptation (making communities more resilient to the effects of a changing climate).
Transportation and Climate
This site offers information on greenhouse gas emissions from transportation sources, including information about relevant EPA regulations and what you can do to reduce your transportation emissions.
Green Power Partnership
EPA's Green Power Partnership is a national voluntary program that supports the organizational procurement of green power by offering expert advice, technical support, tools, and resources. Partnering with EPA can help your organization or community lower the transaction costs of buying green power, reduce its carbon footprint, and communicate its leadership to key stakeholders. Green power is electricity produced from a subset of renewable resources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and low-impact hydro.
Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Analysis Tools (PDF) (51 pp, 2.7 M, About PDF)
The Washington State Department of Commerce analyzed eight modeling, GIS-based, and spreadsheet tools that can help communities assess the transportation-related greenhouse gas impacts of development, from the site level to the regional level. While the analysis is based on Washington communities, the results can be useful for other places around the country, as the report describes these tools in detail and provides guidance to help communities choose the tool that will work best for their circumstances.
Codes, Ordinances, and Land Development Regulations
Essential Smart Growth Fixes for Rural Planning, Zoning, and Development Codes
This publication describes policy options that can help rural communities strengthen their economies while preserving rural character.
Essential Smart Growth Fixes for Urban and Suburban Zoning Codes
This publication describes zoning changes communities can make to their zoning codes and regulations based on common issues and themes confronting urban and suburban governments.
Smart Growth Implementation Toolkit Exit
Tools in the Smart Growth Implementation Toolkit can help your community grow smarter, including a quick diagnostic of existing conditions, a policy audit, a code audit, an audit summary mechanism, and a project scorecard to assess potential updates.
Smart Growth Scorecards
This page describes 18 scorecards that help communities assess their existing policies, current development patterns, and proposed development projects based on smart growth principles.
Codes that Support Smart Growth Development
This page provides a sampling of effective, smart growth-supportive codes that could be used as models for communities trying to update their zoning. These examples include unified development codes, form-based codes, transit-oriented development, design guidelines, street design standards, and zoning overlays.
Environmental Justice
Environmental Justice
EPA works to ensure the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. EPA has numerous resources, including grants, to help communities work toward the goal of ensuring that everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.
EJSCREEN
EJSCREEN is an environmental justice mapping and screening tool that uses a nationally consistent dataset and approach for combining environmental and demographic indicators. Users choose a geographic area; the tool then provides demographic and environmental information for that area. The tool includes a method for combining environmental and demographic indicators into EJ indexes.
Equitable Development Toolkit Exit
This toolkit introduces 28 tools that can help communities and regions begin to reverse patterns of segregation and disinvestment, prevent displacement, and promote equitable revitalization.
Funding Resources
National Funding Opportunities
Smart growth and sustainable communities-related funding opportunities from federal agencies, as well as links to national directories of funding sources.
Regional, State, and Local Funding Opportunities
Smart growth and sustainable communities-related funding opportunities from state governments and other entities.
Leveraging the Partnership: DOT, HUD, and EPA Programs for Sustainable Communities
Lists grant programs from DOT, HUD, and EPA that can help communities build and support sustainable communities.
Green Building
Energy Star
Energy Star is a joint program of EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy-efficient products and practices. This site offers resources for homes and businesses.
Sustainable Design and Green Building Toolkit for Local Governments
EPA Region 4 developed this toolkit in response to local governments' requests for assistance to help them identify and remove barriers to sustainable design and green building in their permitting processes. The toolkit addresses the local codes of ordinances that affect the design, construction, renovation, and operation and maintenance of a building and its immediate site. It contains an assessment tool, a resource guide, and a guide to developing an action plan for implementing changes to the permitting process. It can also be used by members of the development community, local government "green teams," and other building professionals.
U.S. Green Building Council Exit
USGBC certifies green buildings and neighborhoods under the LEED rating systems. LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) integrates the principles of smart growth and green building into the first national rating system for neighborhood design.
Housing
Developing Housing for the Workforce — A Toolkit Exit
This tool includes case studies and examples of financially feasible, for-profit developments and features a section on public and private programs that are being used to encourage the development of workforce housing.
Housing and Transportation Affordability Index Exit
A tool that calculates the true cost of housing by measuring the transportation costs associated with the housing location.
Walk Score®Exit
Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by noting its distance from nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, and other amenities.
Smart Growth and Affordable Housing
Resources and a discussion of how a smart growth approach to affordable housing—compact in nature, green in design and construction, and transit-rich in options—can help communities and their residents be better stewards of the environment and achieve more affordable, livable communities.
Smart Growth Guidelines for Sustainable Design and Development
This resource helps communities that seek to locate, design, and develop housing — particularly affordable housing — in a way that reduces household costs, improves residents' quality of life, and invests public resources more sustainably. The guidelines can serve as a checklist for local officials, state or regional policy makers, developers, and community members to ensure that programs, plans, and proposed developments incorporate the elements needed at the location, site, and building levels to result in more sustainable, affordable housing.
Land Reuse and Revitalization
Brownfields and Land Revitalization
EPA has a variety of programs to help eligible entities assess, remediate, and restore brownfields sites to productive use and revitalize affected neighborhoods. This site links to grants, success stories, and other resources for communities.
Center for Community Progress Exit
The NVPC provides information resources, tools, and assistance to support vacant property revitalization efforts.
Cleanups in my Community
This mapping tool makes it possible to identify properties throughout the U.S. that have been contaminated by hazardous materials and that have been cleaned up under EPA's Superfund, RCRA, and/or brownfields clean-up programs.
SMARTe (Sustainable Management Approaches and Revitalization Tools – electronic) Exit
SMARTe is a free web-based tool that contains resources and analysis tools for all aspects of the revitalization process including planning, environmental, economic, and social concerns. The goal of SMARTe is to help users overcome obstacles to revitalization such as absence of vision, lack of funding, or fear of liability.
Planning
PlaceMatters Toolkit Exit
Guidebook to help communities identify, promote, and protect the places they care about.
Successful Communities Online Toolkit information exchange (SCOTie) Exit
Database of smart growth policies and case studies from communities in Western states.
Sustainable Materials Management
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Resources for communities to promote reuse of materials rather than disposing of them or recycling them. Information includes material exchanges, guides for donations, and building material reuse stores.
Transportation
Context Sensitive Solutions Exit
Context-sensitive solutions involve all stakeholders in a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to develop transportation facilities that fit their physical settings and preserve scenic, aesthetic, historic, and environmental resources, while maintaining safety and mobility.
National Transportation Library: Rural Transport Toolbox
The Transportation Toolbox for Rural Areas and Small Communities was designed to assist public and private stakeholders in planning, developing, and improving rural areas and small communities, especially through transportation and related projects.
Tool Kit for Integrating Land Use and Transportation Decision-Making
A user-friendly source of methods, strategies, and procedures for integrating land use and transportation planning, decision-making, and project implementation. Thirty tools, including CommunityViz, PLACE3S, and Paint the Town are included, along with implementation examples and additional information.
Transit Savings Calculator Exit
The American Public Transportation Association offers a calculator that can help you compare the cost of using public transportation with the price of gas and parking.
Transportation and Climate
Information on greenhouse gas emissions from transportation sources, including information about transportation's contribution to total GHG emissions, relevant EPA regulations, and what you can do to reduce your transportation emissions.
Smart Growth and Transportation
Describes transportation and land use strategies that enhance quality of life and protect human health and the environment.
Water
Green Infrastructure Wizard (GIWiz)
GIWiz is an interactive web application that connects communities to EPA's green infrastructure tools and resources. Users can produce customized reports.
Water Quality Scorecard
This scorecard was developed to help local governments identify opportunities to remove barriers and revise and create codes, ordinances, and incentives to better protect water quality. It guides municipal staff through a review of relevant local codes and ordinances across multiple municipal departments to ensure that these codes work together to support a green infrastructure approach.
Green Infrastructure
Documents and resources to help communities understand and implement green infrastructure, an approach to wet weather management that is cost effective, sustainable, and environmentally friendly.
Soak Up the Rain
Links to EPA tools that communities and individuals can use to soak up the rain to help prevent water pollution, reduce flooding, protect water resources, beautify landscapes, and bring many benefits to communities.
Green Values Stormwater Toolbox Exit
Provides an overview of how the Great Lakes landscape works and describes methods to minimize stormwater runoff without expensive infrastructure projects.
Sustainable Water Infrastructure
In many parts of the nation, sewer and drinking water infrastructure is aging, and EPA is promoting sustainable practices that will help to address the funding needed to rehabilitate and replace these facilities. This site offers information on best practices for project and asset management, full cost pricing, water efficiency, and watershed approaches.
Watershed Academy
Offers a variety of self-paced training modules for a basic and broad introduction to the watershed management field.