Recently Released
Urban Food Forest at Browns Mill in Atlanta, GA: A project to create the nation’s largest and Atlanta’s first publicly owned Food Forest to deliver environmental, economic, and social justice outcomes for the local community.(Partners for Places, 2022).
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Strengthening Frontline Capacity for Climate Resilience Planning in Palm Beach County, FL: This project strengthened the capacity of frontline communities for climate resilience planning to ensure more equitable processes and outcomes when the County creates its forthcoming county-wide climate change vulnerability assessment and resilience action plan (VARAP). (USDN Emergent Learning Fund, 2023).
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Growing the Circular Economy through Community Trust Building in Ann Arbor, MI: This project built community trust and informed Ann Arbor’s Circular Economy strategy in a way that is visible, appealing, and accessible to Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County residents of all income levels, and that engages the expertise of Ann Arbor’s BIPOC and frontline residents in developing Circular Economy goals. (USDN Emergent Learning Fund, 2023).
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Consumption-based GHG Emissions Policy Framework for Cities: A project to develop an initial methodology for cities to use as they address consumption-based emissions in planning and practice. (CNCA Game Changer Fund, 2023).
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Solar Energy for Cleveland’s LMI Residents in Cleveland, OH: A project to pilot solar panel installations for low-to-moderate income (LMI) households, which will support a long-term program aimed at reducing barriers to adoption of solar energy. (USDN Mid-Sized Cities, 2023).
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City of Lancaster Comprehensive Plan in Lancaster, PA: A project to conduct robust community engagement to inform core values and priorities and draft policies to ensure that the resulting Comprehensive Plan is inclusive and equitable. (Partners for Places, 2023).
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Friendship Court: A Catalyst for Equity, Sustainability + Resilience in Charlottesville, VA: A project to deploy full rooftop solar on the new residential buildings of Phase 2 of the redevelopment of Friendship Court, a Section 8 community in Charlottesville. . (Partners for Places, 2022).
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Resilient and Efficient Building Code (RECI) Proposal Development in Tucson, AZ: This project convened a coalition of eight Arizona (AZ) cities to develop a proposal for a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant program. (USDN Emergent Learning Fund, 2022).
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Gig Work, Road User Fees, and Equity: Impacts on Sustainable Mode Use and Industry Participation in Vancouver, Canada: This project conducted research on the movements and motivations of gig economy workers to inform the feasibility and future development and design of a transport pricing strategy for Vancouver’s city centre. (CNCA Innovation Fund, 2022)
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Carbon Offsets for Indigenous Land Regeneration in Sydney, Australia: A project to establish a market signal, precedent and ethical system for secure long-term finance streams to traditional custodians and Indigenous enterprise to undertake and maintain regeneration projects. (CNCA Game Changer Fund, 2022).
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Urban Bioenergy-Biochar Development Strategy and Playbook in Boulder, CO: A project to synthesize a bioenergy-biochar implementation action strategy in four CNCA cities focusing on two opportunity areas—urban forestry & biosolids-to-biochar—and create both a “playbook” for development of similar projects in North American and European cities (urban forest carbon management) and a white paper guiding prefeasibility assessment (biosolids-to-biochar). (CNCA Game Changer Fund, 2022).
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Centering Justice: Monterey Bay Climate Response in Santa Cruz, CA: A project to co-create a vibrant climate justice network serving the northern Central Coast of California to rapidly scale up capacity and investment in work at the nexus of climate and justice. (USDN Emergent Learning Fund, 2022).
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Green Infrastructure Relationships in Newport, RI: A project to engage North End undeserved residents in mitigating polluted neighborhood runoff and foster relationships between the City's Department of Utilities and local funders. (Partners for Places, 2022).
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Neighborhood-Level Climate Leadership in City Sustainability Planning in Cincinnati, OH: A project to institute community leadership throughout climate action planning for neighborhood representation in city policy-processes across intersectional climate work.. (USDN Emergent Learning Fund, 2022).
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Lenox Center Resilience Hub Solar Plus Storage Predevelopment in Detroit, MI: A project incorporating solar and storage into renovations of the Lenox Center, creating Detroit's first resilience hub, and serving as a model for future city retrofits. (USDN Mid-Sized Cities, 2022).
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A Neighbor-led Greening Plan Centers People Impacted by Climate Injustice in Richmond, VA: A neighbor-led greening plan centers people who are directly impacted by climate injustice and seeks to repair decades of systemic disinvestment in South Richmond. (Partners for Places, 2022).
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Empty Field Into a Programmable Greenspace in Cleveland, OH: A project to transform an empty field into a programmable greenspace, nurturing connection among community members and providing educational opportunities while mitigating local flooding and stormwater issues. (Partners for Places, 2022).
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Abandoned Roadway Into a Community Greenspace with Green Infrastructure in New Haven, CT:A project to transform an abandoned roadway, in an undeserved community, into a community greenspace with green infrastructure connecting an urban community to parkland and the river. (Partners for Places, 2022).
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Aging in Place Efficiently in Ann Arbor, MI: A project to improve the quality of life and health outcomes for low-income seniors while simultaneously reducing energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions. (Partners for Places, 2022).
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Zero-Emissions Last-Mile Deliveries: This project developed a background paper and strategy evaluation for sustainable last-mile delivery in the City of Denver, CO. (CNCA Innovation Fund, 2022)
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CNCA Mobility Hubs: This project supported two CNCA cities in developing plans to deploy Mobility Hubs: one in the Midwest (Minneapolis) and one in Europe (Stockholm). (CNCA Innovation Fund, 2021)
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Heartland Carbon Drawdown Initiative: A suite of carbon management spatial analysis tools that equip cities with new capabilities to quantify carbon drawdown potential across trees, soils, and organics to achieve carbon mitigation objectives. (Innovation Fund, 2021)
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Building Performance Standards: A New Framework for Equitable Policies to Address Existing Buildings: A framework to help cities set targets for existing buildings to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Successful BPS policies should include assistance for covered buildings and historically underserved populations, including diverse workforce development and job creation mechanisms. The framework captures the latest strategies and tools cities are employing to do this. The framework was developed in partnership with a set of cities and counties that participating the USDN/IMT Building Performance Standards workshop and the USDN/American Cities Climate Challenge Building Performance Standards cohort. (American Cities Climate Challenge, 2021)
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Sydney Better Buildings Cup Pilot Program: This project created a framework to increase whole building engagement in achieving net zero emissions using a gamified approach that catalyzed building owners to leverage existing programs, resources and industry stakeholders to deliver coordinated and meaningful environmental engagement with their tenants and occupants. (CNCA Innovation Fund, 2021)
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Redesigning Municipal Organic Material Systems for Climate & Community Resilience & Equitable Economic Diversification: A tool to help cities quantify and redirect organic waste streams into climate stabilizing resources in ways that generate new economic opportunities and enhance equitably distributed community benefits for both urban and adjacent rural communities. (USDN Innovation Fund, 2021)
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Yokohama City Renewable Energy Promotion Project: This project created a platform for Yokohama residents and businesses to promote the introduction of renewable energy without the help of city subsidies. (CNCA Innovation Fund, 2021)
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