Superefficient Affordable Housing: Solutions to Hurdles

This paper describes the programmatic, financial, technical, and operational hurdles that stand in the way of increased energy efficiency in our affordable housing stock. It then explains possible solutions to each of these hurdles. Through the propagation of these solutions and the diminishment of these hurdles, it is possible to create an incentive structure that results in the rapid adoption of energy efficiency within our affordable housing stock.

 

City of Boulder Climate Action Plan Analysis Report

Rocky Mountain Institute worked with the City of Boulder to conduct a thorough analysis of Boulder's demand side management programs. RMI examined 19 residential, commercial, and renewable energy programs using a modified utility cost test approach to determine their full lifetime emissions reductions and the cost/benefit ration for each program. This report summarizes those findings.

 

Project Get Ready: Menu for Community Plug-In Readiness

Project Get Ready is an initiative that helps communities become electrified vehicle pioneers. This document outlines the actions communities should take to be ready for plug-in vehicles, and approximate costs of each action. This paper provides a summary of system wide costs, benefits, and jobs. It also describes the role of different actors such as utilities, businesses, and governments. A list of web resources is also provided.

 

Policy of Energy Change

In this interview, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Amory Lovins discuss energy policy. Topics discussed include walkable cities, how to drill for efficiency, and what governments can do to accelerate clean energy. The importance and opportunity of legislation on a local level are emphasized. Domestic drilling, funding sources for clean energy, putting a price on carbon and motivating change are other topics discussed. Amory concludes by describing the security issues related to our electric grid, and the necessary steps to build a more reliable and localized energy infrastructure.

 

Framework for Community Sustainability: Ten Ingredients for Long-Term Success

The Framework for Community Sustainability was derived from the experiences of North American communities that understand that community, economy, and environment are not competing interests, but complementary parts of a whole. It outlines the components of smart and sustainable community governance, suggesting how to weave sustainability into the public, private, and nonprofit fabric of a community. [Originally published in 2003; updated in 2007]

 

Building Community Prosperity Through Natural Capitalism

This document provides guidance for communities that are attempting to grow economically regardless of physical size. The guide lists dozens of ways communities are tapping their potential today through natural capitalism. [Originally published in 2001; updated in 2007]

 

Advancing the Regeneration of the Cuyahoga Valley

This report describes the Cuyahoga Regeneration Project, a community effort focused on several projects that simultaneously restore natural systems and strengthen economic development along the Cuyahoga River ship channel. The report contends that environmental restoration is no longer an option for American cities; it's an imperative. Though many people regard efforts to rebuild environmental assets as burdensome to a local economy, environmental restoration, when pursued intelligently, is both a minimum requirement for, and a path to, a strong economic future. The Cuyahoga Regeneration Project advances these beliefs.

 

Why Build Green?

This guide describes the benefits of green building and provides case studies of a variety of successful buildings and developments.

 

Collaborating for Healthy Communities: The Path to a Sustainable Future

This paper offers a brief summary of the principles of community collaboration, describes how collaboration can proceed, and explains smart governance and active listening.

 

Valuing Decentralized Wastewater Technologies: A Catalog of Benefits, Costs, and Economic Analysis Techniques

The purpose of this report, which was prepared for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is to present a catalog of the economic advantages and disadvantages of decentralized wastewater systems relative to larger scale solutions, in order to inform wastewater facility planning and assist communities in making better choices among their many technology options. To this end, this study attempts to compile and summarize what is known about the comparative benefits and costs of various aspects of centralized and decentralized systems. It also reveals and discusses the many issues that should be addressed when site-specific wastewater facility plans are prepared, as an annotated check-list that will help engineers, planners, and other professionals facilitate a more informed discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of various system options for the communities they serve.

 

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