The GreenStep 28 best practices

Make planning and tracking easier: download this spreadsheet that lists all 168 unique actions for all 28 best practices.

An online version (see view-only example) can be shared with, and edited by, multiple staff members, citizens and elected officials. E-mail Amir Nadav, Great Plains Institute, for online access rights.
Cities that implement a minimum number of best practices organized into these five topical areas will be recognized as a GreenStep City. See What's required to be a GreenStep City?
Cities should claim credit for best practices already implemented. Adding best practices over time will garner additional recognition.
For each best practice, and depending on city category (A, B or C), a city needs to complete one or more actions from a list associated with the best practice. See What category is my city in?

Buildings and Lighting

1. Efficient Existing Public Buildings: Benchmark energy usage, identify savings opportunities, and work with utilities and others to implement cost-effective energy and sustainability improvements.

2. Efficient Existing Private Buildings: Provide incentives for energy, water and sustainability improvements in existing structures.

3. New Green Buildings: Construct new buildings to meet or qualify under a green building framework.

4. Efficient Building & Street Lighting and Signals: Improve the efficiency of public lighting and signals.

5. Building Reuse: Create economic and regulatory incentives for redeveloping and repurposing existing buildings before building new.

Land Use

6. Comprehensive Plan and Implementation: Adopt a Comprehensive Plan and tie regulatory ordinances to it.

7. Efficient City Growth: Promote financial and environmental sustainability by enabling and encouraging higher density housing and commercial land use.

8. Mixed Uses: Develop efficient and healthy land patterns.

9. Efficient Highway-Oriented Development: Adopt commercial development and design standards for highway road corridors.

10. Conservation Design: Adopt development ordinances or processes that protect natural systems.

Transportation

11. Complete Green Streets: Create a network of multimodal green streets.

12. Mobility Options: Promote active transportation and alternatives to single-occupancy car travel.

13. Efficient City Fleets: Implement a city fleet investment, operations and maintenance plan.

14. Demand-Side Travel Planning: Implement Travel Demand Management and Transit-Oriented Design.

Environmental Management

15. Purchasing: Adopt environmentally preferable purchasing policies and practices.

16. Urban Forests: Increase city tree and plant cover.

17. Efficient Stormwater Management: Minimize the volume of and pollutants in rainwater runoff.

18. Parks and Trails: Support active lifestyles by enhancing the city's green infrastructure.

19. Surface Water Quality: Improve local water bodies.

20. Efficient Water and Wastewater Facilities: Assess and improve city drinking water and wastewater facilities.

21. Septic Systems: Implement an effective management program for decentralized wastewater treatment systems.

22. Solid Waste Reduction: Increase waste reduction, reuse and recycling.

23. Local Air Quality: Prevent generation of local air contaminants.

Economic and Community Development

24. Benchmarks & Community Engagement: Adopt outcome measures for GreenStep and other city sustainability efforts, and engage community members in ongoing education, dialogue, and campaigns.

25. Green Business Development: Support expansion of the green business sector in your city.

26. Renewable Energy: Remove barriers to and encourage installation of renewable energy generation capacity.

27. Local Food: Strengthen local food and fiber production and access.

28. Business Synergies: Network/cluster businesses to achieve better energy, economic and environmental outcomes.