Steps to becoming recognized as a GreenStep city
Of Minnesota's 855 cities, approximately 500 are under 1,000 in population, 83% are under 5,000 in population, and 35 have a population over 25,000. With such a diversity of cities, no one set of process steps will fit all cities in organizing work to become a GreenStep City. Depending on your city, work may start mostly at the city staff, citizen commission or city council level and fit well into existing plans and efforts, moving later to incorporate and leverage work efforts by civic organizations. Or the impetus for implementing GreenStep best practices may start with a civic group and be mostly done by community members and community organizations, with the city council in a supportive and active role as needed.
Thus the abbreviated list of organizing steps below must be seen as a rough guide, to be adapted by each city. For more details under each step, download the full Organizing Steps Guide.
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Build community knowledge and interest.
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Approve a city council resolution to work toward GreenStep Cities recognition.
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Congratulations! You are now a Step One GreenStep City! Use Step One recognition artwork/materials (found on your city log-in page) to let others know of your accomplishment. Formal recognition of Step One cities takes place each June at the annual League of Minnesota Cities conference.
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Post initial information on the GreenStep Cities web site via your log-in page
- Enter simple information about your city.
- Provide brief detail on best practices previously implemented.
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Get organized to begin work on implementing best practices.
- As needed, educate city staff and officials about sustainability.
- Convene a small working group.
- Specify implementation action(s) and a few lead people.
- Prepare a simple work plan for implementing selected best practices.
- Present the best practice plans to a city body or to the city council as appropriate.
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Implement best practices.
- Keep everyone moving and celebrate success.
- Clarify, as needed, what constitutes completing an action with the MPCA GreenStep program coordinator.
- Briefly describe implemented best practices on the GreenStep web site.
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Congratulations! When you have implemented any 4, 6 or 8 best practices (depending on your city category) you are now a Step Two GreenStep City! Use Step Two recognition artwork/materials (found on your city log-in page) to let others know of your accomplishment. Formal recognition of Step Two cities takes place each June at the annual League of Minnesota Cities conference.
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Keep working on best practices.
- Implementing a particular best practice action may take months or one to two years.
- Be alert to opportunities to complete multiple best practice actions at once.
- Check back with the city council as needed.
- Report yearly to community members.
- As your work proceeds, give us feedback on the program.
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Congratulations! When you have implemented 8, 12 or 16 best practices (depending on your city category) distributed across the five topical areas and including a few required best practices, you are now a Step Three GreenStep City! Use recognition artwork/materials (found on your city log-in page) to let others know of your accomplishment. Formal recognition of Step Three cities takes place each June at the annual League of Minnesota Cities conference.
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GreenStep Cities Step Four
- GreenStep Cities Step Four program requirements will be developed during 2012, as we learn from cities during 2010 and 2011, that challenge recognized GreenStep Cities to implement more actions and thus be recognized for these accomplishments. We think GreenStep best practices will result in multiple benefits for your city and that you'll want to continuously work on best practices that make your city more sustainable.
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