Integrate green building and EV charging best practices information and assistance into the building permit process.
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Buildings and Lighting
Provide incentives for energy, water and sustainability improvements in existing residential, not-for-profit and commercial buildings/building sites.
Construct new buildings to meet or qualify under a green building framework.
Require by city policy that new city-owned buildings be built using the SB 2030 energy standard and/or a green building framework.
Create economic and regulatory incentives for redevelopment and repurposing of existing buildings.
Adopt development/design standards and programs that facilitate infill, redevelopment, and adaptable buildings.
Land Use
Build public support and legal validity to long-term infrastructural and regulatory strategy.
Adopt climate mitigation and/or energy independence goals and objectives in the comprehensive plan or in a separate policy document, and include transportation recommendations such as becoming an EV-ready city.
Increase financial and environmental sustainability by enabling and encouraging walkable housing and retail land use.
Use design to create social trust and interaction among neighbors and allow developments that meet the prerequisites for LEED for Neighborhood Development certification.
Develop efficient land patterns that generate community health and wealth.
Report that a (re)development meets a city/community-determined minimum point threshold under the Equitable Development Scorecard or LEED-ND (Neighborhood Development).
Transportation
Create a network of green complete streets that improves city quality of life, public health, and adds value to surrounding properties.
Implement traffic calming policy/measures, including lane conversions (road diets), roundabouts, low-speed streets, shared space and depaving, in at least one street redevelopment project.
Increase active transportation and alternatives to single-occupancy car travel.
Increase walking, biking and transit use by one or more of the following means:
Conduct an Active Living campaign such as a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program.
Implement a city fleet investment, operations and maintenance plan.
Phase-in operational changes, equipment changes including electric vehicles, and no-idling practices for city or local transit fleets.
Implement Travel Demand Management and Transit-Oriented Design in service of a more walkable city.
Require new developments or redevelopments to prepare a travel demand management plan or transit-oriented development standards or LEED for Neighborhood Development certification.
Environmental Management
Adopt environmentally preferable purchasing policies and practices to improve health and environmental outcomes.
Use national green standards/guidelines for purchasing/investments such as cleaning products, furniture, flooring/coatings.
Add city tree and plant cover that conserves topsoils and increases community health, wealth, quality of life.
Budget for and achieve resilient urban canopy/tree planting goals.
Minimize the volume of and pollutants in rainwater runoff by maximizing green infrastructure.
Improve smart-salting by reducing chloride use in winter maintenance and dust suppressants to prevent permanent surfacewater and groundwater pollution.
Increase active lifestyles and property values by enhancing the city's green infrastructure.
Achieve minimum levels of city green space and maximize the percent within a ten-minute walk of community members.
Improve local water bodies to sustain their long-term ecological function and community benefits.
Implement an existing TMDL implementation plan.
Reduce flooding damage and costs through the National Flood Insurance Programs and the NFIP’s Community Rating System.
Assess and improve city drinking water and wastewater systems and related facilities.
Optimize energy and chemical use at drinking water/wastewater facilities and decrease chloride in wastewater discharges.
Implement an environmentally sound management program for decentralized wastewater treatment systems.
Report to landowners suspected noncompliant or failing septic systems as part of an educational, informational and financial assistance and outreach program designed to trigger voluntary landowner action to improve septic systems.
Prevent generation of local air contaminants so as to improve community health.
Replace small internal combustion engine lawn and garden equipment (e.g. lawnmowers, weed whips, etc.) with lower polluting equipment.
Decrease air emissions from vehicle idling, gasoline filling stations, business trucking, and pollutants/noise from stationary engines/back-up generators.
Resilient Economic and Community Development
Expand a greener, more resilient business sector.
Create or participate in a marketing/outreach program to connect businesses with assistance providers, including utilities, who provide personalized energy, waste or sustainability audits and assistance.
Lower the environmental and health risk footprint of a brownfield remediation/redevelopment project beyond regulatory requirements; report brightfield projects.
Remove barriers to and encourage installation of renewable energy generation capacity.
Report installed private sector-owned renewable energy/energy efficient generation capacity with at least one of the following attributes:
Strengthen local food production and access.
Measurably increase institutional buying and sales of foods and fibers that are local, Minnesota-grown, organic, healthy, humanely raised, and grown by fairly compensated growers.
Assess, plan for, and enhance the community’s local food system.
Network/cluster businesses and design neighborhoods and developments to achieve better energy, social, economic and environmental outcomes in service of a more circular and equitable economy.
Use 21st century ecodistrict tools to structure, guide and link multiple green and sustainable projects together in a mixed-use neighborhood/development, or innovation district, aiming to deliver superior social, environmental and economic outcomes.
Plan and prepare for extreme weather, adapt to changing climatic conditions, and foster stronger community connectedness and social and economic vitality.
Prepare to maintain public health and safety during extreme weather and climate-change-related events, while also taking a preventive approach to reduce risk for community members.
Integrate climate resilience into city or tribal planning, policy, operations, and budgeting processes.