Empowering Municipal Sustainability

This series aims to increase dialogue between and within the private and public sectors on the leading environmental, social, and governance issues of our time. Exploring and testing the very purpose of corporations and governments, the series features practical solutions to complex challenges.

Amidst growing awareness over the past half century that human activity threatens our natural environment, many of the world’s largest cities have played a role in the sustainability movement, as seen by such initiatives as Day of Cities sponsored by the United Nations. And now local governments in towns and smaller cities are beginning to play a more prominent role in the green movement. This book, inspired by the author’s own experience as a citizen activist and local candidate, is a guide for local governments and citizens wishing to launch sustainability campaigns and programs that make a lasting difference in our world.

Alexandra Reed Lajoux addresses the popular "green city" topic but focuses on smaller municipalities, which are more numerous than big cities, and in greater need of guidance. With a visionary foreword by Ben G. Price, National Organizer, Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and author of How Wealth Rules the World, the book discusses the most critical environmental, economic, and engineering realities of municipal life and leadership in our times, ranging from rights of nature, to rollback tax rates, to green infrastructure, to gentrification. It will appeal to a broad range of town or city government employees and elected officials, as well as local activists, contemplating the issues of managing and funding sustainability that all localities worldwide face at some level.

INTRODUCTION

PART I: SETTING SUSTAINABILITY GOALS

Chapter 1: Identifying Your Key Environmental and Financial Issues

Chapter 2: Mapping Your Municipality (Key Assets and Players)

Chapter 3: Encouraging Activist Involvement in Local Elections

Chapter 4: Building Public-Private Partnerships

PART II: EXTERNAL FINANCING SOURCES

Chapter 5: Land Trusts

Chapter 6: Municipal Bonds

Chapter 7: Government Grants

Chapter 8: Corporate and Private Foundation Grants

Chapter 9: Using Resources Already Available

PART III: TOOLS FOR CHANGE

Chapter 9: Setting Budgets and Tax Rates

Chapter 10: Passing Ordinances for Zoning (Industrial, Commercial, Residential), Density, and Preservation

Chapter 11: Asserting Eminent Domain

Chapter 12: Impact Fees, Annexation, and Other Tools

CONCLUSION

APPENDICES