Atlanta, Boulder, St. Louis Beta-Testing New Sustainability Performance Tool

Atlanta, Georgia; Boulder, Colorado; and St. Louis, Missouri; are among nine cities that will test a new sustainability management tool called the STAR Community Index.

ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA, which is developing STAR, said it will transform and accelerate the local sustainability movement by offering cities and counties a roadmap for advancing climate protection, economic recovery and equal opportunities for all residents within a community.

The following nine cities and counties were selected as STAR “Beta Communities”:

Atlanta, GA
Boulder, CO
Chattanooga, TN
Cranberry Township, PA
Des Moines, IA
District of Columbia
King County, WA
New York, NY
St. Louis, MO

The STAR online platform will provide users with a variety of features
to enable quick uptake of the STAR Community Index. The platform will
include features to enable local governments to analyze, map, and manage
all their sustainability data in one place, and to present that
information to internal managers, executives, and the public using a
sustainability dashboard that interfaces with a city’s or county’s
website. The tool will also facilitate data sharing with ICLEI for the
verification and certification of a community under the forthcoming STAR
rating system.

Together, ICLEI and the Beta Communities will road test STAR, to ensure that it can be adopted by local governments around the country, ranging from small towns to major cities.

“These nine early-adopter cities, along with many other communities across the nation, are already taking the lead on energy efficiency and sustainable development in their own right and as such, they are the perfect candidates to advance the goals and mission of STAR, which is to build healthier, inclusive and more livable communities,” said Martin Chávez, Executive Director, ICLEI USA and three-term mayor of Albuquerque, NM.

The Beta Communities will receive technical support and resources to position them to become early adopters of STAR and accelerate their various sustainability efforts.

The selection of the nine Beta Communities follows the recent release of the STAR Sustainability Goals and Guiding Principles to assist local governments and communities with a much-needed vocabulary to more effectively strategize and focus their sustainability planning efforts. The 81 goals and 10 guiding principles released collectively define community-scale sustainability and serve as the foundation of STAR.

The STAR Community Index is being developed by ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA (ICLEI USA) in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), National League of Cities (NLC), and Center for American Progress (CAP).