GREEN CITIES CALIFORNIA LAUNCHES  

BEST PRACTICES WEB SITE

First-in-Nation Project Designed to Expedite the Greening of America

Contacts:

October 21, 2009 – Green Cities California (GCC), a collaborative of 10 of the state’s most environmentally progressive jurisdictions, today launched their Best Practices Web site.

The purpose of this first-of-its-kind Web site is to accelerate the implementation of sound environmental policies in cities and counties around the state and, ultimately, across the U.S. It is a storehouse of cutting-edge environmental policy that was established to simplify the policy development process by helping cities avoid unforeseen pitfalls and save time.

“Local sustainability policies have a profound and positive impact on environmental protection,” says Carol Misseldine, Coordinator of GCC. “For example, we have seen a dramatic drop in littered polystyrene due to the adoption of polystyrene bans by dozens of jurisdictions in the state.”
However, according to GCC Steering Committee member David Assmann of the San Francisco Department of the Environment, the development of such legislation is exceedingly time-consuming and many cities, particularly smaller cities, don’t have the resources to develop local environmental policy.

“Our Best Practices Web site addresses that problem by providing a central repository of information with easily downloadable policy documents and staff reports,” says Assmann.

“Now any jurisdiction can benefit from the hard work completed by other jurisdictions, and simply modify the policy to suit their locale.”

The free Web site – created by local governments for local governments – provides everything staff and policymakers need to implement new policies, including the policy document itself, staff reports, background research, legal analysis, and outreach and education materials. Almost 50 Best Practices, organized around the seven categories of the Urban Environmental Accords – Energy, Waste, Urban Design, Urban Nature, Transportation, Environmental Health and Water – can be accessed now at www.greencitiescalifornia.org. 
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