Tracking Progress: Best-Practice Programs Help Local Communities Achieve Their Sustainability Goals
Ava Thompson, Program Associate, Sustainable States Network
The Sustainable States Network members give local governments an achievable pathway to sustainability. The over 2,000 communities participating in our programs are recognized and rewarded for completing sustainable actions. Many of our programs use community-level metrics to demonstrate success and help communities identify and track environmental and social progress.
Minnesota GreenStep Cities & Tribal Nations
The Minnesota GreenStep Cities & Tribal Nations program is a free, voluntary challenge, assistance, and recognition program for local governments and Tribal nations looking to transition to clean energy and increase sustainability. Founded in 2010, the program serves 148 urban and rural communities, large and small, including four tribal nations.
The program suggests specific actions within 29 best practice areas that guide participants as they advance through a five-step process.
Cities and tribal nations working toward the highest recognition levels, Steps 4 or 5, use 18 self-reported metric categories, with eight being considered “core” metrics for all communities to track, to identify communities’ progress on GreenStep actions over time. These metrics include energy use in government operations or solar installations for public and private rooftops.
“We try to give ideas for what to report on, but we’re really flexible,” says Kristin Mroz, a co-director of the program. “If there’s another metric that is easier for a community to report on or simply makes more sense, we certainly allow for that.”
One of the key aspects of metric reporting, Mroz said, is not only to show success and identify areas that have improved but also to help identify actions to return to. The program also helps communities navigate capacity restraints.
“We see staff changes or challenges that might happen from year to year, so we understand that sometimes there are gaps in what is reported, and we work with the participant to fill in those gaps over time or in the next year,” said Mroz.
Ultimately, the GreenStep metrics provide a tool for communities to measure and track their efforts over time. Communities that advance to Steps 4 and 5 are encouraged to analyze their data and tell stories, explaining the change.
While not all of the metrics are comparable between reporting communities, a few are tracked on the Step 4 & 5 Metric Dashboard, which can help visualize trends over time.
Questions regarding the GreenStep Cities and Tribal Nations Program can be directed to GreenStep@state.mn.us. More details are available at https://greenstep.pca.state.mn.us/.
Michigan Green Communities is a statewide network of local and state government staff and officials and higher education institution staff that collaborate with one another through peer learning and information sharing to promote innovative sustainability, climate change, and environmental justice solutions at the local, state, regional, national, and international levels.
Like GreenStep Cities, Michigan Green Communities' free annual challenge program, the MGC Challenge, allows Michigan local governments to track and celebrate progress toward their local sustainability goals. Once the challenge is completed, local governments receive certification in bronze, silver, gold, or platinum, depending on how many actions are taken. Local governments may also continue to do the challenge the following year.
New this year to the MGC Challenge is the platinum-level certification for communities. This new level of certification requires earning 175 points in the MGC Challenge by completing action items and improving upon or reaching the community’s goals in at least four metrics. Communities can pick between metrics such as community and municipal greenhouse gas emissions, tree canopy cover, bike lanes, per capita water use, energy use, and more.
Danielle Beard, Michigan Green Communities coordinator, said this new category is a way to recognize the communities making measurable progress toward reaching state climate emissions reduction goals.
“The metrics are primarily intended to be a tool for local governments to determine their baseline stats in a variety of areas and set attainable goals,” Beard said, “For the program, it’s a great way to communicate the success of our participants and show how the program is helping Michigan reach its goals.”
The metrics section of the MGC Challenge was launched last year, and a handful of communities fill that out. MGC is now in the reporting period for the 2023 calendar year, so this will be the first year that progress will be demonstrated from one year to the next.
Michigan Green Communities uses the data collected in the MGC Challenge to inform the work of their partner and funder, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). EGLE’s Catalyst Communities program serves as a resource hub for all things related to sustainability in the local government context.
“When we identify action items or metrics that few communities have completed or made progress on, that signals to us that there might be a knowledge or resource gap that we need to fill,” said Beard.
Questions regarding Michigan Green Communities can be directed to info@migreencommunities.com. More details are available at www.migreencommunities.com.
Conclusion
Community-level metrics help our programs track their effectiveness and showcase how local governments and communities are taking steps toward earning certification and recognition. Sustainable States Network programs are equipped to support communities and municipalities of all sizes in achieving their goals, one action at a time. To learn more about the work of our programs, please visit our website: https://www.sustainablestates.net/.
A special thanks to Danielle Beard and Kristin Mroz for their contributions.