APA SCD E-Bulletin - 12/03/2020
Sustainable Communities Division News
Join the Plan4Resilience Network
Join the Plan4Resilience network to connect with others interested in applying nature-based solutions to advance community resilience! This conversation is increasingly important as communities come together to identify rebuilding projects supported by federal funding. We invite you to share your questions, resources, and success stories with peers today!
2020 APA-SCD Awards for Excellence in Sustainability
Over the past few weeks, SCD hosted the annual “Award-Winning Sustainability” webinar series to showcase the winning plans and projects from the 2020 APA-SCD Awards for Excellence in Sustainability. Watch the past webinars and find out about the lessons learned that you can apply to your own sustainability efforts on the YouTube Channel!
LEED for Cities and Communities Webinar Series
Recently, USGBC released LEED for Cities and Communities—a certification program that specifically helps local leaders, planners and developers create sustainable cities and communities. To help advance both of our missions, SCD and USGBC are promoting a series of free LEED for Cities and Communities webinars. They are approved for both GBCI CE (continuing education) and AICP CM credit (1.0 hour).
If this series sounds interesting, be sure to check out the upcoming webinars this month! Webinars are schedule almost daily. We recommend The Next Giant Leap: Tech Transfer to the Built Environment - International Education Series on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. Register for the event here. Check out the daily lineup for other future webinars.
If you have thoughts about additional cross-disciplinary educational opportunities, please reach out to Matt Bucchin, SCD Chair, to discuss. For questions about the LEED for Cities and Communities rating system, please reach out to SCD member Vatsal Bhatt, PhD, Vice President – Communities, USGBC, at vbhatt@usgbc.org.
As a reminder: If you happened to miss the last social event, we will continue to host happy hours on a rotating basis. Stay tuned in for more opportunities to connect and network!
APA News
Seven Students Receive Scholarships to Advance Planning Studies
Aspiring planning students have earned scholarships from the American Planning Association Foundation. The scholarships help make planning education more accessible, attract the most talented individuals to the profession, and work toward making the profession more diverse. Each of this year’s scholarship recipients are inspired by their own personal experiences and desire to create stronger futures for their communities through equity, environmental stewardship, and economic development. Find out who the recipients are!
AICP Certification
The next AICP application timeline begins December 1. Apply by December 14 to schedule in submitting your experience essays in January!
Follow Us!
Sustainability Tools, News, and Resources
Planning and Community Health Center Webinar Series
APA's Planning and Community Health Center Webinar Series shares research, case studies, and resources focused on built environment interventions that promote community health. The webinar series touches on a variety of topics related to planning and public health, including strategies to advance active living, healthy eating, and cross-sector and community collaborations.
Rural Health: Sustainability Planning Tools
If you haven't already, check out the various sustainability planning tools provided by the Rural Health Information Hub (RHIhub) for successfully planning for long-term sustainability to improve the health of rural Americans. This resource provides guidance on leveraging the investment of federal grant dollars to maintain successful programs and assessing current sustainability programs.
Driving Down Emissions: Transportation, land use, and climate change
With transportation accounting for the largest share of carbon emissions in the U.S., we will never achieve ambitious climate targets or create more livable and equitable communities if we don’t find ways to allow people to get around outside of a car - or provide more housing in places where that’s already an option.
Smart Growth America's new report, Driving Down Emissions, shows how we can reach those targets while building a more just and equitable society.
Articles and Resources
Smart Cities
Stefanini Group Launches Smart Cities Solution for Efficient Resource Allocation, City Operations
Breaking down regulatory barriers is key to achieve smarter cities
Equity
Racial Justice, Social Equity, and Sustainability Shine Through at 15th Annual GIS Day
Real Estate Industry Should Adopt Health, Social Equity Practices
Climate Change
From LinkedIn
Our LinkedIn group has over 6.8K members and continues to grow every week!
Check out these recent posts from group members:
Upcoming Events
APA Webinars
December 8, 11, 15, 18 - Green Growth Toolbox Live Q & A Online Session RELISTED
December 10 - Diversity & Equity Lunchtime Series – Tribal Sovereignty and Planning
December 15 - Equity by Design
December 17 - Equity Planning
Other Webinars
Opportunities
Executive Director, Livable City Initiative - This is highly responsible, mayoral-appointed position for the New Haven, CT Livable City Initiative, which is the City's housing department. This position oversees a large staff covering four divisions whose primary responsibilities include the creation of new affordable housing units, the preservation of existing units, creating new market-rate units across the City, enforcement of the City's housing codes, property maintenance, anti-blight activities and property acquisition and disposition.
Director, Community Development Agency - County of Marin, San Rafael, CA, is currently seeking experienced planning professionals interested in leading the Community Development Agency. The Director will be involved in a wide variety of planning and revitalization efforts, building, zoning, and environmental code enforcement, grant programs, and administrative functions. The Director will be personally and actively involved in promoting community engagement and encouraging open dialogue in the review and evaluation of various planning and community development initiatives.
Water Environmental Resource Officer - Austin, TX local government is seeking to fill a position that oversees the Austin Water’s (AW) Environmental Protection and Environmental Resource programs and provides senior management leadership to ensure that environmental protection, environmental leadership, environmental resource management, and planning are embraced as priorities in AW’s various utility activities.
Know of an opportunity (job, RFP, etc) of interest to the APA Sustainable Communities Division? Post it on LinkedIn or send it to apascd@gmail.com!
If you're not already a member of the APA Sustainable Communities Division, please join today! Membership gets you plugged in to our projects, gives you access to our quarterly newsletter, and supports our mission to push sustainability to the forefront of planning.
Connect with over 6,800 sustainability-minded planners on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
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