APA SCD E-Bulletin - 12/21/2020
Sustainable Communities Division News
SCD Website Update
It's official! The SCD website is up and running and all SCD-related information will be posted to the site going forward. We invite you to visit the site and check out the new features. While you're there, don't forget to bookmark it and check for updates regularly!
NPC Boston Call for Sessions
NPC21 will be fully digital, May 5–7, 2021. Due to the ongoing pandemic and COVID-19 public gathering restrictions currently in place in Boston, NPC21 will take place as a virtual event. Sign up to review sessions or propose session, topics, or speakers by January 6. See more details about the call for proposals here.
Applications for the 2021 APA-SCD Awards for Excellence in Sustainability
The 2021 SCD Awards Applications are open and available on our new webpage. Watch the past webinars and find out about the lessons learned that you can apply to your own sustainability efforts on the YouTube Channel!
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!
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.
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 ASAP to schedule in submitting your experience essays in January!
Follow Us!
Sustainability Tools, News, and Resources
Climate Change Resources
APA provides its members with information and resources to do their jobs effectively and advocate for best planning practices in the communities where they work. The environmental and economic impacts of climate change on communities are a continuing focus of APA's research efforts. Take a look at the climate change resources available from APA on the Climate Change Resources page. Also check out the Disaster Recovery Resources page for hazard mitigation information.
APA's Resource KnowledgeBase
The KnowledgeBase connects APA members to curated collections of topically related resources — including plans, regulations, model codes, guides, articles, reports, and multimedia files.
Sign in as an APA member to learn more about topics such as these:
Articles and Resources
Greening Buildings
Environmental Justice
Environmental Justice Leaders Look for a Focus on Disproportionately Impacted Communities of Color
Can California’s cap and trade address environmental justice?
Climate Change
From LinkedIn
Our LinkedIn group has over 7K members and continues to grow every week!
Check out these recent posts from group members:
Upcoming Events
APA Webinars
January 31 - New Jersey American Society of Landscape Architects 2021 Annual Meeting
February 19 - Health In All Policies: Incorporating Health into Planning, Policy and Decision-Making
May 5 - 2021 National Planning Conference (Mark your calendars!)
Other Webinars
Planning for upcoming 2021 webinars are in progress - check out the APA webinars page and APA-SCD's NEW webinar page for updates.
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.
Community Development Agency Director - 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!
2020 SPONSORS
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 7,000 sustainability-minded planners on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Submit an event or announcement for our next e-Bulletin.
Catch up on our previous e-Bulletins and activities in our archive.
Content and layout by Isabel Qi and Larissa Via
Copyright © 2020 APA Sustainable Communities Division, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you signed up to be on our list at the American Planning Association conference, at another planning-related event, or on our website.
Our mailing address is:
APA Sustainable Communities Division
205 N. Michigan Ave
Suite 1200
Chicago, IL 60601
