The recent National League of Cities (NLC) Annual Conference in Boston was a great learning and networking opportunity for our community to sponsor two delegates from Fayetteville. 

Michele Halsell, Director of the Applied Sustainability Center at the University of Arkansas, and John Kester III, PhD Student in the Environmental Dynamics program at the University of Arkansas, attended the conference on behalf of our community.

 “The Congress of Cities meeting was an energetic gathering of just over 3,000 city officials and staff convening to share ideas on how to improve cities. The city strategies in focus were promoting strong local economies, building sustainable communities, and strengthening neighborhoods and families. The two days of presentations provided numerous opportunities for productive dialogue and supplied attendees with action steps to bring home with them,” said Kester.

Out of the many excellent conference sessions, both delegates targeted the “Building Sustainable Communities” track, which focused developing partnerships and strategies that go beyond stand alone investments in a city's built environment and move toward integrated approaches facilitating connected, intelligent and sustainable communities.

The conference opened with a rousing speech by Bill Taylor, cofounder of Fast Company, who submitted to the audience a new framework for defining the logic of success. Future ideas are likely to succeed when they redefine the terms of competition by embracing one-of-a-kind ideas. Taylor stressed creativity and innovation as the avenue to improving cities in this age of non-stop reinvention. The message was not to abandon our city roots, but rather to be open-minded about the available solutions to issues.

Opening plenary speakers continued to build on the theme of internal innovation and the compelling characteristic of cities to rise above external inputs to define the best path for local development as it fits into the national landscape. 

The opening convocation wrapped up with youth delegates from Boston, who stressed that inclusive and diverse partnerships provide a platform for a higher level of cooperation and that sustainability should be benchmarked by the whole improving, not just individual parts growing. These opening remarks set the tone for the conference.

Halsell added, “I was fortunate to be able to attend the National League of Cities conference in Boston in November 2012, and I used the opportunity to dive deep into sustainability . . . what it means at the municipal level and the many ways that cities around the country are demonstrating leadership on a variety of sustainability-related issues – from energy to water to waste to transportation and local food systems. “

Our Fayetteville delegates attended multiple sessions but their “take home” favorites were:

•  Supporting Local Foods Roundtable - city leaders shared tips, strategies, and success stories for growing local food systems. Farmer’s markets, community gardens, and getting local produce onto school lunch trays and into local restaurants were common themes across cities. Community gardens provide food healthy, affordable food for people’s stomachs as well as food for the soul in the form of friendships and a sense of belonging. Local food systems can provide economic, environmental and social benefits for cities.

•  Clean Community Energy Systems - provided valuable information about the economic, environmental and energy security benefits of local energy districts. “Energizing Your Energy Efficiency Program” highlighted net zero energy buildings where the building actually generates more energy than it uses.  Participants gathered in smaller groups to discuss working with state energy offices and ways to accelerate residential energy efficiency programs. Most memorable nugget: Tallahassee’s mayor explained the city’s Neighborhood Reach program as a way to engage low income families through a one-stop shop approach that helps them reap the economic benefits of energy efficiency at home.

•  Performance Tools to Measure Sustainability - highlighted measurement efforts in Minneapolis, Kansas City, and Pasadena.  Cities are already measuring a whole host of sustainability-related dimensions including tree canopy, vehicle miles travelled, and greenhouse gas emissions to name a few. Cities are grappling with how to report sustainability metrics with stakeholders and citizens and ICLEI’s new STAR Community rating system will help to standardize sustainability metrics and reporting for cities.

• Building Partnerships for Sustainability – focused on fostering a “big tent” approach to sustainability at the local level whereby sustainability is enhanced and accelerated by strong collaboration and investments in social capital.  Cities that intentionally form partnerships with local school districts, the healthcare community, business and industry and the non-profit sector increase the chances for success of their sustainability initiatives.

The University of Arkansas’ Applied Sustainability Center recently launched a City Sustainability Network to provide the vehicle for these measurements throughout municipalities of all sizes within Arkansas.  For more information about the ASC, you can visit their website or follow their sustainability conversation on Facebook.

The National League of Cities website facilitates a robust digital library of numerous educational materials, case studies and useful frameworks for putting new policies into action (www.nlc.org).

Information specific to building sustainable communities can be found here through the NLC Center for Research and Innovation.

Our special thanks to Tammy Zborel @ the National League of Cities, Robert Reed and Lauren Colley @ Southface and the Home Depot Foundation for helping make this partnership and community learning opportunity possible.

In summary, Halsell says, “The depth and breadth of municipal commitments to sustainability was inspirational and instills hope that we might yet be able to successfully address some of the most pressing environmental, economic and social issues facing the planet. From the presenters to the materials to the exhibitors in the expo hall, the learning and networking experience was top notch. Thank you NLC!”

Contributed by Melissa Terry, Michelle Halsell and John Kester.

Jerry Tinianow, Chief Sustainability Officer for the City and County of Denver, Colorado delivering the keynote address at the Sustainable Communities Leadership Summit.

Led by the University of Arkansas’ Applied Sustainability Center, the Sustainable Communities Leadership Summit was a forum for speakers, guests and panelists to discuss the metrics of community sustainability.

This Summit was also a significant keystone of the SCI:Fayetteville team’s community engagement strategy, which represented all aspects of our work over the past two years of SCI program funding. 

A variety of City of Fayetteville staff participated in sessions relating to our Low Impact Development policy developments, Sustainability Directors’ Panel, etc.. Fayetteville Mayor Jordan got in on the action as our conference welcome speaker and as a panelist of Mayors from around the State of Arkanas.

The pre-conference tours featured an urban trails bike tour, led by Fayetteville Sustainability Director Peter Niergarten, and Community Food Tour, led by SCI:Fayetteville Project Director Melissa Terry, and a Green Businesses Tour, led by staff from the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce.

Through the SCI:Fayetteville partnership, we were also pleased to welcome Jerry Tinianow as the Summit’s keynote speaker, Stever Perkins with the Center for Neighborhood Technologies as our facilitator of the H+T (Housing + Transportation) session and Jeff Birkby as a representative of the EPA’s Smart Growth Network. Additional educational support was provided by the National League of Cities.

This integrated approach to community sustainability would not have been possible without the leadership and cooperation from all of our SCI program partners and is a great example of how initiatives like the Sustainable Cities Institute can move the needle on community sustainability by recognizing the values of collective impact, intentional learning and outward-facing program goals.

Included below are two articles published in Arkansas state and regional newspapers that reflect additional perspectives of the Summit. You can also visit the Applied Sustainability’s Facebook page to see photos from this successful 3 day leadership summit.

UA meeting gives cities chance to plan growth

Data Shows Trails Lead to Happiness

Submitted by Melissa Terry, SCI:Fayetteville Project Director

Joseph Beachner (right) participating in an energy audit field training with Viridian/Home Rx Energy Consultants, Corey Keen and Gary Kahanak at the Feed Fayetteville Sustainable Community Food Center.

In partnership with the SCI:Fayetteville team and the Energy Corps/AmeriCorps initiative, the City of Fayetteville has created a new position within the City’s Community Services Division.

As the Weatherization and Energy Efficiency Outreach Coordinator, Energy Corps/AmeriCorps member Joseph Beachner will be working to assist the Housing Rehabilitation and Redevelopment Programs through the federally funded Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program.

Since 1992, Community Services have been focusing their rehabilitation efforts on South Fayetteville and there have been over 100 housing rehabilitation projects up to $25,000 each in this area. One of the main goals for this new position is to determine energy usage per household before a rehabilitation project compared to the energy usage after a CDBG project.

Thanks to this collaborative partnership, the Community Services Division has identified an additional 1034 homes in South Fayetteville to prioritize for specific energy efficiency and weatherization opportunities. 

Additionally, the Community Service Division has committed to BPI Training for three of the CDBG staff members plus the purchase of their own energy auditing materials/equipment.  By internalizing this expertise, the City will now be able to perform free energy assessments and audits to low-income home owners within the 1034 target group.

The Ozark Electric Cooperative predicts that energy costs in Northwest Arkansas will increase by 100% within the next ten years. Planning ahead for those costs by investing today in lower utility demands not only helps the homeowner’s pocketbook but also helps the utility companies make the most of their existing energy generation capacities.

Prioritizing energy efficiency and weatherization services for low-income home owners is a huge step in the right direction of overall community sustainability, as low-income homeowners are typically the most economically vulnerable to extreme temperature fluctuations and the consequentially high utility expenses that result.

The cheapest kilowatt is the one that’s not needed or wasted so facilitating energy efficiency and weatherization outreach with low-income home owners will also help reduce our community's collective energy demand.

The Community Services Division administers the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program delivered from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The CDBG Program is the Federal Government's primary program for promoting community revitalization throughout the country, providing annual grants on a formula basis to approximately 1,000 metropolitan cities such as Fayetteville.

CDBG funds are used for a wide range of community development activities directed toward neighborhood revitalization, economic development, and improved community facilities and services.

For more information about the City of Faytteville’s CDBG programs, please visit their website.

-- Contributed by Melissa Terry and Joseph Beachner

According to www.snapgardens.org there are currently 46,449,850 people that depend on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP/Food Stamps) benefits to supplement their nutritional requirements.  As of January 2012, there are currently 28,008 people participating in the SNAP program in Washington County, AR, which gives it the highest SNAP participation rate in Arkansas. The Washington Co. Department of Human Services reports that this number is on the rise, as the department is currently experiencing the highest level of assistance applications in its history meaning that an all time record number of people are experiencing food insecurity in Northwest Arkansas.

Recently, Northwest Arkansas (NWA) has seen an increase in the demand for access to healthy, safe, nutritious and local foods.  This demand is evident by:

• The establishment and growth of many NWA farmers’ markets
• The ranking of the Fayetteville Farmers’ Market as the 5th best farmers’ market in the U.S.A. by the American Farmland Trust
• The upstart, growth and support of many small local farms in the NWA area
• The creation of several non-profits whose missions include fighting hunger, childhood obesity, providing access to local foods and cultivating a sustainable local food network

There is also a grass roots initiative spreading within the NWA local foods movement to increase access to healthy, safe, nutritious and local foods for SNAP participants. Currently, all of the farmers’ markets in NW Arkansas now have machines in place to accept Electronic Benefits Transactions (EBT) so SNAP participants can use their EBT cards at the farmers’ markets. Also, the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture has secured a Wal-Mart Foundation grant in the amount of $40,000 to provide SNAP participants with a dollar-for-dollar match for any benefits they choose to spend at a NWA farmers’ market in 2012.  This program is called Farmers’ Market Double Dollars and will begin in May 2012 and run until all funds have been distributed.

On national scale, there is a new movement gaining momentum sparked by the re-discovery of a 1973 amendment to the Food Stamp Act, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), that makes it possible for all SNAP participants to purchase food producing plants and seeds with their SNAP benefits.  This movement, called SNAP Gardens, started with a website, www.snapgardens.org, aimed at promoting the fact that SNAP benefits can be spent on food producing plants and seeds and encouraging SNAP participants to start gardens with the plants and seeds they purchase with their benefits.

The SNAP Gardens movement has found its way to Fayetteville, AR with the development of the nation’s first Community SNAP Garden. The Sustainable Cities Institute (SCI):Fayetteville, in partnership with Feed Fayetteville, is leasing a plot of land from the City of Fayetteville at the Walker Park Community Garden to develop a SNAP garden. 

The Fayetteville Community SNAP Garden’s mission is:  to create long-term food security for SNAP participants by providing the opportunity, resources and knowledge to grow their own safe, nutritious and local food in a community environment.

The Fayetteville Community SNAP Garden’s goal is:  to work with community partners to build participation in and ownership of growing fresh food together with SNAP families, Walker Park Neighborhood residents and Fayetteville Senior Center visitors by facilitating regular community gardening hours, providing gardening supplies (tools, water, soil, etc.) and on-site gardening seminars.

The Fayetteville Community SNAP Garden’s objectives are to:

• Raise awareness of SNAP participants that the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market accepts EBT.
• Raise awareness that SNAP participants can receive a dollar-for-dollar match for SNAP benefits they spend at the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market.
• Raise awareness that SNAP participants can spend their benefits on plants and seeds that grow food.
• Direct SNAP participants to the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market to use their SNAP benefits and receive their matching funds.
• Encourage SNAP participants to spend a portion of their matching funds on future food security.
• Provide a space to grow food for SNAP participants that don’t have space at home.
• Educate SNAP gardeners on organic gardening practices.
• Educate SNAP gardeners on healthy food preparation.
• Educate SNAP gardeners on healthy food preservation.
• Build community.
• Create a replicable model for Community SNAP Gardens.

The Fayetteville Community SNAP Garden is a multi-partner collaborative effort between SCI:Fayetteville, Feed Fayetteville, the City of Fayetteville, the National Center of Appropriate Technology, the Fayetteville Farmers’ Market, the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, the Fayetteville Community Garden Coalition, the Arkansas Department of Human Services, SNAPgardens.org, AR Energy Corps/AmeriCorps, Washington County Head Start, Walker Park Community Garden, Seeds that Feed, the Fayetteville Senior Activity and Wellness Center and the Washington County Extension Service.

In an effort to promote SNAP gardens on a larger scale, this partnership is focusing on all gardens targeting low-income families in the south Fayetteville area including community gardens at the Jefferson Adult Education Center, the Washington County Head Start and LifeSource International.

The SNAP communal garden plot is being provided free of charge to any SNAP participants to use as communal garden space, up to 10 participants total.  As a communal garden space, there are no separations of individual plots for individual gardeners to maintain themselves.  Instead the entire space will be grown as a community that shares in the effort to care for and maintain the garden space.  Should the number of gardener applicants exceed 10 families, applicants will be directed to other community gardens in the area.

SCI:Fayetteville will provide a Master Planting Plan that specifies what should be planted where and will also provide a schedule of working hours when a representative will be stationed at the garden to assist participants in planting.  This plan is not intended to be a restriction on plantings, but is more used to organize the space to achieve maximum production and ensure proper crop rotation for next year.

SNAP gardeners that want to use their SNAP benefits to purchase plants and seeds to grow in the garden can bring their purchases to the garden during the scheduled work hours and will be assisted with planting.  Any individually purchased plantings will be tagged with the individual participants name and reserved for their harvest only.  The remaining garden space will be planted with seeds and plants donated by SCI:Fayetteville, the harvest of which will be shared amongst all SNAP participants active in the garden during harvest time.

One-quarter of the SCI:Fayetteville community plot will be reserved for the Chef and staff at the Fayetteville Senior Center to plant and use for meals they serve.  The Chef at the Senior Center has also volunteered to lead healthy cooking classes structured around the actual vegetables being harvested in the garden at the Senior Center commercial kitchen.

There have also been two community volunteers step forward to film the growth of the SNAP Garden.  They are currently exploring the idea of documenting a SNAP families experience in learning to grow their own food and tracking their food from seed to table.

The SNAP Garden movement is an exciting emerging story that aligns closely with the sustainability goals SCI for south Fayetteville.  Establishing a community garden is one way to leave a lasting mark on the Walker Park Neighborhood that will persist long after the SCI:Fayetteville program has concluded.  Growing food is a proven way to provide food security and empowerment, especially in this time of economic stress where nothing seems to be guaranteed.

For more information about SNAP Gardens and the Fayetteville Community SNAP Garden please visit www.snapgardens.org and www.snapgardens.org/fayetteville.

Contributed by Dustin Langford

The City of Fayetteville’s Engineering Division staff provides technical review and support for all development within the City including reviews for compliance with the City’s storm water runoff standards through use of the City’s Drainage Criteria Manual.  The current Drainage Criteria Manual was developed in January 1995 and revised in 1998.  Since then its concepts and design procedures have become out of date and are not compatible with Low Impact Development principals. 

The Fayetteville selected FTN Associates and their project team which includes AMEC Earth and Environmental, Inc., the Low Impact Design Center, Inc., and EB LandWorks to develop a complete revision of Fayetteville’s Drainage Criteria Manual. 

Currently the project team is focusing on the chapter dedicated to Low Impact Development (LID).  Practices covered in the chapter include using site planning to conserve natural features and resources, minimizing soil compaction, managing stormwater close to the source, and reducing and disconnecting impervious surfaces. 

A method is provided to calculate the decreased stormwater volume expected from LID practices.  This decrease in runoff volume can be equated to a reduction in stormwater pollution.  The runoff reduction achieved can also be translated into a potential decreased volume of storage necessary to meet flood storage requirements. 

Methods to reduce runoff volume are presented as Green Stormwater Practices (GSPs) and are included in an extensive appendices providing guidance to property owners and designers for the design, installation, and maintenance of GSPs.  Selection criteria is provided for the effectiveness of GSPs in meeting stormwater management objectives (ex. Bioretention can be effective for volume reduction) and land use suitability (ex. Green Roofs are suited for schools and commercial uses but not generally single family residential).  These practices may be used with new development or re-development projects and are typically used in combination with traditional stormwater management techniques to develop a comprehensive stormwater management plan. 

City staff and stakeholders have reviewed and made comments to the LID Chapter.  The project team will produce the revised draft of the LID Chapter in mid April.  The LID Chapter will be piloted through the project the Houses at Willow Bend’s drainage design.  The entire manual is scheduled for completion by fall of this year.

Contributed by Sarah Wrede, City of Fayetteville Stormwater Engineer & Floodplain Administrator.

The first year of the Sustainable Cities Institute initiative in Fayetteville has been a ringing success and each of the cities represented within the initial award came together for some great brainstorming and to mark the end of the first year of the Home Depot Foundation’s Sustainable Cities Pilot program. Teams from across the nation have been working hard on their program initiatives, but haven’t had an opportunity to assemble as a collective group and learn about parallel efforts in partner cities.  For this reason, city teams were invited to attend an all-team summit at Southface headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.

This gathering was an opportunity to bring the city teams together and let each:  tell their story on how they developed their initiatives, report on progress made in achieving program goals and share lessons learned over the course 2011.  It was also nice nice to finally put some names with some faces and further develop professional relationships with sustainability leaders across the nation.

Pilot City finalists Salt Lake City, Utah and Ann Arbor, Michigan and Pilot City winners Charleston, South Carolina and Fayetteville, Arkansas convened with national partners from Southface, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, JP Consulting and the SCI Advisory Board for an all-day intensive conference on January 31st preceded by a meet-and-greet dinner the night before.

The ultimate goal for the City Program is to institutionalize sustainable infrastructure, but cities have different needs and with that, different methods for achieving this goal.  During the conference each team presented an overview of their work during the first year of the Home Depot Foundation grant funding, followed by a Q&A session.

Cities Fayetteville and Ann Arbor presented broader project initiatives focused on land use policy and initiatives, while cities Salt Lake and Charleston presented projects whose efforts were focused on rehabilitation and revitalization on the ground level.  It was interesting to see how many similarities there are between the programs - for example, it was discovered that both Fayetteville and Charleston effectively utilize Energy Corps/Americorps programs in their city initiatives, which is a great lesson for other cities that are looking for ways to get things done for their sustainability goals while simultaneously creating and promoting green economy jobs. Check out www.energycorps.org for more information on this great program.

One big take away from the presentations and Q&A sessions was that each city saw success in institutionalizing sustainability goals by engaging the community.  Community engagement efforts were targeted at creating community buy-in, which in several cases lead to the unexpected formation of community partnerships that helped to garner additional support and solidify sustainability initiatives. 

For example, Ann Arbor is a city with 26 different city plans and 226 correlating goals, resolutions, ordinances and policies, but the City lacks a unified vision of sustainability or a department to encapsulate and implement their plans.  By taking the time to survey city staff and present a list of the 226 goals to city commissioners, they were able to hold a joint commission meeting that aided in reorganizing the 26 city plans into four planning categories.  By engaging city staff and independent commissions in the process of developing these categories, Ann Arbor was able to create buy-in to the reorganization process, which helped streamline the approval process and garner support for using the new categories to form public community forums.

The all-team summit was a very engaging endeavor that was so beneficial for education and networking it left us all wanting more.  Towards the end of the day there were already talks of scheduling another all team summit towards the end of 2012 to reconvene as a national group of sustainably oriented cities. 

This summit highlighted the importance of social equity in achieving sustainability goals.  We recognize that it is only through the support of our partnerships and social networks that we were able to accomplish any of our goals in 2011.  We appreciate the opportunity that Southface provided in hosting the all-team summit and look forward to utilizing the connections we made during the conference to aid in achieving our goals for 2012. 

Written by Dustin Langford & Melissa Terry