What Happened
The city of Richmond, Virginia, decided that, if it was to become a forward-thinking destination, it needed a road map. The plan became a sustainability resource that brought economic, social, and environmental considerations into its decision-making process.
Who Was Involved?
The plan, called “RVAgreen: A Roadmap to Sustainability,” was developed by a 30-person advisory committee. That group included town officials, local businesses, lawyers, architects, non-profits, and experts such as George Gosieski from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The group held public forums, and worked with local organizations to set goals and priorities.
The Process
As outlined in RVAgreen, the committee took a five-step process to identify goals, objectives and initiatives:
- Conduct baseline assessment (i.e., “where are we now?”)
- Set goals and objectives
- Identify initiatives (i.e., “what actions are needed to meet above goal?”)
- Evaluate initiatives (i.e., “how feasible are they? what will they take?”)
- Prioritize initiatives
The Plan
RVAgreen, which aims to be a sustainability plan for the entire Richmond community, focuses on five areas. Each of those areas included specific objectives, and RVAgreen published a seven-page matrix that listed each of the initiatives, described them, priced them, and described who was responsible. Among the objectives in each category:
- Create more green jobs
- Make local, health, and sustainable food accessible and affordable
- Improve the state of good repair and efficiency of city infrastructure
Economic development
- Reduce energy consumption in city government operations
- Increase the use of alternative energy sources
Energy
- Protect and enhance Richmond’s water resources
- Improve the city’s solid waste systems
Environment
- Increase accessibility, quantity, and quality of public space
- Increase Richmond’s tree canopy
Open Space and Land Use
- Reduce citywide vehicle-miles-traveled per capita
- Manage parking supply to encourage alternate modes of transportation
- Make Richmond a bike and pedestrian friendly city
Transportation
Next Steps
To download the actual sustainability plan, which weighs in at 147 pages, click here.
The sustainability director for the city of Richmond, Alicia Zatcoff, who oversaw the publication of the report, can be reached at alicia.zatcoff@richmondgov.com.
Many other cities and towns have created sustainability plans. We’ve linked to some of them below:
- Albany, NY, “Go Green” Initiative
- Atlanta, GA, “Sustainable Atlanta”
- Baltimore, MD, “Sustainability Plan”
- Bridgeport, CT, “BGreen 2020”
- Claremont, CA, “Sustainability Plan”
- Cleveland, OH, “Sustainable Cleveland 2019”
- El Paso, TX, “Livable City” Plan
- Lombard, IL, “Sustainability Framework”
- Madison, WI, “Sustainability Plan”
- New York, NY, “PlaNYC”
- Nothhampton, MA, “Sustainable Northampton Plan”
- Philadelphia, PA, “Greenworks”
- San Francisco, CA, “Sustainable City”