NCEH Designs Criteria for Obtaining Sustainable Community Status
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In a perfect world, every community will be a utopia. Can you picture it?
Imagine a place where residents have plenty of peace and quiet, educational offerings, arts and cultural centers, jobs in a robust economy, civil engagement and participation, recreational offerings, and plenty of green space.
Residents will breathe fresh air, drink clean water, eat affordable and healthy foods, and live in safe and affordable housing. Everyone will have access to public transportation or be able to walk or bike to school or work. It’s a community about which some people dream.
Sustainable communities don’t have to be unreachable fantasies. A sustainable community is one in which there’s a healthy environment, strong economy, and concern for the well-being of the people living there. They also meet the needs of current residents without harming the ability of future generations to meet their needs—a goal first articulated by the U.N. Brundtland Commission.
The National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) is a strong supporter of sustainability. NCEH works to prevent illnesses, disabilities, and deaths due to people’s interactions with the environment.
To reach this goal, NCEH got involved in the Sustainability Tools for Assessing and Rating Communities (STAR) system. NCEH provided technical assistance on data sources and best practices for STAR, the nation’s first voluntary, self-reporting framework for evaluating, quantifying, and improving the livability and sustainability of communities.
“Our roles were to design the goals and objectives,” says Chris Kochtitzky, an NCEH public health advisor. “Probably a third to half of the objectives are health related.”
The STAR System
STAR, which currently has 90 communities participating, combines
- A framework for sustainability that encompasses the social, economic, and environmental aspects of a community;
- A rating system that drives continuous improvement and fosters competition; and
- An online system that collects, organizes, analyzes, and presents information that’s required to reach sustainability goals.
The system has four levels of community participation, Kochtitzky says: STAR member communities and 3-, 4-, and 5-STAR.
Communities submit their application to STAR, which verifies the information. Once a community is rated, its rating is valid for three years.
The rating system has seven categories: built environment; climate and energy; education, arts and community; economy and jobs; equity and empowerment; health and safety; and natural systems.
The rating system has seven categories: built environment; climate and energy; education, arts and community; economy and jobs; equity and empowerment; health and safety; and natural systems.
Community water systems are under built environment, environmental justice under equity and empowerment, and outdoor air quality under natural systems, for instance. These are in addition to those areas specifically labeled as health and safety, including active living and indoor air quality.
If city planners and architects don’t take into consideration the distances between people’s homes, jobs and leisure activities, then residents spend more time in traffic. Communities that don’t offer adequate education and job training can eventually become economic wastelands. When residents don’t have access to fresh and affordable foods, their health suffers.
“To become sustainable, we have to deal with whatever is making us unsustainable,” Kochtitzky says.
Participating Communities
Communities participating in STAR are spread throughout the United States and include communities in Canada. Their numbers vary from the 1,446 residents of Nederland, Colorado, up to the 2.6 million residents of Toronto.
Size has nothing to do with gaining top billing when it comes to STAR. The first 5-star community was Northampton, Massachusetts: which has a population of 28,549. The second, Seattle, Washington, has a population of 652,405.
Austin, Texas; Tacoma, Washington; Evanston, Illinois; and Broward County, Florida, are recognized as 4-star communities. The current 3-star communities are Chandler, Arizona; Indianapolis, Indiana; Fort Collins, Colorado; Lee County, Florida; and Des Moines, Iowa.
Kochtitzky thinks STAR will foster competition among communities to attract businesses, jobs and economic development, resulting in better living environments for residents.
Search the communities that are participating in STAR.
One comment on “NCEH Designs Criteria for Obtaining Sustainable Community Status”
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Great to see so many communities participating – over 90 communities are tracking sustainability and health metrics with an eye toward improving their built environment and the health of their population. Interesting to note that 4 star communities are located in very different geographic locations. I look forward to reviewing the data trends in each of the rating categories over the next few years.