Creating Equitable, Healthy & Sustainable Communities

Location: Nationwide | Client: EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities and Office of Environmental Justice | Project Date:

Project Images

Links and Resources

Creating Equitable, Healthy, and Sustainable Communities

EPA’s Smart Growth Website

Project Description

Situation

Across the nation, communities are seeking to integrate smart growth tools with environmental justice and equitable development strategies to strengthen neighborhood resilience and quality of life for all.

Solution

Skeo Solutions supported the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Offices of Sustainable Communities and Office of Environmental Justice who partnered to produce a publication titled Creating Equitable, Healthy, and Sustainable Communities. The report lifts up strategies that connect smart growth, environmental justice and equitable development and organizes these strategies under seven principles that can guide local investment, including:

  • Facilitate meaningful community engagement in planning and land use decisions,
  • Promote public health and a clean and safe environment,
  • Strengthen existing communities,
  • Provide housing choices,
  • Provide transportation options,
  • Improve access to opportunities and daily necessities, and
  • Preserve and build on the features that make a community distinctive.

Skeo Solutions developed many of the strategies and the seven case studies shared in the report.

Outcome

The Creating Equitable, Healthy, and Sustainable Communities publication supports the work of regional and local planners, community development practitioners, and low-income, minority, and tribal residents in their ongoing efforts to build equitable and sustainable communities for all. The report is available through EPA’s Smart Growth website.