Sustainable Miami Valley Toolkit

Your overview to the Sustainable Miami Valley Tool Kit.

The Sustainable Miami Valley Tool Kit is designed to serve local government officials tasked with making their communities more environmentally sustainable, while also conserving budget dollars. Additionally, it can be useful for businesses and residents of the Miami Valley inclined to work with their local governments to make lasting positive change in their communities.

Each chapter of the Tool Kit contains suggested policies, codes, ordinances, programs, and projects which local government can adopt or adapt to address nine separate environmental topic areas: Air Quality, Energy, Food, Green Building, Land Use, Solid Waste, Transportation, Trees, and Water Quality.

Each topic has its own chapter, but naturally, there is a great deal of overlap between these topics, and there are cross-references throughout the Tool Kit. The suggestions found in each chapter are categorized for even easier comprehension. “Community Education & Outreach” suggests ways to demonstrate leadership or educate community residents about the local government’s sustainability efforts. “Internal Operations” are steps an administration can take with community staff, the publicly-owned buildings, properties, and vehicles. The “Ordinances and Policies” category highlights official actions elected officials can adopt to guide their community to a more sustainable path. Finally, “Broader Collaboration” refers to opportunities to partner with other local governments and other organizations to effect regional or state-wide change.

The Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission is pleased to partner with the Dayton Regional Green Initiative to promote this resource guide for our Region. For the 2019-2020 program year, the Sustainable Miami Valley Tool Kit is linked with the Bring Your Green Community Challenge. Throughout the chapters look for the “BYG” tag for policies, programs, and projects that directly link to the Bring Your Green government tracking platform. Use the Tool Kit as your community’s catalog of efforts to initiate and earn points in the Regional challenge.

At over 50 pages, this Tool Kit may seem overwhelming at first. It is true, there is a lot in here to consider, but communities should use the Tool Kit to find the right beginning or next steps, and not feel they need to take on too much at once. Use the Tool Kit’s structure to navigate through the lists and select one or two topics or ideas. Keep your community’s efforts manageable, and contact MVRPC staff for support or guidance. A good overarching starting point is to create an Environmental Advisory Committee of citizens, businesses, elected officials, and community staff BYG.

Perhaps this body could award an annual Sustainability Champion recognition for your resident volunteers. By getting many minds and many hands working together, you may be able to create a more effective sustainability effort in your community. And remember: communities should seek professional guidance before making changes to ordinances, codes, and policies.

Getting started is not difficult: sign up through the Bring Your Green portal site and use the challenge as an opportunity to showcase your community’s sustainability work. Participating communities will be prompted throughout the challenge with opportunities to engage with your residents, community staff, and local businesses about sustainability and the environment.