Community Sustainability Assessment Report - 2021

• As a part of Wisconsin's initiatives to address climate change, the Community Sustainability Working Group created this report to detail ways in which communities can take action and plan for a more sustainable future.
• This report describes how communities can focus on more than energy savings, such as community agriculture, floodplain management, infrastructure improvements, and water conservation.
• Throughout the report, specific community plans for different cities are linked as examples.

Positives

• The report defines attributes of sustainability in their framework, such as a holistic outlook, focus on place, and integration into local policies.
  
• The report includes excellent references and resources linked at the end including the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, which focuses on community planning and a list of potential sustainability policies for communities to implement.

Additional Prerequisites

• Students should have a basic understanding of the following environmental science terms: sustainability, renewable energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and green infrastructure.
• The link on page 12 for PSC EIC - Energy Independent Communities and the first and third links on page 15 under Endnotes and References are broken links.

Differentiation

• Consider spending a few days reading this report in class with students, breaking up the reading with graphic organizers, discussions, and activities related to community planning and sustainability.
• After reading the report, ask students whether they think sustainability planning is more effective at the organization level or at the community level.
• Have students review either Milwaukee's or Eau Claire's city plans on sustainability/climate change and have them choose one specific green initiative to discuss.
• Teachers can also introduce or review the three main categories of climate change solutions: energy shift, energy efficiency, and climate adaptation. After looking at some of the community plans, students can find one initiative that fits with each category.