As cities look for solutions to help meet their increasingly aggressive clean energy targets and support their local economies, community solar is a growing opportunity. Community Solar is the distributed solar projects shared virtually by a number of subscribers in a community, typically through on-bill credits. For cities, community solar is a way to vastly increase the amount of locally generated renewable energy, along with associated benefits of local jobs, property tax revenue, and local community investment.

The current financial crisis and economic recession have dramatically pointed out the economic fragility of large segments of the United States population and their vulnerability to financial products that are misrepresented or poorly explained. It also shows how many families, with little or no savings, live on the brink of financial disaster. Individual Development Account programs (IDAs) offer matched savings accounts as one solution to this low savings rate. These accounts have been effective at providing additional incentives to save, as well as multiplying the saving contributions of account holders so that assets can be more quickly accumulated.

The current financial crisis and economic recession have dramatically pointed out the economic fragility of large segments of the United States population and their vulnerability to financial products that are misrepresented or poorly explained. It also shows how many families, with little or no savings, live on the brink of financial disaster. Individual Development Account programs (IDAs) offer matched savings accounts as one solution to this low savings rate. These accounts have been effective at providing additional incentives to save, as well as multiplying the saving contributions of account holders so that assets can be more quickly accumulated.

Alongside the celebrated entertainment venues and storied restaurants, New Orleans is a center of international trade and industry, as it has been for 300 years – but now with much more and better infrastructure. Today this network of river ports, railroads, pipelines and interstates converges in the super region encompassing both New Orleans and Baton Rouge, LA, where it supports a growing and diversifying economy. In this environment, there is a major opportunity for the super region of New Orleans–Baton Rouge to capture community value from the largely underutilized rail system as the region grows through transit-oriented development (TOD) and cargo-oriented development (COD).

What would have to happen for the city of Memphis to reduce poverty by 10% within 10 years – lowering it from 27% to 17% – and fundamentally shift economic opportunity and well-being for low-income residents? Today, there are 180,741 Memphis residents living below the poverty line ($23,550 for a family of four). Achieving a 10 percentage point reduction means moving 64,000 individuals out of poverty. It will require a combination of more and better jobs; better access to areas of job growth; lower household expenses for energy, transportation and water; and opportunities for economic advancement that are built on public safety, education, health, supportive services, and affordable housing. This report outlines key improvements that must be made in jobs, resource efficiency, transportation, and social services that Memphis must make to achieve this goal.

The movement of jobs away from historic transportation hubs has made highways the best, in some cases the only, way for employees to get to work. Over the last decade, the number of jobs within a 10-minute walk of rail stations dropped. Between 2002 and 2008, the seven-county region of north-eastern Illinois—including Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties—added a net 110,314 jobs. Yet the number of total jobs within one-half mile of transit declined by 5,555. Low and moderate income workers, already burdened by the cost of driving, felt this drop most acutely. The number of jobs paying less than $40,000 per year located within a half-mile of transit declined 16 percent. This gave fewer working households a choice between car and public transportation options.

Study exploring the disproportionate impact of urban flooding on Chicago’s communities of color. Examines policies enacted by Chicago and Oak Park, Illinois, and other municipalities, ranging from resident assistance programs, open data portals, to building inspection strategies, as examples of effective ways to help alleviate the persistent problem of urban flooding.

Potential energy savings practices in food facility services, restaurants, food manufacturing and incubation industries. Provides sustainable recommendations for building envelopes and metering, HVAC systems, appliances, cold storage, water, lighting, and other sustainability issues.

When trying to redevelop, small towns that have a lot of brownfields and abandoned properties have to adopt strategies that both meet the market and address complex risk factors that include social, political, and environmental risk. This kind of small, isolated, and former manufacturing towns could experience “disaffection”, a feeling of disconnectedness and isolation across the whole community. This article shares four strategies for redeveloping these small towns: Partnerships and Area-Wide Approaches, New Economy Techniques, Hybridizing Strategies, and Self-Sustenance. The key is to use a diverse set of techniques to address the social and institutional risks.

A model for a community financial workshop program that teaches the basics of personal financial management with a special emphasis on expense reduction in energy, transportation, telecommunications, and food.