Clean energy policies can create jobs, support local business in green markets, and ensure residents have access to jobs created. This brief helps guide you on how to make the most of green investments. After reviewing the City of Oberlin’s energy use and emissions, several policy options and best practices were identified for five energy-using and emission-producing sectors: (1) upgrading the electricity system, (2) greening the commercial and industrial sector to reduce energy costs for firms, (3) enabling anchor institutions in the community to reduce energy use and cost, (4) making the transportation system more sustainable while promoting smart growth and complete street principles, and (5) promote energy savings for Oberlin residents in their homes. By adopting policy options and best practices, communities can spur local investments in the green economy.

Ohio communities need a better approach, one that fosters economic growth while also protecting the environment and supporting local businesses and workers. This is why the City of Oberlin, in partnership with Oberlin College and the city’s municipal utility have launched “The Oberlin Project” to make Oberlin the greenest little city in the U.S., grow the local economy in the process, and become a national model for sustainable economic development. This report is a policy blueprint to help Oberlin, and all Ohio communities, drive demand for clean energy while leveraging green investments to secure maximum value to the community. The four key components of this comprehensive strategy are designed to balance the three E’s of sustainable economic development—environment, economy, and equity.

In September 2007, recognizing the great potential of green economic and infrastructure development, Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker asked the Apollo Alliance to engage the community at large and "make Newark a national showcase for clean and efficient energy use, green economic development and job creation, and equitable environmental opportunity." The project, announced at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) conference in New York City, focused on convening a summit of Newark's community leaders to develop recommendations for the city to become cleaner, greener, and more prosperous.

Government is often thought of as a place where good ideas go to die. We who work in local government know this is not true. We also know, however, that cities' current set of approaches and solutions won't be enough to address our most pressing challenges. We need more and fundamentally different ways to deliver public value, and to understand and address wickedly complex problems. This guidebook is intended to give local leaders a practical, action-oriented framework for breakthrough innovation: a set of approaches and practices out of the startup and municipal innovation worlds that help practitioners break out of deeply embedded assumptions about how government is supposed to operate and open new possibilities for problem-solving and impact.

Policy establishing sustainable procurement guidance for city purchases requiring full life cycle evaluation of materials and their economic and environmental impacts.

Companies, governments, and institutions of all kinds purchase goods and services for their own use. But what they buy - and how they buy it - has a significant impact on local communities, the environment, and the economy - and in some unexpected ways, on the success of the business itself. When organizations choose to purchase goods and services that are sustainable, in a way that is transparent, they lower their risks, boost their public relations, and become more cost-effective. What's more, they help build a broadly sustainable economy - especially when they also require sustainability from their supply chains. By choosing sustainable procurement options, buyers enhance local economic growth, harness the potential of underutilized communities, reduce income inequality, and mitigate the damage of climate change - all while making purchases their operations need. Adding sustainability and transparency to purchasing specifications improves everyday operations and, at the same time, fosters a more sustainable economy for everyone.

If you want to encourage a behaviour, make it Easy, Attractive, Social and Timely (EAST). These four simple principles for applying behavioural insights are based on the Behavioural Insights Team's own work and the wider academic literature. There is a large body of evidence on what influences behaviour, and we do not attempt to reflect all its complexity and nuances here. But we have found that policy makers and practitioners find it useful to have a simple, memorable framework to think about effective behavioural approaches.

In accordance with 2007 City Council Resolution # 20519, the City of Phoenix will purchase products and services that have a reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared to competing products or services that serve the same purpose, while remaining fiscally responsible. Being fiscally responsible requires the City to consider full life cycle analysis cost of materials.

Job growth drives San Antonio's push for renewable energy and cleaner air is a beneficial byproduct. Since two recent mayors have embraced this approach, the country's seventh-largest city has developed a unique business ecosphere. Political leaders hope early gains will make San Antonio a leader in the "New Energy Economy." Using the purchasing power of CPS Energy - among the largest municipally owned utilities - the city convinced four clean tech companies to relocate to San Antonio in June, while a fifth company, SunEdison, will open a local office to support a 30-megawatt solar project. Each company is expected to bring jobs and contribute financially to education programs and research in exchange for long-term business deals with the utility and city.