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UK Government Definition of Sustainable Communities

General definition: Sustainable communities embody the principles of sustainable development.  They -

• Balance and integrate the social, economic, and environmental components of their community.
• Meet the needs of existing and future generations.
• Respect the needs of other communities in the wider region or internationally to make their communities sustainable.

Definitional components: Sustainable communities should be -

• Active, Inclusive, and Safe - fair, tolerant, and cohesive with a strong local culture and shared community activities.
• Well Run - with effective and inclusive participation, representation, and leadership.
• Environmentally Sensitive- providing places for people to live that are considerate of the environment.
• Well Designed and Built - feating a quality built and natural environment.
• Well Connected - with good transport services and communication linking people to jobs, schools, health, and other services.
• Thriving - with a flourishing and diverse local economy.
• Well Served - with public, private, community, and voluntary services that are appropriate to people's needs and accessible to all.
• Fair for Everyone - including those in other communities, now and in the future.

The Opportunity Compact: Blueprint for Economic Equality concentrates on four major areas - children's welfare, jobs, homeownership and entrepreneurship - considered by the Urban League movement as important in achieving the American dream. They are represented through four guiding principles: the opportunity to thrive, the opportunity to earn, the opportunity to own and the opportunity to prosper. The league is offering its top-10 legislative recommendations to achieve the goals laid out by these principles.

Opportunity to Thrive (Children)

1. Commit to mandatory early childhood education beginning at age three as well as guarantee access to college for all.

Thanks to Head Start and other early childhood education programs, the youngest black children are nearly keeping pace with their white counterparts in terms of school readiness - scoring at 94 percent of whites, according to our State of Black America 2007. They've even surpassed whites in terms of some home literacy activities such as being taught words or numbers three times a week.

Moreover, as educational attainment increases, black earnings as a percentage of white earnings increases. According to recent Census Bureau statistics, blacks with high school degrees made 81 percent of what similarly-educated whites did. For college-educated blacks, that percentage increases to 87 percent.

2. Close the gaps in the health insurance system to ensure universal healthcare for all children.

Even with Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, African- American children are twice as likely as whites to go uninsured. Some, due to no fault of their own, fall through the cracks because their parents are unaware of their eligibility for government-backed health insurance or exceed income limits. An estimated 9 million children nationwide are without coverage, 90 percent of them from working families.

3. Establish policies that provide tools for working families to become economically self-sufficient

Working families, especially those led by single mothers, face major obstacles - such as getting to work, finding affordable childcare and upgrading their education and skills -- in the way of their financial independence. A relatively small investment in policies that lend low-income working families a hand will go a long way toward improving their economic situation as well as keeping them off federal and state aid programs.

Opportunity to Earn (Jobs)

4. Create an urban infrastructure bank to fund reinvestment in urban communities (i.e. parks, schools, roads).

Modeled after the World Bank, the Urban Infrastructure Bank would help jumpstart the ailing economies of urban communities by infusing funds into them to help rebuild infrastructure and at the same time put local residents to work.

The bank would be financed by a stream of federal bond revenue used to create a large pool of funds for rebuilding public roads and infrastructure, schools, parks, playgrounds, community centers and recreation centers, It would also require that local residents

5. Index the minimum wage to inflation and expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to more working families

It is not enough just to raise the wage every decade if it doesn't keep pace with inflation. At least four states - - Florida, Washington, Oregon and Vermont - already employ indexing. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the cost of adjusting the current federal minimum wage for inflation over the past 10 years would have amounted to just $1.33 an hour.

For such a small investment, our leaders could prevent millions of American workers already in precarious economic positions from losing ground in their pursuit of the American dream. By adjusting the wage for inflation, the lowest-paid employees will be afforded the same cost-of-living increases as congressional members and Social Security recipients, among others. Why should America's working poor be treated any differently?

The league also urges expanding the EITC's reach through simplification of the process used to claim the credit, better outreach to eligible families and an increase in the size of benefits for all eligible families, including ones without minor children.

6. Expand "second chance" programs for high school dropouts, ex-offenders and at-risk youth to secure GEDs, job training and employment. With as much as 30 percent saddled with records and up to 50 percent unemployed, so-called disconnected black youth -- who are out of jobs and out of school -- need specialized assistance to get them on track to economic success.

Opportunity to Own (Housing)

7. Adopt the "Homeowner's Bill of Rights" as recommended by the National Urban League in March of 2007

The bill of rights includes:

a) The Right to Save for Homeownership Tax-Free

Similar to 529 educational saving plans and 401-K retirement plans, these matched-savings homeownership development accounts would be administered by employers. Parents could set up accounts for their children at birth so that by the time they become adults they'd have enough money for down payments. It would give young adults, who have a hard enough paying rent, an incentive to set aside money.

b) The Right to High-Quality Homeownership Education

Congress should double the $42 million currently spent by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for homeownership counseling and require the agency to offer post-purchase education after homebuyers close on homes to ensure that they make a smooth transition from renting to owning.

c) The Right to Truth and Transparency in Credit Reporting

Understanding a credit report is critical to financial success so we need to ensure that Americans understand the process. The credit reporting system currently suffers from a lack of transparency. It's too complicated to digest. It needs to be demystified and a system of penalties for inaccurate reporting should be instituted.

d) The Right to Production of Affordable Housing for Working Families

We urge our nation's leaders to create a new Workforce Housing Tax Credit similar to that for low-income housing. It would help spur the production of housing units for working families who provide essential yet not well-compensated services to our nation's cities.

Local governments should consider following the lead of New York City, which requires developers to devote 30 percent of their units to workforce and low-income housing to be eligible for property tax abatements.

e) The Right to be Free from Predatory Lending

Congress should pass a comprehensive bill regulating the subprime loan industry, which is currently governed by a patchwork of 50 state laws. These loans have "jack in the box" interest rates that start out at a low level only to rise substantially later down the line and are sometimes offered to borrowers who could qualify for lower-cost lower-interest mortgage loans.

The Durham, N.C.-based Center for Responsible Lending predicted that one in five subprime loans made in the last few years will go into foreclosure. According to recent Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data from lenders, over half of African American homeowners hold such loans.

f) The Right to Aggressive Enforcement of Fair Housing Laws

Our nation's leaders should authorize a HUD Task Force to vigorously investigate and prosecute violations of fair-housing laws as well as hold oversight hearings to ensure accountability.

In a 2005 HUD-funded study, the National Fair Housing Alliance found that 87 percent of potential homebuyers were steered to neighborhoods comprised mostly of their own ethnic group, demonstrating that housing discrimination is alive and well. Such laws are meaningless unless the executive branch aggressively and seriously enforces them.

8. Reform public housing to assure continuing national commitment to low-income and working families

The federal government needs to overhaul its HOPE VI program designed to create mixed-income neighborhoods. The program is broke, busted and disgusted. There have been successes here and there but there are many more examples of projects never getting off the ground. The league urges a return to the core-stated tenets of the program - to transform public housing communities from islands of despair and poverty into a vital and integral part of larger neighborhoods and to crease an environment that encourages and supports movement toward self-sufficiency.

Opportunity to Prosper (Entrepreneurship)

9. Strongly enforce federal minority business opportunity goals to ensure greater minority participation in government contracting

Changes in the government contract landscape - more subcontracting, bundling and coding errors -- have resulted in pushing more and more small firms out of the market. In 1996, minority firms received only $0.57 for every dollar they would have been expected to receive based on their availability.

10. Build capacity of minority business through expansion of micro-financing, equity financing and the development of strategic alliances with major corporations

Minority-owned business development has been hamstrung by lack of access to capital, business networks and intergenerational wealth that helps their white counterparts get off the ground. Micro-financing, which has been successfully in spurring micro-business development in Third World countries such as India and Pakistan, enables them to start up at lower risk than taking out traditional bank loans. Equity financing and development of strategic alliances enable established minority-owned companies to take the next step.

"A nation that can develop the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, a nation that can create the International Monetary Fund to build the world, a nation that can rally around a war in Iraq can certainly rebuild its urban communities and put its less-fortunate citizens on track to achieving the American dream," Morial observed.

Slightly revised list taken from Climate Leadership Initiative of Seattle:

Most climate pollution that causes global warming comes from fuels used to produce energy - gasoline, diesel, coal and natural gas. Here are ten things you can do to reduce climate pollution^*:

1. Drive less. Walk, bike, take a bus, carpool and combine errands. Do whatever it takes to reduce your time behind the wheel.

2. Drive smart. Keep your car tuned and tires properly inflated. Don’t idle when you’re stopped. About 15 seconds is the break even point. Forget the jack rabbit starts. On the freeway, stick below 60 mph.

3. Be fuel efficient.  Not only will you stop wasting gas and money, but by driving a fuel-efficient car you can make a real reduction in your carbon emissions. For drivers of diesel vehicles, the more biodiesel you use, the fewer emissions you produce.

4. Reduce, reuse and recycle. Most products require energy to produce, distribute and manage the resulting waste. Choose pre-owned products, products with recycled content and less packaging. Visit one of Eugene’s salvage yards, consignment or thrift shops and BRING recycling.

5. Trim the carbon from your diet. The average dinner travels 1,500 miles from farm to your plate, spewing carbon all the way. Eat locally grown and produced food or grow your own to really cut food miles. Minimize packaging to avoid embodied emissions. Choose organic over conventional foods to reduce the use of fossil fuel based fertilizers.

6. Stay out of hot water. A hot water tank is the second largest user of energy in a home. So, set your tank at 110-120°F, take shorter showers, use water-efficient washing machines and wash clothes in cold water. You’ll cut down wasted energy, water and money.

7. Turn down, turn off and unplug. Set thermostats at 68°F or lower when you’re home and 55°F or lower when you’re away or at night. Turn off lights in empty rooms and use compact fluorescent bulbs. Unplug electronics like DVDs and cell phone chargers that aren’t in use to avoid wasting 7-10% of your household’s electric use. Bring back the old clothes line to dry your wash. When you purchase new electronics, buy energy efficient ones.

8. Plant a tree. One tree sequesters 25 pounds of carbon a year for 30 years. Deciduous trees on the south and west sides of your house will keep you cool in the summer, but still allow in winter light.

9. Befriend your utility. Find out what energy conservation programs are available through your local utility.

10. Shout it out! You can make a difference. Start by taking the steps above and then let others know of your commitment. Tell people where you shop and where you work that climate protection matters.