HomeMy WebLinkAboutExecutive Summary
Iowa City
2013 Sustainability
Assessment
Executive Summary
The City began its efforts towards sustainability many years before the term
became as commonly used as it is today. Iowa City was a pioneer in energy
conservation in the 1980s, implementing numerous energy conservation
programs and using a portion of the energy savings to fund additional projects.
More recently, from 1999–2005, LED lighting was installed in City traffic signals,
cutting electrical usage for signals in half. In 2001, Sycamore Greenspace was
constructed. This green infrastructure contains 55 acres of wetland which serves
to manage stormwater and which also provides the City with a mulit-use
greenspace containing native plants, trails, public art and wildlife habitat. The
City-owned landfill began capturing and flaring landfill gas in 2001, which has
decreased greenhouse emissions from the landfill by 69%. Iowa City’s mayor
signed the Mayors Climate Protection agreement in 2007 and in 2009 was the
first City in Iowa to complete a community-wide greenhouse gas inventory and
emissions baseline data. In the last several years, many City departments have
begun partnering in sustainability projects with the University of Iowa, enhancing
the ability to broaden the work on sustainability within the community.
This assessment identifies specific indicators that coordinate with the vision and
broad set of goals set forth in IC2030, Iowa City’s most recent Comprehensive
Plan and the City’s Strategic Plan. The indicators will act as a source of
information for the next step of this process: the development of sustainability
goals and targets. In the process of sustainability goal setting, the City should
also consider sustainability goals set forth in the University of Iowa’s 2020 Plan
so that aligned efforts of local government, business, non-profits, residents and
the University will combine to foster greater community progress.
Data for nearly 60 sustainability indicators in nine focus areas were compiled and
analyzed for this assessment. These indicators focus on the economic,
environmental and resource management, and social/cultural categories of
sustainability.
The nine focus areas included in the report are:
• Economic
• Community Design and Transportation
• Energy
• Water
• Waste Reduction
• Natural Ecosystem
• Housing
• Community Wellness
• Arts and Culture
The assessment conveys meaningful and measurable information about the
current status of the Iowa City community with respect to sustainability. Data
from 2007 serves as the baseline from which indicators in the following four
years are assessed. Comparisons between Iowa City, the state of Iowa, and
national totals are provided for each indicator wherever data is available and
applicable. A simplified rating system measures the status of each indicator in
the community and allows us to assess whether Iowa City is within or exceeding
the acceptable level, below the desired level or unclassifiable due to complexity
or other factors such as limited data.
The indicator rating
system shows that
34 indicators are within
or exceeding acceptable
limits, 13 indicators are
not at desired level and
12 indicators are
unclassified due to
insufficient comparison
data.
Contact information:
Brenda Nations
Environmental Coordinator
brenda-nations@iowa-city.org
Economic, environmental, and social/cultural conditions are healthy and
balanced in a vibrant and livable community. This report evaluates these three
categories of the Iowa City community in order to establish baseline conditions
for the creation of an effective and coordinated community-driven sustainability
roadmap.
The evaluation highlights improvement and provides a starting point for
leveraging our strengths and improving upon our deficiencies. The indicator
rating system shows that 34 indicators are within or exceeding acceptable limits,
13 indicators are not at desired level and 12 indicators are unclassified due to
insufficient comparison data. The indicators show that the City’s sustainability
can be quantified, and that our level of sustainability is high.
Of the nine focus areas, these areas had the strongest positive indicators:
• Economic
• Community Design and Transportation,
• Water (municipal treatment and protection)
• Natural Ecosystem (acreage of natural areas)
• Community Wellness
• Arts and Culture
Although Iowa City is doing very well in many sustainability indicators the
challenge we face is how to maintain these desirable characteristics while
overcoming deficiencies as the city grows in the coming years.
In these focus areas, work is underway and continued improvement is needed:
• Energy
• Water (river water quality and stream bank erosion)
• Waste reduction
• Natural Ecosystem (invasive species)
• Housing (rental housing issues)
Recognizing that there is room for improvement in these areas will allow the
community to see the need for more focus on energy reduction, greenhouse gas
targets, river and stream water quality improvements, waste reduction
opportunities, plant species awareness and housing issues.
This report is the first step in commitment towards strategies that will foster a more
livable, viable and equitable community and solidify our future success.
Sustainable advancement in Iowa City requires setting quantifiable targets,
assessing progress and reevaluating goals to establish a basis for an overarching
sustainability strategy. Sustainability for a city means shifting to more whole
systems approach of functioning as a community, looking at all parts of the
environment, economic and social interconnectedness. In providing sustainability
goals and targets, Iowa City can use this overarching theme to ensure that the city
can continue to thrive and improve in the future.
You can find the full assessment at:
www.icgov.org/sustainability