Standardizing Community Sustainability: Can the new STAR Communities framework & rating system help achieve LA’s sustainability goals?
HOLLI FAJACK - hfajack@gmail.com Faculty Advisor: Walker Wells, AICP
OPPORTUNITY
CLIENT: Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Office of Sustainability
Los Angeles’ new Mayor wants to improve the SUSTAINABILITY & LIVABILITY of the city by:
• Developing a comprehensive city-wide Sustainability Plan • Harnessing the power of data to drive performance and measure success
QUESTION #1
FINDINGS Building a plan framework: LA referred to STAR framework for potential goal areas & categories to include in plan
How can STAR help LA create its plan? When a city is developing a sustainability plan, when & how can the STAR system be most useful? METHODOLOGY
Cross referenced STAR Framework with Internal Mayoral policy and budget guidance documents; other big city Sustainability Plans and UCLA Vision 2021; LA plan draft framework. Interviewed Mayor’s Sustainability team.
QUESTION #2
Community Sustainability Plan
Designing plan policies, programs, & projects: LA intends to reference STAR’s inventory of 400+ community-proven “best practices” when developing their plan approach Establishing measures: LA referenced STAR metrics & targets, which were developed through a consensus-based, expert-led process Promoting Alignment: Other communities are using STAR to align multiple plans (including General Plan) around common goals & metrics Conducting Outreach: Other communities are using the STAR framework as a tool for educating stakeholders about sustainability
What are the benefits & challenges associated with becoming a STAR certified community?
Interviewed STAR Pilot & Leadership Communities and STAR staff. Researched City’s performance-based budget process, open data initiative, and department performance management process to identify opportunities to align STAR data gathering efforts; Analyzed STAR Outcome and Action measures to estimate current availability of data from sources already connected with Mayor’s office.
• Technical Guide that describes hundreds of policies, programs, and actions that communities are using to achieve sustainability outcomes • Assessment Tool for evaluating & measuring sustainability of cities and counties across North America • Rating & Certification System for recognizing communities’ sustainability achievements through a national standard that enables “apples-to-apples” comparisons
RECOMMENDATIONS LA SHOULD pursue a STAR Rating because:
Benefits:
• STAR’s outcome-based approach aligns well with the Mayor’s priorities & City’s move towards datadriven performance management & budgeting
Bring new stakeholders & partners into the sustainability conversation; help break down silos Chance to show leadership, highlight & celebrate strengths; galvanize support around addressing challenges May position communities to be more competitive for grant funds & higher bond ratings; more attractive to businesses, investors, tourists
Challenges: METHODOLOGY
• Framework designed to comprehensively define the environmental, economic & social equity components of community sustainability
FINDINGS Opportunity to systematically “diagnose” sustainability conditions of the community
Should LA even bother going for a STAR rating?
What is “STAR Communities”?
Would require at least one FTE for 10-12 months minimum to manage extremely labor intensive data collection process Support from city departments (who may already be overburdened) is absolutely essential Re-certification is necessary every 3 years
• Integrating STAR metrics as department performance measures could help institutionalize sustainability & facilitate ongoing assessment • The in-depth assessment process would provide a valuable baseline for understanding current conditions in the city • Publishing assessment results for each STAR goal area would increase transparency • Many peer cities are already using STAR in some way; could become “shared language” & standard among sustainability directors & grant-makers