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PLACES (Planning Land And Communities To Be Environmentally Sustainable) Program Helps Communities Onto The Path Of Sustainability
Citation:
YEARDLEY JR, R. B. AND V. E. HANSEN. PLACES (Planning Land And Communities To Be Environmentally Sustainable) Program Helps Communities Onto The Path Of Sustainability. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/F-11/005, 2011.
Impact/Purpose:
PLACES is an EPA program that encourages and enables communities to voluntarily get their development strategies on path that will sustain the environmental services that are necessary to protect the environment and human health.
Description:
Land use changes from natural to more man-made environments that are done with no community level planning, shorten the life span and lessen the quality of life of a community. A community armed with a master plan with a number of alternative strategies that consider the natural, social, and economic needs of the community can secure these services far into the future. PLACES (Planning Land And Communities to be Environmentally Sustainable) is an EPA program that encourages and enables communities to voluntarily get their development strategies on a path that will sustain the environmental services that are necessary to protect the environment and human health. This program is modeled after popular green building programs such as Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED), and Smart Growth that focus on site development, except that it is applied to entire communities. Through programs like PLACES, the EPA has shown a commitment to sustainability and working with communities. The PLACES program is building upon the successful collaboration of the EPA, Kansas State University, and EPA Region 7 with the town of Stella, Missouri. In Stella, these collaborators were able to facilitate the awakening of a community's sense of place so that they make decisions that lead to a better quality of life. The program enables community planning decisions informed by an awareness of the natural aspects of each unique place. Sustainability efforts in Stella illustrate how the town can improve social and economic systems while maintaining intact and functioning ecosystems.