Spring 2017 Quickstart Program Details & Application

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Spring 2017 QuickSTARt Program Details & Application

In partnership with Siemens Corporation, STAR Communities is inviting applications from cities interested in accelerating their STAR certification efforts in 2017 through the QuickSTARt Program. This initiative is supported by the Siemens Cities Center of Competence (CoC), which is dedicated to collaborating with cities to undertake key challenges as cities strive for economic growth and long-term sustainability.

Siemens Cities CoC has supported STAR Communities since its inception. Alison Taylor, who is Siemens Sustainability Director for the Americas and one of the contributors to Siemens policy to become carbon neutral by 2030, currently sits on STAR’s Board. In addition to helping cities directly to develop technology plans for sustainable growth, Siemens works through organizations, such as STAR Communities, to amplify knowledge exchange on data-driven planning for economic, environmental, and social sustainability.

STAR certification provides a clear, data-driven approach to assessing local sustainability efforts. It allows local leaders to credibly and transparently measure sustainability performance against the national standards and best practices in the STAR Community Rating SystemTM (STAR), the nation’s leading framework and certification program for evaluating the sustainability of U.S. communities. STAR provides a roadmap to evaluate and track progress on economic, environmental, and social conditions in your community; the STAR certification process helps to identify gaps and prioritize investment. It can also serve as a catalyst for local action, transforming the way that communities come together to address sustainability.

Siemens has partnered with STAR Communities to support one community’s STAR certification efforts through participation in the QuickSTARt Program, which recognizes that cities that have leadership buy-in, get organized upfront, and build a diverse team have great potential to realize transformation and catalyze action through the STAR certification process. The program is designed to accelerate the process of getting organized and achieving certification so that the community can quickly move through the assessment phase into implementation efforts.

The QuickSTARt Program provides communities with benefits consistent with the STAR Community Leadership Program, which is a one-year all-inclusive package that provides STAR’s highest level of training and technical assistance to a cohort of city and county governments as they complete their first baseline community sustainability assessment by pursuing certification under the STAR Community Rating System. Instead of working through the certification program as part of a cohort, communities in the QuickSTARt Program receive an upfront, multi-day workshop in the community to build buy-in and support for sustainability efforts, clarify and resolve numerous technical and data issues, and provide a clear pathway to achieving STAR certification.

About STAR Communities and Siemens Corporation

STAR Communities • 777 N. Capitol Street NE, Suite 500 • Washington, DC 20002 www.STARcommunities.org ______

STAR Communities is a nonprofit organization that works to evaluate, improve, and certify sustainable communities. The organization administers the STAR Community Rating System, the nation’s leading framework and certification program for local sustainability. For more information, visit www.STARcommunities.org.

Siemens Cities Center of Competence (CoC) is dedicated to understanding the key challenges facing cities as they strive for economic growth and long-term prosperity. The CoC strives to leverage the company’s global experience and portfolio of innovative infrastructure solutions to help cities create and implement plans for a sustainable future.

Program Details

The selected community will use STAR Communities’ strategic framework to quickly align local plans, programs, and policies with the STAR framework, identify the evaluation measures available to a community, support focused data collection efforts, and enable the early identification of new policies and programs that may support STAR certification. This framework forms the basis of the QuickSTARt Program, which will motivate the community’s local STAR project team, clarify and resolve numerous technical issues, and provide a clear pathway forward to certification and implementation.

STAR Communities staff will work with the community to identify an appropriate date for the workshop, ideally within the first half of 2017. The project team for the local community will spend 2-4 months getting oriented to the STAR framework and certification process via conference calls and remote webinars, doing preliminary research and alignment, and planning the in-person workshop. The workshop will be tailored to the needs of the community, but primary goals will be to get buy-in and build understanding of the STAR framework and certification process, and to accelerate the data collection process to achieve STAR certification within a 6-8 month timeline.

Key benefits of the QuickSTARt Program include:  A 2-day in-person workshop for local staff and partners, that may include: o Orientation and training sessions; o Presentations to help get buy-in from elected officials, senior management, and/or community partners; o Data collection workshops to begin gathering information for certification; and/or o Planning and strategy sessions with the core project team.  A dedicated STAR Communities liaison to provide technical assistance throughout the year;  One year subscription to STAR tools and services, including reporting and certification tools;  Verification of the community’s submission to receive an official STAR certification; and  Recognition as a national sustainability leader.

Application Instructions & Selection Criteria

Please complete the following application with as much information as necessary to demonstrate your community’s interest and commitment to receiving and participating in the QuickSTARt Program. Applications should be submitted via email to [email protected] on or before December 9th, 2016.

STAR Communities will prioritize applications based on the strategic vision and need for community transformation as well as the capacity available to make the transformation a reality. To be eligible for the program, cities must be ready to commence STAR certification on or before January 2017 and able to host the workshop in the first half of 2017. The selection committee may include representatives of the STAR Communities board and staff, STAR Steering Committee, and/or Siemens Corporation.

Section 1: Background Information

Please provide the following background information on the applicant community:  Name and population of jurisdiction  Highest ranking elected official (name and title)  Primary contact for application o Name and title o Email address o Phone number o Mailing address  Population  Median Household Income  Racial/Ethnic Diversity

Section 2: Evaluation Questions

Please answer the following questions in a paragraph or two per question.

1. Explain the community’s vision and need for the QuickSTARt Program capacity support.

2. How can the STAR Community Rating System further specific strategic community goals?

3. What is your community’s experience with or interest in public reporting on sustainability metrics? What is the current state of data and reporting in the community?

4. Assembling a strong team to support your STAR application and provide sustainability data is critical to achieving certification. Who will be on the core project team? What other resources will be committed to support the community’s participation in the program (e.g. local government, nonprofit, private sector)?

5. If Siemens Corporation and STAR Communities were to come to your community, what partners and departments would you bring together?

6. What challenges will a multi-day workshop help to overcome in your community?

7. What would be the ideal timing to hold the QuickSTARt workshop? (Per program requirements, must be within the first half of 2017.)

8. How will you proceed if your community does not receive the QuickSTARt Program capacity support?

9. Please provide any other relevant information towards your application.

Section 3: Signature

[To be completed by the primary contact for the application]

By my electronic signature below, I hereby attest to the best of my knowledge that the information submitted in this application is correct and that my community is committed to participate in the Spring 2017 QuickSTARt Program.

Electronic Signature:

STAR Communities • 777 N. Capitol Street NE, Suite 500 • Washington, DC 20002 www.STARcommunities.org