Planning for low-carbon communities in US cities: a participatory process model between academic institutions, local governments and communities in Colorado

Figures & data

Figure 1.  ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability-USA five milestone process.

Adapted with permission from ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability [102].

Figure 2.  Valuing people, prosperity and the planet in the sustainability context by the task force and the community at large.

(A) Importance of various sustainability features focused on people, prosperity and planet, queried using practical examples; (B) Conceptual allocation of 30 total points between people, prosperity and planet.

Figure 3.  Benchmark energy/material use in buildings, transport and materials sectors for Broomfield and Denver.

Data quality is color coded as green (good local scale measured data), yellow (estimated local numbers) and red (state or national averages).

BTU: British thermal units; CDPHE: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Figure 4.  City of Broomfield task force decision-making criteria for climate action plans.

Respondents were asked to rate whether they considered a selection of sustainability programs important on a seven-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

Figure 5.  Illustration of sustainability wedges towards carbon reduction in communities.

Demonstrating the range of actions that can be taken in various infrastructure sectors (hypothetical example presented here for illustration only).

Figure 6.  Survey responses on policy opinions in Broomfield task force before and after analytic deliberation.

Table 1.  Demographic data showing that sustainability task force in Broomfield was older, more affluent and had lived longer compared with the community at large.

	Broomfield population (%) (n=91)	Task force (%) (n=30)	Community at large (%) (n=91)
Demographics
Males	50	53	45
Females	50	47	55
Bachelor degree or higher	42	74	72
Lived in Broomfield > 6 yrs	N/A	80	57
Household income
<US$49,999	33	12	20
$50,000-$99,999	36	31	38
$100,000-$149,999	18	27	29
>$150,000	13	30	13
Age
<34 years	22	14	18
35–54 years	33	41	60
>55 years	16	45	22
Race or ethnicity^†
White or Caucasian	89	97	93
Latino or Hispanic	6	3	1
Asian or Pacific Islander	6	0	4
American Indian, Inuit or Aleut	1	0	2
Black or African–American	<1	0	2

^†Total may not add up to 100% if respondents identified themselves as more than one race.

ICLEI. Local Governments for Sustainability. The Five Milestone Process (2008). www.iclei.org/index.php?id=810 (Accessed March 2011).

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