Sustainable Lincoln Plan

The Sustainable Lincoln Plan (SLP) will be a set of recommendations on how we can best address the use of our resources as we seek to fulfill the promise to make Lincoln a sustainable city, meeting the needs of residents today without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs, while at the same time preserving our high quality of life and widespread economic opportunity.

The SLP will be a tool for community leaders and local policy makers to use as a guide as issues, priorities, and budgets are determined.

Each year the Mayor's Environmental Task Force will take a leadership role to assess, evaluate, and improve the SLP as necessary.

7 Priority Indicator Areas

The following priority sustainability indicator areas were developed by a subcommittee of the Mayor's Environmental Task Force, Cleaner Greener Lincoln staff, and staff from across City departments and divisions. Each of the priority indicator areas has one or more indicator sub-areas. Each of these indicator sub-areas have one or more numerical "targets" for the City and community, using LPlan 2040's vision and directions as the guidepost in each area.

1. Air
   • Air Quality (Draft)
2. Water
   • Water Conservation (Draft)
   • Water Quality (Draft)
   • Storm Water (Draft)
   • Water Reclamation (Draft)
3. Land
   • Land Use (Draft)
   • Tree Canopy (Draft)
   • Urban Gardens (Draft)
   • Soil Conservation & Erosion Prevention (Draft)
   • Flood Plains & Wetlands (Draft)
4. Waste
   • Solid Waste Management (Draft)
   • Recycling (Draft)
   • Hazardous Waste (Draft)
5. Energy
   • Energy Efficiency in Buildings
   • Renewable Energy
   • Green House Gas Emissions
6. Transportation
   • Transportation Energy Efficiency
   • Public Transit
   • Walkability
   • Bikeability
7. Community
   • Economic Development
   • Accountability & Participation
   • Education
   • Design Standards
   • Living Standards

Examples of similar projects include:

• Minneapolis Green Print
• Denver Green Print

Reference Materials

• Lincoln One of Cleanest Metros in Nation for Ozone, Media Release, May 4, 2012
• Water - Graph - Lincoln Water Use Trends
• Air - Historical Air Quality Index Data - Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department

Internal Department Team

Staff from various City departments meet regularly to discuss the planning priority areas and subareas, as well as realistic goals for the areas.

This team:

• gathers existing City plans and data relevant to the priority plan areas and indicators;
• helps define the short, mid, and long-term goals or targets for individual indicators;
• evaluates what has already been accomplished and answers the question for each indicator area: where is Lincoln at with this indicator now?