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Background and Research • While ICLEI and others are developing more streamlined strategies for developing the inventories, for midsize and smaller cities there may be more effective ways to analyze opportunities than developing a city -specific emissions inventory. While accurate tracking of results is important, impacts of individual best practices can be tracked independently of a comprehensive greenhouse gas inventory. See the Next Steps section for our recommendations for further research and analysis. PROCESS -ORIENTED OR BEST PRACTICE SHARING PROGRAMS Several programs for local governments do not prescribe a specific solution, but rather focus on the process to achieve goals that are set by the local government. The Eco -Municipalities program provides a framework for cities to establish and track progress on self -defined goals. There are 68 municipalities worldwide in the Eco -Municipality Network and 25% of them are located in Sweden. Wisconsin leads the North American Eco -Municipality movement, with 21 eco -municipalities. Municipalities must pledge to commit to the "Natural Step Framework" in a sustainability plan before becoming "Eco - Municipalities." The network (called SEkom) is governed by a board of politicians from nine Swedish eco -municipalities and is administered by a committee of civil servants. Indicators are used by the Eco -Municipality Network (a.k.a. SEkom) to compare eco -municipalities worldwide on environmental performance. A set of indicators for economic or social progress has not yet been established, though developing both is an intention. The Swedish Parliament established 16 Environmental Goals for 2020 in 1999 with articulated interim targets and progress reports. The Minnesota Sustainable Investment Partnership is working in Minnesota to promote land use changes at the local level as a greenhouse gas reduction strategy. They produced ABriefzng Paper and 2008 Legislative Call to Action, which 6 Minnesota GreenStep Cities Program Proposal articulated a strategy to encourage, reward, and support better land use practices statewide, and to create cross -silo leadership within state government to better align existing state and local investments— without increases in spending. Similarly, the Urban Land Institute is working on developing an initiative to encourage best practices within land use development. While the Minnesota chapter of the Institute is actively engaged in this effort, it will have national scope. Finally, launched in 2007, the National Association of Counties (NACo) Green Government Initiative provides comprehensive resources for local governments on all things green, including energy, air quality, transportation, water quality, land use, purchasing, and recycling. According to NACo, they intend through the program to: increase education and outreach on all things green, help educate counties and help them educate the public, promote environmentally preferable purchasing, facilitate an open dialogue with the private sector, and reverse misinformed opinions that green techniques are too costly or of lesser quality. PRESCRIPTIVE ACTION - ORIENTED PROGRAMS The Florida Green Building Coalition has created what appears to be the nation's most complete existing prescriptive program for local governments in Florida called the Florida Green Local Government Standard. This standard presents a comprehensive list of criteria, organized in terms of local government department functions. It focuses on improving environmental performance through a number of mediums (energy, water, air, land, waste), and evaluates environmental practices within city operations, incentives and ordinances to foster green practices, and educational activities to improve the environment. ICLEI is currently developing a national program as part of a broad partnership called the STAR Community Index. The STAR program will