Pioneer Valley Sustainability Toolkit

Introduction

The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission produced the Pioneer Valley Sustainability Toolkit with several goals in mind:

To assist communities, by providing technical assistance and resources, to help them in adopting strategies to take action on climate change, promote use of clean energy sources, grow smarter, protect their environments, promote food security, and encourage use of green infrastructure.
To promote the implementation of the region’s key plan: Our Next Future: An Action Plan for Building a Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Pioneer Valley;
To encourage sustainability in all aspects of life in the Pioneer Valley region.

The Pioneer Valley Sustainability Toolkit consists of five topic-specific toolkits, which include:

Smart Growth
Environment
Climate Action and Clean Energy
Food Security
Green Infrastructure

How to Use the Toolkit Webpages

We have provided the content for the Pioneer Valley Sustainability Toolkit in several different ways to make it easy for different users to find what they need.

You can click here to view and/or download the full Pioneer Valley Sustainability Toolkit as a pdf. This pdf file includes all five Topic-specific Toolkits (Climate and Energy, Environment, Food Security, Green Infrastructure, Smart Growth) with every fact sheet and model bylaw combined into one large 852 page pdf file. Once you open the pdf, you will find the main table of contents on page 5. You will be able to click the pictures or text to jump (hyperlink) to a Topic-specific Toolkit. Each Topic-specific Toolkit then has its own table of contents. Entries are hyperlinked to individual fact sheets or model bylaws.
Each Topic-specific Toolkit also has its own webpage. Each webpage contains a pdf file of the full Topic-specific Toolkit and an additional webpage from which you can view and/or download individual files for each fact sheet or model bylaw. These downloads are organized by implementation type (Best Management Practices, Financing, Zoning and Regulation, etc). To view/download the webpages for the Topic-specific Toolkits, click on the links below:

Climate Change and Clean Energy
Environment

Food Security

Green
Infrastructure
Smart Growth

The idea behind this organization is that you can browse  through the whole Sustainability Toolkit, browse through a  particular topic (Climate and Energy for example), or jump  directly to a specific fact sheet or model bylaw that interests  you. The individual files will be particularly useful for distribution to boards, advocacy groups, etc.

How to Take Action

Explore the Strategies. Communities are encouraged to explore the wide range of sustainability strategies included in the Toolkit, and select strategies that are appropriate to their needs, their community size and character, and their municipal capabilities.
Study the Fact Sheets. Read the fact sheets carefully to gain a better understanding of each strategy, their goals, and how they work.
Use the Model Bylaw, Ordinances and Policies. The model bylaws, ordinances and policies provided in the toolkit can provide a helpful starting point for developing your own community strategy. But they are intended to be a starting point, and each community must craft its own bylaw or ordinance language that fits the community, and is melded to the existing community Zoning Bylaw/Ordinance or other existing policies.
Ask for More Help, If needed
To complement this toolkit, the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission also offers a number of technical assistance programs, where communities can request help in implementing a strategy from this toolkit, and receive targeted assistance from a professional planner.