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Evidence Matters Features Sustainability: Policy, Research, and Practice

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October 4, 2011 

Evidence Matters Features Sustainability: Policy, Research, and Practice

A picture of repairing/upgrading a unit’s HVAC system. The latest issue of Evidence Matters: Transforming Knowledge into Housing and Community Development Policy (Summer 2011), organized around the theme of sustainability, is now available. PD&R Assistant Secretary Bostic provides context for this issue, which examines energy efficiency in multifamily housing, the definitions and measuring of sustainability, and the techniques employed by regional planning organizations in the Salt Lake City and Sacramento area, both of which have built strong and broad support for their sustainability initiatives.

 

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Key Findings

  • Multifamily housing has high potential for energy savings through retrofits, but the lack of data on best practices and historical cost savings has weakened investment.


  • Current efforts by the federal government and its partners are attempting to increase data collection and standardization, but communicating information about efficiency-boosting activities to lenders continues to be a barrier.


  • Measuring sustainability is difficult because there is no universal definition and it encompasses many aspects of our society, economy, and governing institutions in addition to our interaction with the natural environment.


  • Indicators can help measure key facets of sustainability to allow organizations to make decisions about how best to become more sustainable.


  • The United States does not have a history of success in regional coordination, but one approach that has worked focuses on connecting hard data on the direction the region is headed with residents’ aspirations for their communities.


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