Media Release

2:35 p.m. ALACHUA COUNTY FL - Chris Bird, Alachua County Environmental Protection Director, was recently appointed to a national working group charged with developing a framework for rating the livability and sustainability of U.S. communities. The STAR Community Index is being developed through a partnership between the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI)-Local Governments for Sustainability (www.icleiusa.org), the U.S. Green Building Council (www.usgbc.org), and the Center for American Progress (www.americanprogress.org).
This week (February 1-3, 2009), Mr. Bird will be participating in an inaugural STAR work group meeting at the Johnson Foundation Center in Racine, Wisconsin with ICLEI paying his travel expenses. "I am honored by this appointment and look forward to working with sustainability experts and local officials from around the country on this worthy initiative." Bird said, "In recent years, there has been a great deal of hype about "sustainable" or "green" communities, without a consistent set of measurable standards to back up all of the talk." The STAR Community Index is the first national effort to develop metrics to rate the sustainability of entire communities, and is being modeled after the successful Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building standards previously developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.