What's New at CEDP

Sustainability: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and Gender Sensitivity

Sustainability: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and Gender Sensitivity The importance of sustainable design and equality in spatial planning is a growing concern in the United States. Much of this is due to the increasing population as well as the focus on protecting our natural resources and reducing the impact of development on our planet. Sustainability is defined as "the ability to achieve continuing economic prosperity while protecting the natural systems of the planet and providing a high quality of life for its people" (http://www.epa.gov). According to James P. Cramer, chairmen and principal at The Greenway Group Inc., "many [professionals] have been talking about sustainability for over 4 decades" (http://www.buildings.com). Because sustainability is becoming a hot issue, planners, developers, government officials and citizens are expanding their knowledge on the topic and developing ways to protect our natural systems.

By Elise Fields,
February 19, 2007
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Economic Development in a Global Knowledge Economy: A Guide for Local Practice

The Guide for Local Practice is the latest in a series of practice tools prepared in response to this challenge by the multidisciplinary Knowledge Economy Research Team of Michigan State University's Center for Community and Economic Development. These tools are intended to inform - and to help transform - local economic development planning and practice among communities. This Guide contains information that we hope will stimulate new ideas and help to reshape local processes, priorities and initiatives into new and more effective forms. The Guide builds upon prior work of the knowledge economy team examining implications of the knowledge economy for local planning and economic development practice in distressed communities.

Principal Author: Faron Supanich-Goldner, Contributors:Rex L. LaMore, John Melcher, Kenneth E. Corey, Mark Wilson, Diane Doberneck, Steffen Hampe

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