In collaboration with Siemens, STAR Communities is inviting applications from cities interested in accelerating their STAR certification efforts in 2017 through the QuickSTARt Program. This initiative is supported by the Siemens Cities Center of Competence (CoC), which is dedicated to working with cities to undertake key challenges as cities strive for economic growth and long-term sustainability.
Siemens Cities CoC has supported STAR Communities since its inception in 2012. Alison Taylor, vice president of Sustainability, Americas for Siemens, is involved in helping the company meet its carbon neutrality goals and currently sits on STAR’s Board. In addition to helping cities directly to develop technology plans for sustainable growth, Siemens works through organizations, such as STAR Communities, to amplify knowledge exchange on data-driven planning for economic, environmental, and social sustainability.
STAR certification provides a clear, data-driven approach to assessing local sustainability efforts. It allows local leaders to credibly and transparently measure sustainability performance against the national standards and best practices in the STAR Community Rating System (STAR), the nation’s leading framework and certification program for evaluating the sustainability of U.S. communities. STAR provides a roadmap to evaluate and track progress on economic, environmental, and social conditions in your community; the STAR certification process helps to identify gaps and prioritize investment. It can also serve as a catalyst for local action, transforming the way that communities come together to address sustainability.
Siemens is working with STAR Communities to support the QuickSTARt Program. The program recognizes that cities that have leadership buy-in, get organized upfront, and build a diverse team have great potential to realize transformation and catalyze action through the STAR certification process. The program is designed to accelerate the process of getting organized and achieving certification so that the community can quickly move through the assessment phase into implementation efforts.
The QuickSTARt Program provides communities with benefits consistent with the STAR Community Leadership Program, which is a one-year all-inclusive package that provides STAR’s highest level of training and technical assistance to a cohort of city and county governments as they complete their first baseline community sustainability assessment by pursuing certification under the STAR Community Rating System. Instead of working through the certification program as part of a cohort, communities in the QuickSTARt Program receive an upfront, multi-day workshop in the community to build buy-in and support for sustainability efforts, clarify and resolve numerous technical and data issues, and provide a clear pathway to achieving STAR certification.
In addition to sponsoring one city’s certification efforts through participation in QuickSTARt, Siemens will be lending its technical expertise to STAR and the selected city during the QuickSTARt Program. Siemens Cities CoC works in more than 70 cities worldwide to help them understand which intelligent technologies can not only improve their systems, but make them more intuitive, safer, cleaner, and more efficient. During the multi-day QuickSTARt workshop, Siemens employees will bring that experience to bear, supporting the city and STAR in understanding how new, intelligent technology and software across energy, buildings, transportation, and industry can ensure economic success and longevity.
