Frequently Asked Questions about ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability

What is ICLEI?
ICLEI- Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) is a membership association of local governments committed to advancing climate protection and sustainable development.  Since its inception in 1990, ICLEI has grown to include nearly 1,000 cities in the world, more than 350 of which are in the United States.  

At ICLEI USA our mission is to build, serve, and drive a movement of local governments to advance deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and achieve tangible improvements in local sustainability.

What does ICLEI stand for?
Formerly the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, the organization is now officially ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability.

Is ICLEI just in the United States?

ICLEI USA is part of an international organization with staff and members around the world. Learn more about the incredible work of our global colleagues at www.iclei.org.

Who can join ICLEI?
Any local government entity can be a full members of ICLEI, including cities, towns, counties, parishes, planning regions, native communities and special service entities (bodies governed and created by local governments to provide specific limited services such as water, transportation or power delivery). Learn more about ICLEI membership and how anyone can get involved.

How do you join ICLEI?
Step 1: Complete a membership application designating primary elected official, staff official, and media liaison to be the primary points of contact with ICLEI on a variety of issues, resources and opportunities.

Step 2: Pay first installment of annual dues upon receipt of an invoice from ICLEI, along with your application or online.

Step 3: Adopt a resolution to participate in ICLEI within the first six months of membership in order to affirm your community’s commitment to climate protection work. Each member is encouraged to modify the resolution to match local circumstances and priorities.

Step 4: Get started with your climate protection work by involving stakeholders, publicizing your membership, and starting work on Milestone 1 – the inventory of energy use and emissions.

How much does ICLEI membership cost?
ICLEI membership dues are based on jurisdiction’s population size. See our Dues Structure.

Can ICLEI come and talk to my Mayor/Town Manager/County Executive/Other Elected Official or Local Government Body?
ICLEI is happy to meet with local officials when such visits coincide with other work in the area. ICLEI can also participate in online meetings and telephone conversations.

Who is my ICLEI contact?
Each region of the country is assigned a staff liaison at ICLEI. Find out who serves your region. 

How many cities, town and counties are ICLEI members?
As of February 2008, about 375 cities, towns and counties in the United States are ICLEI members. There are approximately 800 members worldwide.

How much staff time does being an ICLEI member require?
An ICLEI Staff Liaison from the energy, planning, public works or other department integrates their climate protection and sustainability work with ongoing department activity. The time requirement varies depending on the size and complexity of the local government, the pace at which the community chooses to address the milestones, and the involvement of community members.

Where do small communities who don't have the luxury of a "sustainability coordinator" start?
Small cities can start by creating a volunteer Sustainable Development Commission to bring together elected leaders, city staff, local business and community leaders and citizens to create a vision for what this broad term means in your community. In other cities these "visioning" or "stakeholder" processes have focused on promoting and developing sustainable business, environment and social justice programs (or combinations of all three).  In many cities, city staff also forms an internal  "green" team to bring together department heads from Administrative, Public Works, Environment, Facilities, Budget, Economic Development, Planning, Social Services, Parks, etc. to share ideas about how to improve internal operations to make them more consistent with environmentally sound practices.

What is the difference between the Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement and ICLEI?
While there are a number of points of connection between the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement (MCPA) and ICLEI - we are distinct organizations and entities.   ICLEI is a membership association of local governments advancing greenhouse gas reductions and sustainability. ICLEI provides the framework and technical assistance for local governments to create comprehensive climate protection policies. The MCPA is a program of the US Conference of Mayors. By signing the MCPA, a mayor sets a target for his/her city’s climate protection efforts. ICLEI works closely with the Conference of Mayors to help cities who have signed the agreement work towards meeting the goals of the Agreement. Learn more about the Mayors Agreement. 

What is the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign?
ICLEI’s work on climate mitigation – reducing greenhouse gas emissions – is often couched under the umbrella of our Cities for Climate Protection ® campaign. This is ICLEI’s flagship program designed to educate and empower local governments worldwide to take action on climate change. It is a performance-based campaign that offers a framework for local governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve livability within their municipalities.

What is the Five Milestone Process?
As part of our climate mitigation work is the Five Milestone to assist US local governments in developing and implementing harmonized local approaches for reducing global warming and air pollution emissions, with the additional benefit of improving community livability.

The Five Milestones are:

1. Conduct a baseline emissions inventory and forecast
2. Adopt an emissions reduction target
3. Develop a Local Climate Action Plan
4. Implement policies and measure
5. Monitor and verify results

The Clean Air Climate Protection (CACP) software is an important tool to that helps local governments create greenhouse gas inventories, quantify the benefits of reduction measures and formulate local climate action plans. There are more than 1000 registered users of CACP including government staff in cities, counties, townships, regional planning districts, air quality authorities, universities, consulting firms, numerous state government agencies and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

CACP translates information on energy used and waste generated and other activities into the quantities of greenhouse gases. The layout of the software provides a clear template to consider the various sectors of the both government operations and the larger community. This framework has been used by hundreds of local governments and allows users to make meaningful comparisons to peer communities.

Additional modules in the software allow users to translate enacted or potential changes in energy use or waste generation into quantified reduction measures with defined benefits. CACP provides users with a standardized methodology to report the impact that their actions are having. Local governments can add up the benefits of these individual measures to populate a local action plan that will achieve their climate protection goals.

ICLEI provides forms for collecting data and software for conducting the emissions inventory. The software is called Clean Air Climate Protection (CACP). The software computes emissions numbers as well as co-benefits related to cost savings and criteria air pollution prevention. ICLEI provides regular online trainings on how to use CACP and provides on-call technical support on the use of the software to ICLEI members and members of our partner organizations. The resulting inventory is a valuable resource for planning new activities and serves as a baseline for measuring progress.

CACP Software is available for free to ICLEI member governments as well as members of our partner organizations (the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, the National Association of State Energy Officials and the national Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners). ICLEI may provide CACP to other parties as well. To get more details or to register to download the software visit www.cacpsoftware.org.

The most important things to consider in establishing reduction targets are that the target should be measurable and there should be accountability in the near term. Many governments establish long term goals; ICLEI encourages taking a long view, but it is important that these goals be given a sense of urgency by creating benchmarks or interim targets along the way. For example a target set for the year 2025 could include a percentage of the target to be achieved each year between now and then, or could have interim targets set at 5 year intervals.

Targets should be defined as a reduction from a base year by a given year; for example 20% below 2000 levels by 2020. Different targets can be set for municipal operations and for the community as a whole.

In establishing the magnitude of reduction target and the timeline, ICLEI encourages our members to set targets that are both achievable and ambitious. Local governments should consider:

• Expected changes over the target period such as population growth and changes in energy consumption per capita;
• Goals established by other levels of government (most commonly state governments);
• Goals established by peer communities;
• The GHG reduction measures that have already been implemented locally;
• The range and expense of possible or proposed new GHG reduction measures;
• The reductions that science tells us are necessary to prevent the most catastrophic effects of climate change.

How do local governments develop climate action plans?
Cities, towns and counties use ICLEI resources to work through the milestone process, including guidebooks, case studies and sample action plans from other local governments in the ICLEI network. CACP software can help to quantify the expected benefits of specific measures so that governments can develop a plan that can be expected to achieve a particular target.


How long does it usually take a municipality to complete an emissions inventory?
Completing and inventory depends upon a number of factors including the scope of the project (government operations, community or both), the size and complexity of the government, the quality and accessibility of the existing records and the level detail in the data being gathered.  A good point to start the estimation is that many emissions inventory have been completed by an intern working full time for approximately 10 weeks, or 300-500 hours of entry level staff time.

What is the Climate Resilient Communities Campaign?
In 2005-2007, ICLEI operated a Climate Resilient Communities program to help local governments throughout the U.S. improve their resiliency in the face of increasing climate disruptions and catastrophes that stem from global warming. The pilot program was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and including the following communities: Ft. Collins, Colorado; Homer, Alaska; Keene, New Hampshire; and Miami-Dade County, Florida. ICLEI still provides climate adaptation support to these communities as they continue to be national leaders on climate adaptation.

What is ICLEI’s relationship with the Sierra Club and Cool Cities/Cool Counties?
ICLEI and the Sierra Club have partnered to assist local governments in reducing greenhouse gas pollution. The Sierra Club urges local governments to join ICLEI to obtain the necessary technical support. In a number of cases Sierra Club volunteers have developed emissions inventories and local climate action plans on behalf of or in collaboration with their local government. In other cases Sierra Club members have served in an advisory capacity either formally on a board or commission or informally as knowledgeable and active community members. Learn more about Cool Cities or Cool Counties.

What is the Star Communities Index?
The STAR Community Index is a new tool designed to help local governments plan, track and measure their sustainability programs. Inspired by the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED ® Green Building Rating System ™. The STAR program will create a process, as LEED has done, to bring in leaders in the field toward the goal of establishing shared measures and processes for greening communities. STAR will include tiered levels with classification based on actions achieved consistent with a given level.

Is ICLEI developing a new, on-line emissions analysis tool?
ICLEI USA, partnership with the Clinton Foundation and Microsoft, is developing an internet-based software tool for local governments to accurately calculate their greenhouse gas emissions, track progress and support global comparative analysis between local government users. The new software builds upon and will be compatible with ICLEI’s earlier software including the widely used Clean Air Climate Protection (CACP) software and the multinational Harmonized Emissions Analysis Tool (HEAT).