HomeMy WebLinkAboutExhibitUSLW Tracking Number: GR21 EE Challenge
Amount; $75,000
Timeframe: 12 months from sign date
directors net wcrK
A Project of Global Philanthropy Partnership
March 13, 2014
Glen Hadwen, MS, CIH, LEED AP
Environmental Programs Manager
Office of Sustainable Initiatives
City of Miami
151 NW 27th Ave
Miam , _FL 33125
(305)960-5191
Dear Glen:
Global Philanthropy Partnership is pleased to proceed with a USDN innovation
Opportunity Fund grant for $75,000 to enable USDN core members Asheville, NC;
Boston, MA; Fairfax, VA; Knoxville, TN; Miami, FL;. and Nashville, TN, with USDN
associate members City of Durham and Durham County, NC; Orange County, FL; and
Sarasota County, FL to create an online template that allows USDN members to
efficiently launch turnkey neighborhood and workplace sustainability challenges.
This project will streamline the process of developing a sustainability challenge
program by modifying the web -based platform of Nashville's Mayor's Neighborhood
and Workplace Challenge program to make it accessible to any USDN. member.
Nashville's successful sveb-based Challenge platform markets the program, provides a
user-friendly interface for participant input, alloys administrators to track and score
participants, and recognizes progress. This project will revise the source -code and
program content, which will be donated by Nashville, to develop an open source
version that can be easily customized and utilized by any local government.
To meet the grant objectives, Miami, FL as the lead city, guided by the project's USDN
oversight committee, will create a web -based platform and related marketing materials
for workplace and neighborhood sustainability challenges that can be easily accessed
by USDN members.
Key deliverables of the project include:
G Web -based application with homepages ("front end") customizable for each •
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USDN Tracking Number: GR21 EEChallenge
Amount: $75,000
Timeframe; 12 months from sign date
participating community and "back end" to track and score participants, with
content customizable for each municipality
• Implementation manual which will include information on the following:
o General tactics for program design
o Day to day implementation, including road maps and sample work plans
o Marketing and sponsorship development
o Program and website administration
o Resources for activity content, sponsorship packages, recognition
awards and impact metric calculators
o Report summarizing results and lessons learned after one year
Key tasks of the project include:
• _ Contract with software developer and consultant for implernentationmanual
Complete software development
Complete implementation. manual
6 Install web sites on third party host or municipal servers, as chosen by each
municipality
Train. participants. on website and programs
6 Each participating municipality will launch, at least ore of the two challenges
The City of Mia ;i, FL, as lead grantee, has agreed to meet five reporting
requirements:
• if asked, present a progress report at the next USDN annual meeting and/or on a
monthly USDN. Idea Sharing Call.
a At the end of the grant period (but no longer than one year from the date of
signing of the grant letter) submit the deliverables above and a final report that
describes outcomes, impact on all team members, other impacts, follow on work
planned, funds leveraged, an.d lessons learned (See Attachment I for Grant Final
Report Form).
At the end of the grant period (one year from signing of grant letter), submit a
detailed record of expenditures of grant funds including a comparison. of budget
to actual expenditures.
• Organize the grant team to participate in an annual debriefing call with
Innovation Fund Managers to understand what has worked, what can be
improved, and what insights the project can tell us about opportunities for Larger
scale systems change leverage points.
• In addition, when USDN conducts an assessment of the Innovation Fund, •
grantees will debrief with the assessment team.
Additional grant terms:
USDN Tracking Number: GR21 EEChalfenge
Amount:.$75,000
Timeframe: 12 months from sign date
• The grant funds cannot be used for lobbying.
• The grant funds must be expended per the proposed budget.
The project must be a collaboration with the cities described in the first
paragraph.
The grant products described above will be delivered by twelve months of the
signing of the grant agreement.
• The City of Miami, FL will provide project management and coordination..
• Glen Hadwen will be the primary contact.
Please sign this letter indicating that you agree with the terms. Once the Global
Philanthropy Partnership receives your signed letter with description of how the check
should be issued, we will disburse the grant funds to the City of Miami, FL.
-Sincerely, -
K. Donnellan
Executive Director, Global Philanthropy Partnership
CC: Nils Moe, USDN Managing Director
USDN Tracking Number; GR21 EE Challenge
Amount: $75,000
Timefrarne: 12 months from sign date
Acceptance of Grant Terms
The City of Miami, FL accepts the grant conditions of this letter.
Name:
Title:
Signature:
Instructions for Check Issuance:
Tax ID Number:
Project Lead:
Glen Hadwen, MS, CIH, LEED AP
Environmental Programs Manager
Office of Sustainable Initiatives
City of Miarni
151 NW 27th Ave
Miami, FL 33125
(305)960-5191
Project Manager Contact Information (if different from Project Lead):
Acceptance of Grant Teens
Urban Sustainability Director's Network / Global Philanthropy Partnership
USDN Tracking Number: GR21 EE Challenge
CITY OF MYIIAMI
Approved as to insurance requirements
Daniel J. Alfonso Ann -Marie Sharpe
City Manager Interim Director of Risk Management
Approved as to legal form and correctness Attest:
Victoria iviendez
City Attorney
Todd B. Harmon
City Clerk
USDN Tracking Number: GR21 EEChallenge
Amount•i75,000
Timeframe: 12 months from sign date
Attachment I
USDN Innovation Fund Final Grant Reporting Form
1. Outcomes: Did the project achieve itsintended results? Why or why not?
2_ Impact on Grant Leader: What has changed in your city or. your work in some way as a
result Of the grant?
3. Impact on Other Grant Team Members: What has changed in the cities or
organizations of other grant participants in some way as a result of the grant?
4. Follow on Work: What additional work is happening as a follow on to the grant and
who is doing this work?
5. Funds Leveraged: Have additional funds been raised for this work? (Our funders want
to know if the grant leveraged any other funds.)
6. Other: What other grant impacts are you aware of on USDN members, partner
organizations, or anyone else?
7. Lessons Learned: What are 2-3 key lessons learned frorn this project for how to
advance practice on the grant topic or how to improve the Innovation Fund?
Please also submit with your report:
A detailed record of expenditures of grant funds
• All products of the grant (final reports, guide books, PPTs, description of
programs or policies launched, etc.)
Please return this form to Nils Moe at nilsmoe@usdn.org, and copy Mia Arter at
miaarter@usdn.org
ATTACHMENT 2
Municipal Workplace and Neighborhood Challenge Project Proposal
Municipal Workplace and Neighborhood Challenge
1. Summary of the Protect
This project will create a sophisticated online template that allows USDN members to efficiently launch
turnkey neighborhood and workplace sustainability challenges. Community sustainability challenges and
similar recognition programs are innovative and effective engagement tools, but the time and resources
required to develop such challenges can slow or prevent many municipalities from launching these
programs. This project will streamline the. process of developing a sustainability challenge program by
modifying the web -based platform of Nashville's Mayor's Neighborhood and Workplace Challenge
program to make it accessible to any USDN member. Nashville's successful web -based Challenge
platform markets the program, provides a user-friendly interface for participant input, allows
administrators to track and score participants, and recognizes progress. This project will revise the source -
code and program content, which will be donated by Nashville, to develop an open source version that
can be easily customized and utilized by any local government, By creating this web -based, customizable
template platform, this project will help municipalities more easily and efficiently engage communities
through workplace and neighborhood challenge programs.
2. Participating. Cities
Core Members: Asheville, North Carolina; Boston, Massachusetts; Fairfax, Virginia; Knoxville,
Tennessee; Miami, Florida; Nashville, Tennessee
Associate Members: City of Durham and Durham County, North Carolina; Orange County, Florida;
Sarasota County, Florida.
3. Grant Amount Requested
$75,000
4. Purpose and Applicable Goal Area(s) of Interest
Over the last five years, many cities in the USDN have developed and implemented neighborhood and
workplaces challenges or other recognition programs to engage communities in sustainability efforts
(Chicago, Baltimore, Nashville, Kansas City, and Austin, to name a few), Typically, cities develop these
programs independently, often investing significant time and resources into developing scoring criteria
and platforms for participant input and administrative tracking/scoring. The cost of designing a
sophisticated program with a user-friendly interface can be prohibitive for smaller municipal
sustainability programs (Nashville spent over $60,000 to professionally design their web -based tool).
Despite widespread interest and enthusiasm for these engagement programs, the costs and resources
associatedwith designing and. launching these types of programs cat be prohibitive for many
municipalities.
Opportunity exists to more effectively spread this innovative practice by eliminating duplication of efforts
and reducing the burden of developing a challenge program from scratch. This project proposes to create
a web -based template for Neighborhood and Workplace Challenge programs that would include: pre-
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Municipal Workplace and Neighborhood Challenge
populafEd (but custonuzable) sconxng criteria, frilly -designed website with customizable branding options,
back -end administrative functions, and a front -facing user -interface with instructions and participant input
functions. Hence, this project will leverage the donation of the source. code and program content for the
Nashville's "Mayor's Neighborhood and Workplace Challenges" online platform and modify it to be
accessible and customizable by any USDN member. By creating this accessible and adaptable template,
this project will allow USDN members to more efficiently launch challenges to advance sustainability in
neighborhoods and workplaces.
This project addresses several Innovation Fund Goal Areas of Interest. First, it will promote deeper
greenhouse gas reductions among residential and commercial sectors by encouraging participants to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Challenge programs can engage new participants in sustainability
efforts and help track and quantify progress towards sustainability and emission reduction goals through
self -reported energy savings.
Second, the project will offer a platform to embed social justice and equity principles more strongly into
the sustainability challenge framework. The web -based and mobile -optimized website enables
engagement with communities that may not be able to participate "in person" in sustainability activities or
that do not have traditional internet access. Section 14 discusses the social equity aspects of this project in
more detail.
Although not an identified Goal Area, this project will also provide a pathway towards increased
standardization of best -practices for sustainability challenges or similar recognition programs. By
providing a common framework for designing challenges, it will allow for possible comparison (or even
friendly competition!) between cities, and place local challenges within a larger, national context. As new
innovations are made, the common framework will allow for more rapid spread of new best practices to
participating communities.
5.. Proposed Product
This project will create a web -based platform and related marketing materials for workplace and
neighborhood sustainability challenges that can be easily accessed by USDN members.
Key deliverables of the project include:
• Web -based application with homepages ("front end") customizable for each participating
community and "back end" to track and score participants, with content customizable for each
municipality
• Implementation manual which will include information on the following:
a. General tactics for program design
b. Day to day implementation, including road maps and sample work plans
c. Marketing and sponsorship development
d. Program and website administration
e. Resources for activity content, sponsorship packages, recognition awards and impact
metric calculators.
• Report summarizing results and lessons learned after one year
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Municipal Workplace and Neighborhood Challenge
6. Research Conducted to Determine Potential Value and Feasibility of the Proposed Project
The proposal team researched the success factors of Nashville's Mayor's Workplace and Neighborhood
Challenges and reviewed Nashville's Challenge websites to evaluate opportunities for customization and
transferability. Nashville's Director of Sustainability also summarized the program for participants in a
Southeast Sustainability Directors Network (SSDN) webinar on October 17, 2013. Since Nashville's
Mayor's Workplace Challenge launched in March 2012, 220 businesses with 120,000 employees took the
challenge. Following up on the success of the Workplace Challenge, Nashville launched its
Neighborhood Challenge in June 2013; 75 neighborhoods have signed up through mid -October 2013.
Discussions at the 2013 USDN Annual Meeting and subsequent conference calls allowed the team to
identify common challenges the participant cities face in launching Challenge programs. These
discussions allowed the team to determine which Innovation Fund products would be most beneficial,
namely the development of the Challenge website, implementation manual, and related marketing
materials,
The team also drew upon past experiences with website development and customization to determine the
proposed scope of work and expected budget necessary to -develop the proposed product..
7. Key Tasks Involved
• Contract with software developer and consultant for implementation manual
• Complete software development
Complete implementation manual
Install web sites on third party host or municipal servers, as chosen by each municipality
• Train participants on website and programs
• Each participating municipality will launch at least one of the two challenges
8. Project Management:
The City of Miami will take responsibility for the success of this project. The Core and Associate
members of the Proposing Team will assist with project oversight. The City of Miami is prepared to
receive, disburse, and monitor funds on behalf of the team. Project decisions will be made jointly by core
and associate members, with team members providing active input to the development of project
deliverables. Team members will hold a monthly call to discuss project progress and snake project
decisions. Contractors will be. selected as per City of Miami procurement code, Proposal costs are based
on estimates provided by potential contractors.
9. Progress Measurement: How the team will track progress and evaluate success
At the end of the 12-month project timeline, success will be measured by the completion of all
deliverables included in this proposal. Long-term success will be measured by the utilization of project
deliverables by USDN members to adopt and launch local neighborhood and workplace challenges, and
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Municipal Workplace and Neighborhood Challenge
by the ability of these challenges to attract participants and motivate actions to improve community
sustainability.
10. Project Budget
PROJECT BUDGET
COST SHARE
Nashville's Challenge website source code and program content
Valued at: $60,000
Subtotal
$60,000
REQUESTED FUNDS
Website development
As per contractor estimate
$43,400
Implementation plan development
As per contractor estimate
$25,000
Marketing and promotional costs
of the challenges, such as cost of
flyers, awards, event, etc, *
$600 per municipality
$5,400
Web hosting
$600 /yr. x 2 years
S1,200
Subtotal (Requested funds)
$ 75,000
Project Total (Requested & Cost share)
$135,000
* In the event of any cost overruns
this category may be reduced. These
those two tasks.
in the website or implementation manual,
funds will be distributed to each municipality
the amount distributed in
after completion of
11. Timeline
This project is "implementation ready," and can be completed within 12 months of disbursement of funds.
Item
Duration
Time from receipt of
grant
1. Contract Execution: Award accepted by
Miami City Commission; Awarding of
purchase orders to contractors-
3 months.
3 months
2. Website development & implementation
plan development
3 months
6 months
3. Review of website and. content
1 month
7 months
4. Launch of at least one challenge in each
participating municipality.
4 months
11 months
5. Report completed
1 month
12 months
12. Commitment of Participating USDN Members to Use Project Outcomes/Products
The following municipalities have committed to implementing at least .one of the Workplace or
Neighborhood Challenges if developed as described by this proposal: Asheville, North Carolina; Boston,
MA; City of Durham and Durham County, North Carolina; Fairfax, Virginia; Knoxville, Tennessee;
Miami, Florida; Nashville, Tennessee; Orange County, Florida; and Sarasota County, Florida.
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Municipal Workplace and Neighborhood Challenge
13. Potential to Benefit Many USDN Members
This project will create a turnkey platform that could be readily implemented by multiple participating
municipalities, large and small, and potentially be used by all USDN members. Furthermore, the project
is designed to use a single third party server to host all the web sites to minimize the biu-den on
participants. However, if desired, municipalities could host the website on their own server. In addition,
the implementation manual will offer plans and materials that each municipality can customize to their
own program. By offering USDN members a sophisticated web -based platform for sustainability
challenges, the project will help members more quickly and easily Iaunch community engagement
programs. The benefit will be particularly applicable to smaller cities that may not have as many
resources available to design web -based challenge programs independently.
14. Social Equity Aspects.
Neighborhood and Workplace Challenges offer a way to engage communities in sustainability efforts.
They can be tailored towards specific under -represented populations, or launched city-wide to engage all
citizens, This project will help embed social justice and equity principles more strongly into the
sustainability challenge framework through two primary functions. First, the product of this project is a
mobile optimized, web -based platform for Sustainability Challenges that will be .accessible to those who
don't have traditional internet access and those who can't participate in in -person programs. This platform
will help increase increasing access to sustainability resources and allowing more people to more fully
participate in sustainability programs. Second, this project intends to preserve the three pillars of
Nashville's sustainability challenge in order to incorporate social inclusion principles alongside
traditional `'green" actions, By challenging participants to be "Involved", "Healthy," and "Green", this
project will promote concepts such as volunteerism, creating a culture of service and participation, and
environmental awareness. By incorporating social equity concepts and best practices into the pre -
populated scoring criteria of the challenge platform, this project will spread the best practices of
addressing social equity as a core component of sustainability.
15. Plan for Sustaining the Project
To make the project optimally turnkey, the challenge website will be hosted on a third party server. A
small portion of the budget being requested will cover expenses to keep the site operating for the first 2
years of operations. Cities will also have the option of installing the challenge software on their own
servers. In addition, participating cities will seek funding for the ongoing maintenance of the project. _
16. Contact Information
Glen Hadwen
Environmental Programs Manager
City of Miami
305-960-5191
ghadwen@miamigov.com
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