November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 27

NRPA has additional resources about
equitable community engagement to
help your efforts. Community partnerships
and collected information
will be invaluable for full inclusion
and equitably prioritizing your efforts.
Metrics/Measurement
Internal sources of data from your
team and other departments within
your municipality often are valuable
for measuring the state of current
efforts or potential projects. For instance,
your maintenance team may
know how many gallons of gas they
spend on maintenance, which can
be important metrics for calculating
carbon emissions. Facilities typically
know the energy sources they
use, the elements within each facility
and possibly, from their energy
bills, the amount of energy used,
which can be a great baseline data
for an energy audit. Program staff
can assess what resources they are
currently using and how the materials,
transportation, timing and other
aspects can support sustainability.
Finally, your administration can
review business operations, policies
and other efforts that align with environmental
sustainability.
Using publicly available datasets
can provide essential location-based
and comparison data. Plenty of
data sources exist to help, from
your Global Information System
(GIS) or other internal city departments
to county-, state- or nationallevel
data resources. Some examples
of data available from these resources
include:
* Historical, current and projected
community
demographics.
This will support more authentic
conversations with the community
that will provide insight into
community needs and priorities.
* Community resilience, including
risk of impact from natural hazards
(e.g., flooding, drought) and
the ability to recover from them
(e.g., financial loss, social vulnerability).
Specific examples of resilience
categories include social
vulnerability, community resilience,
expected annual financial
loss and natural hazards.
* Environmental factors, including
emissions, resource consumption,
and quality and health
of local natural elements (e.g.,
watersheds, land cover). Often,
these factors can be high-risk priorities,
but they also may be areas
of low-effort improvements.
* Economic assessments. These can
indicate inequitable or inefficient
resource allocations through evaluating
maintenance and operating
costs, budget allocations and staff
capacity. Most or all data should be
available internally.
* Social equity, measured by quantifying
the number and quality
of accessible open spaces, health
and wellness programs, civic engagement,
and other educational
opportunities.
To explore some publicly availdatasets,
NRPA's Data and
able
Mapping Resource Library (tinyurl.
com/4fbf8jdc)
is a filterable and
searchable list of vetted data sources
that may help you gather data for
a number of environmental sustainability
topics.
Sustainable Evaluation
The evaluation of systems is a cyclical
process. Part of the sustainability
evaluation plan should include a
timeline that includes regular reassessment,
opportunities for project
modification and addition, and priority
adjustment. If you build sustainability
review and assessment
into your culture, it will be key to
keeping attention on continuous
sustainability improvement.
Upcoming Resources
In 2025, NRPA will release an assessment
tool that will help park
professionals explore what they
may already be doing, have started
or wish to explore regarding their
environmental sustainability practices,
policies and plans. This is
done through an easy checklist focused
on climate, economic development,
energy, land, leadership,
transportation/access, municipal
operations, sustainable communities,
waste and recycling, and water.
This tool can help to guide, organize
and prioritize environmental
sustainability projects and plans.
Additionally in 2025, NRPA will
share another new resource that
will help park professionals after
they assess their work to examine
and determine what possible data
sources and metrics they can include
in their plans and projects.
This
process can help agencies
consider what goals to set for their
efforts using a data lens and help
create an assessment and evaluation
approach that supports environmental
sustainability efforts in
their agencies and communities.
Using these two new resources
together will prove invaluable for
developing a local environmental
sustainability
improvement plan
that includes a solid set of baseline
and regular assessment data to
describe the current state of prioritized
projects.
Dianne K. Palladino, Ph.D., is NRPA's Interim Director
of Research and Evaluation (dpalladino@nrpa.org).
Michele White, CAE, IOM, is NRPA's Senior Program
Manager, Resilience (mwhite@nrpa.org).
PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G | NOVEMBER 2 0 2 4 | Parks & Recreation
27
http://tinyurl.com/4fbf8jdc

November 2024 – Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2024 – Parks & Recreation

November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - Intro
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - Cover1
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - Cover2
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 1
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 2
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 3
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 4
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 5
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 6
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 7
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 8
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 9
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 10
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 11
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 12
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 13
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 14
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 15
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 16
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 17
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 18
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 19
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 20
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 21
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 22
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 23
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 24
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 25
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 26
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 27
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 28
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 29
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 30
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 31
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 32
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 33
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 34
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 35
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 36
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 37
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 38
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 39
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 40
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 41
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 42
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 43
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 44
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 45
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 46
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 47
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 48
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 49
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 50
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 51
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 52
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 53
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 54
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 55
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 56
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - Cover3
November 2024 – Parks & Recreation - Cover4
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2021
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com