By Bill Raack, St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis, MO – A citizen-based task force in St. Louis has released a so-called "action plan" for communities to follow to improve their environmental sustainability.
The plan was coordinated by the non-profit leadership development group Focus St. Louis. Executive director Christine Chadwick says a city's environment can indicate how healthy the community is. But she admits there is a cost to becoming more "green".
"Because of that the task force spent quite a bit of time thinking about funding opportunities and there are lots of links in the report for local governments if they are not aware of some of the opportunities out there to generate some dollars for moving in this direction of becoming more environmentally sustainable," Chadwick said.
Chadwick says the action plan identifies improvements that governments can make in the areas of: transportation and land use; open space; storm water; energy and water; and materials procurement.