Sustainability Publications

IIRA Sustainability Publications

The Green Action Plan

Real Problems, Real Answers: The Green Action Plan is a manual for citizens, policy makers, activitists, and academics looking for inclusive ways to solve environmental problems. In tackling environmental issues, clusters of people with similar interests often get lost on a polarizing spectrum that discourages different perspectives. It is not uncommon, for example, to see farmers at one end of the table and environmentalists at the other, with now space to find common ground. There is a participatory, inclusive way to encourage people with similar interests to draw on shared values and capitalize on public spaces and discourse. These groups — termed action clusters — can work together, find their roles, and address issues with benefits for the entire community in a 10-step process called the Green Action Plan (GAP). Developed through a research project on reducing pollution in a watershed, GAP can be used to address a variety of environmental issues.

A team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin produced this manual and conducted the two community watershed projects (one in west-central Illinois) that inform it. IIRA provided substantial financial and staff support for the work.

Green jobs & green businesses

 IIRA brownfields publications

From 2001 to 2007 IIRA published a series of research reports and related articles on brownfields redevelopment in Illinois municipalities. Click here to view and download these documents.