15-Minute City & Complete Neighborhoods Model
A planning model where residents can reach daily needs—like shops, schools, and parks—within a short walk or bike ride. This reduces vehicle dependence and supports public health.
Policy Library
Browse our collection of climate resilience policies and implementation examples.
Balcony Solar & Shading Mandate
Allow balcony-mounted solar and exterior shading in multi-unit housing with simplified permitting, safety standards, and tenant protections.
Biodiversity Corridors & Rewilding Mandate
A plan to reconnect nature in cities using green roofs, restored streams, and wildlife bridges. This reduces flooding, cools the city, and protects animals.
Building Performance Standards & Transparency
A framework for reducing building emissions through a phased approach of benchmarking, transparency, and mandatory performance standards.
Circular Construction & Deconstruction Mandate
A policy framework to transition from linear demolition practices to circular deconstruction, mandating material recovery, reuse prioritization, and Material Passports to reduce waste and embodied carbon.
Circular Electronics & E-Waste Recovery Mandate
A 'Right-to-Repair' and recovery framework that mandates repairability scores for new devices, funds consumer repairs through producer fees, and establishes convenient curbside e-waste collection.
Clean Heat Standard & Thermal Energy Networks (TENs)
A regulatory framework that mandates gas utilities to decarbonize via a 'Clean Heat Standard' and authorizes the creation of 'Thermal Energy Networks' to replace gas pipes with neighborhood-scale geothermal loops.
Climate Budgeting & Green Procurement Mandate
A governance framework that integrates carbon limits into the municipal financial budget and mandates 'Buy Clean' standards for concrete, steel, and fleets to decarbonize the supply chain.
Cohousing & Cooperative Housing Mandate
A municipal framework to decarbonize housing and strengthen social resilience by prioritizing resource-efficient communities through zoning reform, public land partnerships, and legal support for cohousing and cooperative housing.
Community Retrofit Aggregation & Financing Tool (CRAFT)
A community-scale retrofit delivery and financing framework that clusters projects to cut costs, protect consumers, and coordinate grid impacts.
Cool Pavements & Heat Resilience Strategy
A comprehensive public realm adaptation strategy that mandates high-albedo and permeable road surfaces, establishes a Right to Cool for tenants, and enforces heat-based labor protections to reduce urban heat risk.
Data Center Constraints & Community Protection
A zoning and operating framework that prevents hyperscale data centers from overwhelming local water, grid capacity, and public health. It mandates hard caps, continuous monitoring, public reporting, community benefits agreements, and decommissioning bonds.
Dynamic Urban Access & Reinvestment Zones
A congestion management and reinvestment framework that uses dynamic road pricing to reduce traffic, cut emissions, and fund public mobility improvements through a legally protected revenue lockbox.
EV-Ready & Right-to-Charge Ordinance
A phased municipal policy mandating 100% EV-readiness in new buildings, establishing a binding Right-to-Charge process for renters and condo owners, and requiring fire-safe micromobility storage and charging.
Eco-Roof & Energy Resilience Mandate
A comprehensive framework mandating solar or green roofs on all new buildings, with a robust phase-in plan for existing structures to ensure energy generation and climate resilience.
Food & Organic Waste Prevention and Diversion Framework
A municipal framework that prioritizes edible food prevention and recovery, mandates source separation of organic waste, and ensures reliable collection, processing, and enforcement to reduce landfill disposal and methane emissions.
Geothermal Workforce Reuse & Firm Energy Infrastructure Model
Regional infrastructure playbook that reuses oil and gas people, rigs, and regulatory systems to deliver verifiable firm power, long-duration storage, and industrial or district heat through geothermal development with binding safety and transparency controls.
Green Roofs & Sponge City Infrastructure Model
Municipal playbook that mandates tiered green and biosolar roofs, permeable public realm retrofits, and verifiable maintenance to absorb increasing atmospheric-river rainfall, cool streets, and cut sewer overflows.
Healthy Homes & Induction Transition Mandate
A public health-focused policy that phases out gas cooking to improve indoor air quality (IAQ) and mandates 'Induction-Ready' circuits to future-proof housing.
Integrated Freshwater, Wetland, and Marine Ecosystem Management Policy
A generic policy framework for protecting and restoring freshwater, wetland, estuarine, and nearshore marine ecosystems, addressing invasive species, erosion, biodiversity connectivity, Indigenous co-governance, and community stewardship while delivering climate resilience and nature-positive economic benefits.
Sea Level Rise, Coastal Construction, and Climate Risk Policy
A policy framework governing construction, redevelopment, and infrastructure investment in coastal and low-lying areas exposed to sea level rise, integrating climate risk disclosure, nature-based protection, managed retreat, and financial accountability.
Solar Canopy Mandate for Large Parking Lots
National-style law requiring solar panel installations on parking lots larger than 1,500 square meters. Model adapted from France's Decree No. 2024-1023.
The "Frequency First" Transit Mandate
Prioritizes high-frequency transit service over fare reductions, mandating 15-minute headways on core routes before implementing fare-free programs.
The Dynamic Design Standard Act
Mandates climate-forward engineering that uses projected weather data instead of historical records to design infrastructure resilient to future climate conditions.
The Nighttime Recovery Standard
Mandates all residential units maintain safe nighttime temperatures below 26°C for 8 hours to prevent heat-related health impacts during extreme heat events.
The Self-Enforcing Street Design Code
Requires street design geometry to match posted speed limits, using narrow lanes and speed tables to naturally enforce safe speeds.
Time Health & Safety Act
Abolishes biannual clock changes and adopts permanent standard time to reduce accidents, improve public health, and lower carbon emissions.
Urban Forest Management Policy Model
A comprehensive framework for managing urban forests as essential infrastructure, emphasizing conservation, equity, and strategic planning based on the Cities4Forests Policy Library guidance.
Urban Heat Island Mitigation Model Policy
Comprehensive model policy for reducing urban heat islands through green infrastructure, reflective materials, and strategic urban planning measures.
Urban Lawn Watering Policy Model
A comprehensive framework for managing urban water consumption through mandatory lawn watering restrictions, exceptions, educational best practices, and enforcement strategies.
Virtual Power Plant (VPP) & Bi-Directional Resilience Protocol
Pays residents to share stored energy from home batteries and EVs during peak demand, creating a virtual power plant that stabilizes the grid.
Showing 31 policies