How does the organization or community consume or use water?

G‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍oal: The goal of this project is to apply your understanding of different aspects of sustainability covered over the course of the semester to develop an action plan towards improved sustainability for an organization or community. Overview: Choose an organization (e.g., local government, university, or business) or community (e.g., a town or city) and develop a sustainability plan. You will want to review current environmental impacts of the activities of members of the organization or community and other people who interact with it (e.g., customers, citizens, employees, students) and propose potential improvements. Your plan should address sustainability with respect to five of the following elements: 1) Energy use – How does the organization or community consume or produce energy? How sustainable is energy use? What improvements could be made to improve sustainability of energy use? 2) Food supply – How does the organization or community influence consumption or production of food? How sustainable is food production or consumption? What improvements could be made to improve sustainability with respect to food? 3) Waste – What sorts of waste are produced and how is waste handled? How sustainable are current waste disposal activities, and how could waste management be improved? 4) Water – How does the organization or community consume or use water? How sustainable is water use? How do different activities influence water quality and sustainability? What improvements could be made to improve sustainability of water use? 5) Air quality – How do different activities influence air quality and sustainability? What improvements could be made to improve sustainability of interactions between the organization or community and the atmosphere? 6) Climate change – How do different activities at the organization or community contribute to or influence greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere? How impacted is/will the organization or community be under current and expected climate change and what steps is it taking to respond or prepare? What actions should the organization or community take to improve sustainability with respect to climate change? 7) Transportation – What are the major forms of transportation used/supported by your organization or community? How sustainable are current transportation activities, and how could transportation activities be modified to improve sustainability? 8) Building and development – How sustainable are the building and development practices of your organization or community (., LEED certification)? How could these activities be modified to improve sustainability? 9) Biodiversity – What impacts does the organization or community have on local or global biodiversity? What steps are taken to conserve or reduce impacts on biodiversity? 9) Other activities – What other activities performed by your organization or community have major sustainability impacts (., sourcing of materials for manufacturing, impacts on soil erosion or health). For each element, discuss current impacts that the organization or community has wit‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍h respect to the environment and current measures to improve the sustainability of its activities, and discuss potential improvements. In addition, your plan should include and address the following components: Introduction and background – Provide a brief introduction to your organization or community. What is its primary function or role, who belongs to the organization or community, and who is affected by its activities? Environmental justice – Your plan should describe the consequences of the activities of the organization or community with respect to environmental justice and whether you consider current efforts adequate. If you do consider current efforts adequate, explain why. If you do not consider the current practices to align with environmental justice, explain what improvements/steps you think are needed. Economic and policy considerations – How cost-effective are proposed plans for improved sustainability? Will proposed changes influence people’s livelihoods or costs to consumers? Are there steps that can be taken (., marketing strategies, federal policies) that may increase the cost-effectiveness or practicality of different options? Are there laws or regulations that influence the sustainability activities of the organization or community? References – You should include a list of references with citations listed alphabetically in a consistent format. Citations should at least include the name of the resource (., the name of the webpage or book), the author or organization producing the resource, the year the resource was published or accessed, and the URL for any online resources. Format: You may prepare your plan as a written document in a word processor (., Word or Google Docs) Grading: The scores for the different elements and components will be based on the thoroughness and thoughtfulness of responses. A thorough response would include detailed discussion or consideration of the element with information or support from external references. That said, writing should also be concise and clear; text that contains redundant, little or no information (., “fluff) should be avoided. Overall project quality will also be evaluated for quality of organization, clarity of writing, grammatical correctness, and overall style. Seek to produce a visually appealing or engaging plan that members of your organization would be excited to implement. Projects will be graded using the following rubric. Category Points Criteria Introduction 10 For each element or component, a 10 will represent a thorough, well-supported and explained response, while a 0 will represent no response or a completely uninformative response. Element 1 10 Element 2 10 Element 3 10 Element 4 10 Element 5 10 Environmental Justice 10 Economic and Policy Considerations 10 Organization/Clarity/Grammar 10 Is the plan logically organized? Clear? Are there any errors? Style and Presentation 5 Is it visually appealing or engaging? Does it draw in the reader or viewer? References 5 Are references included and organized in a clear and consi‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍stent manner? Total 100