This report provides a wide range of illustrations of how cities are tackling the need to conserve energy and other resources and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and what they are accomplishing as a result of their efforts. These best practices vary greatly in size, scope, cost, and focus. Some are well established and some are just getting underway, but all have ideas to offer on how to protect our cities today and our planet in the years ahead.

If you're struggling with how to fund the development and maintenance of environmental systems--like drinking and waste water systems--the How To Pay: Challenges and Solutions Of Environmental Protection is for you and your local government team.

Written by the chair of the LEED-Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) initiative, Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature is both an urgent call to action and a comprehensive introduction to "sustainable urbanism"--the emerging and growing design reform movement that combines the creation and enhancement of walkable and diverse places with the need to build high-performance infrastructure and buildings.

GreenGov Conference 2008 is an operations-greening conference in Washington, D.C. for government agencies at all levels. Themes like "Show me the funding," "Green purchasing," and "Green buildings" will provide information for agencies working to make their operations more efficient.

This webinar from the National Association of Counties is an introduction to the issues of "green governance" at the county level. With increasing momentum, green policies and programs have taken shape as counties hunt for the most effective targets, incentives and rewards to help affect behavioral change in their communities. Counties of all regions and compositions are helping us understand that green can be as much about doing the right thing for the environment as it is about being fiscally and socially responsible.

Amsterdam may soon join the ranks of European cities with low emission zones in their central cities. The measure, which has yet to be approved by the council, would not only ban vehicles older than 15 years, but also includes several other measures to encourage non-automotive transportation.

Japan is known for innovation, and the contents of the Japan for Sustainability newsletter don't disappoint. There's a lot going on in the field of sustainability in Japan; both social and technical advances are documented here. Read for inspiration, edification, and a global perspective.

Originally conceived as a workbook for students in urban and environment studies, public administration, geography, and planning, Greening Cities shows how environmental concerns can be incorporated into local government policy.

The Natural Step for Communities is a guide to applying the science- and democratic process of the Natural Step framework to the task of planning for sustainable towns and communities. It's full of concrete examples of localities where the framework has been put to use, focusing on the decades-old Swedish 'eco-municipalities' movement that has recently spread to the United States.

This touchstone book by James Howard Kunstler (author of The Geography of Nowhere)offers a vivid and uncomfortable vision of a post-oil future. As a result of artificially cheap fossil-fuel energy we have developed global models of industry, commerce, food production, and finance that are now threatened with collapse. Building on his previous work analyzing American suburban (i.e., energy-intensive) lifestyles, Kunstler sketches potential outcomes that may result from our current dysfunctional economic and cultural patterns.