The City of Reading achieved Gold Certification from the Sustainable Pennsylvania Community program. The program recognizes local governments in Pennsylvania for developing policies and practices that contribute to the prosperity of cities, towns and boroughs.
Earning the Gold certification rewards Reading for its progress in areas such as diversity, energy efficiency, healthy communities, green spaces, mitigating blight, intergovernmental cooperation, recycling and waste reduction, and fiscal controls. These factors have been determined to promote sustainability for cities such as Reading.
“Reading is proud to be recognized as a Gold Certified Community” said Mayor Spencer. “Through this certification effort we are demonstrating our commitment to saving taxpayer dollars, using resources efficiently, and applying best practices in municipal government and community development. We are pleased to be recognized, and be part of the regional community of good government.”
The Certified Community by the Sustainable Pennsylvania Community Certification is intended to bring recognition to municipalities in the region that are applying the policy and practice of sustainability as their way of operating in order to advance community prosperity. It measures 131 factors that contribute to developing and sustaining healthy communities. It also serves as a mechanism for sharing best practices for creating a more sustainable Pennsylvania. The City will continue to work towards Platinum Certification, which is the highest level.
In addition to the state certification, Reading announced it has just adopted the STAR Communities effort, a national sustainability certification program. Its goal is to become a Five Star community in five years, beginning with a targeted Three Star certification early next year. A team from Reading was recently trained in the STAR framework along with a cohort of other cities from across the country, including Las Vegas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Blue Island, IL. Starting this week, it will begin an ambitious effort to become the first nationally certified municipality in Pennsylvania.
Details about Reading’s certification performance can be found by linking to www.sustainablepacommunitycertification.org andwww.starcommunities.org.
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