School of Planning, Design and Construction

Overview 

The Sustainable Built Environment Initiative (SBEI) at Michigan State University (MSU) began as a pilot in 2013 as a means of assisting communities to address physical planning, design and land use issues. It offers a graphic visioning process that provides citizens with a set of images and recommendations to guide improvements in their community with a sustainability theme. The SBEI builds on the success of the former MSU Small Town Design Initiative by providing a “go-to” source for Michigan’s communities for physical sustainable design assistance in community development and land use.  

MSU Extension (MSUE) and the School of Planning, Design and Construction (SPDC) have jointly developed SBEI to address sustainability challenges and improve the quality of life in Michigan’s communities. The partnership allows for an integrated approach to solving complex community problems through the diverse expertise found within SPDC, including Construction Management, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture and Urban & Regional Planning, along with MSUE’s institutes and Extension educators. 

Climate & Health Adaptation Focus    

Climate change is recognized as one of the greatest threats to public health, yet few examples of climate and health planning currently exist, particularly for small and rural communities. For those communities that are proactively building resiliency and climate adaptation capacity, the SBEI process can guide communities on how to incorporate health perspectives into local planning. By engaging vulnerable populations and coordinating local governments, planners, and health departments, a successful climate and health adaptation plan can be developed.   

The SBEI will give priority to communities that are looking to address health-related climate challenges. The climate and health adaptation plan can serve as an update to the master plan or a stand-alone strategic document to address local concerns and funding opportunities. Overall, the process will help build consensus and generate ideas to address climate and health issues for specific areas incorporating planning and design ideas. 

Sustainability Assessment Tool

The Sustainability Self-Assessment Tool has been designed by a research team at MSU’s School of Planning, Design, and Construction with funding support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant.  

This tool can be used by communities looking to measure their progress towards sustainability. There are two different versions of the self-assessment tool: The Basic Self-Assessment Tool and the Advanced Self-Assessment Tool.   

The basic self-assessment tool provides a basic measure of community progress toward sustainability. It consists of 19 indicators of sustainability, divided into the categories of Economy, Environment, Governance, Community, and Livability.   

The advanced version of the self-assessment is a more comprehensive tool that provides a holistic, systems-based analysis of a community’s sustainability. It consists of a compilation of 32 indicators of sustainability, divided into the categories of Livability, Governance, Environment, Community, and Economy.  

• Basic Self-Assessment Tool 

• Advanced Self-Assessment Tool 

Dream, Play, Build!

The SBEI team employs innovative approaches to community engagement, allowing participants to use multiple avenues of communication to contribute. Model building, inspired by the Dream Play Build philosophy written by James Rojas and John Kamp in a book by the same name, allows residents to explore sharing their vision of the community through past experiences. The SBEI team utilizes traditional methods of engagement as well; direct written feedback and poster-board voting are amongst these.