Greening America’s Capitals
Henry Brewer
Green Project Resource Center
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6
Background
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In 2010, EPA launched its Greening America’s Capitals program, a new technical
assistance program to help state capital cities design more sustainable communities.
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The goal of Greening America’s Capitals is to help state capitals develop a vision of
distinctive, environmentally friendly neighborhoods that incorporate innovative green
building and green infrastructure to create sustainability models for other cities.

EPA sent letters of invitation to mayors of all 50 state capitals, plus D.C., and received
38 proposals.
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This assistance was a new project of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities
between EPA, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (also known as
HUD) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (also known as DOT).

Proposals were reviewed by EPA, HUD and DOT staff.
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In September 2010, EPA announced Little Rock, AR as one of five capitals selected to
receive this technical assistance.
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The main focus of each Greening America’s Capitals project is a 3-day onsite design
charrette which includes public meetings and focus sessions with community, private
and public stakeholders.

Technical assistance from Regional EPA, HUD and DOT staff should be sought prior
and during the charrette in order to ensure grant and loan program eligibility
requirements are met; and to facilitate discussions with state counterparts.
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The final deliverable for each community is a highly conceptual report that cities and
states can use to showcase and implement design concepts.

Following the charrette, EPA Region 6 Water Quality Protection Division (SRF, §319
and GI programs) and the Brownfields Program hosted a webinar with the City of Little
Rock to discuss potential EPA-State resources which the city may be eligible and
interested in applying for. This helped Little Rock secure a $1.6 million NPS grant
($900K Federal and $700K State/Local Match) and Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund
(RLF) grants. This led to an extra $100 million of leveraged investment in downtown
Little Rock.
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Clearly, Little Rock, Arkansas has done an outstanding job of implementing the
Greening America’s Capitals charrette design concepts.

I should emphasize the charrette must include environmental quality benefits (vs just
focusing on quantity or anecdotal benefits) in order to be eligible to apply for EPA grants
and loans.
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Most, if not all, of these grant and loan programs are state-run. Therefore, cities will
have to work with their respective states in order to apply for these limited funds.
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At this time I’d like to introduce Dr. Marsha Guffey with the City of Little Rock, Arkansas.