To explore the goals and standards for a community that has used the SCDTool (a previous application), click the communities button and select from one of the options. Each option has a brief description of that community. Inside each community you will find the 6 SCDTool themes in the box to the right. If you click on one of these it will expand to the criteria under that theme. Each criterion is a group of features that contribute to that sustainability theme. For example Transit Convenience is a criterion of Complete, Liveable Community. If you click on the criterion, you will see the detailed sub-criteria that make it up. For example, Transit Stops and Frequency of Service. At this level you will find the specific targets and achievements for that community on that topic.

All the themes, criteria and sub-criteria are keyed with tags, such as CLC2 for Complete, Liveable Community, Transit Convenience.

One of the options for Communities is the Best Practices Template. This is a generic community that has each sub-criterion calibrated to a “best in the world” example. So you can open this and use it as a “highest goals” starting point for your community. You may then go into the themes and criteria and edit, set targets, decide on topics that are not applicable to your situation, and choose those that are highest priority. You may also add entirely new topics. You then save this application as your own workbook for your community.

As the SCDTool is used more widely, reports from example communities like yours will be edited and posted in the communities section for others to use as templates.