Community Applications using the USEEIO model

Background

From 2015-2018, the Center of Innovation for Energy partnered with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) and the Georgia Recycling Coalition to develop a Georgia version of the USEEIO model.

In late 2019, EPA awarded a Regional Sustainability and Environmental Sciences Research Program (RESES) grant (Community-driven Application Development Using USEEIO Models) to support EPA and the Center of Innovation for Energy to work with Georgia communities to build their own interfaces to the GA model. Georgia will be the first state to have this model.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), GA Department of Economic Development Center for Innovation for Energy, and Georgia Tech are working with Georgia communities to evaluate economic and environmental outcomes of new technologies, investments, and regional industries through web applications. These applications will address community concerns by combining a Georgia version of the USEEIO model with local data to add detail to the evaluation.​

Learn more at model.georgia.org

Goals and Objectives

The community applications will support two primary audiences. It will:

  1. Help industries achieve their sustainability goals and improve profitability.
  2. Help communities understand what their assets are and use them to attract new industries.

Timeline

- Winter/Spring 2019/2020 - Community on boarding
- Spring 2020 - Team and community planning
- Summer 2020 - Component development (interns)
- Fall 2020 - Application development
- Winter 2020 and Spring 2021 - Education and use

Participation Requirements for GA Communities

- The EPA is working with communities to build applications using the USSEIO model
- Communities must be interested in economic development and sustainability
- Communities will provide data and agree on information needs to be met
- Communities work with project intern
- Communities must express a desire in using the tool to inform decision making

Our Team's Commitment

- We will leverage our time, expertise and resources to develop a community web application for you
- Educate you on what is possible with the model and your data
- Provide a team of interns to build core functionality and collect local data
- Conduct a volunteer application development event to build the application
- Activate the application tools for your community and provide training
- Provide an educational module for your schools
- All partners will highlight your community project in national communications

Smart Community Corp Interns

- We're partnering with the GA Tech Smart Communities Program to host three interns to support these new uses of the model.