Earning a Sustainable Pennsylvania Municipal Certification
Municipalities may earn a Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum certification through the Sustainable Pennsylvania Program. To achieve a given certification, municipalities must both a) earn a percentage of points based on number of employees and b) complete a set of required actions specific to each certification level. For example, Philadelphia has more than 22,000 non-uniformed employees, making them a Tier 5 municipality. If they achieve a score of 55% and answer all the questions required for Gold, they will be awarded a Gold Certification.
This number of employees is used because municipal size was one of the only statistically relevant indicators of how well a community did on past Sustainable PA assessments.
Required point percentages
To find the point percentage the municipality must achieve to earn each certification, please find the column that corresponds to the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) non-uniformed employees that work for the municipal government. The differences in required point percentages by municipal size reflect the number and type of actions included in the program.
Percentages required for each certification level
| Certification Level | Tier 1: Fewer than 15 employees* | Tier 2: 15 to 50 employees* | Tier 3: 51 to 200 employees* | Tier 4: 201 to 1000 employees* | Tier 5: Greater than 1000 employees* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Committed** | < 15% | < 17% | < 19% | < 21% | < 23% |
| Bronze | 15% | 17% | 19% | 21% | 23% |
| Silver | 25% | 28% | 31% | 34% | 37% |
| Gold | 35% | 39% | 43% | 47% | 51% |
| Platinum | 45% | 50% | 55% | 60% | 65% |
Required actions
Because sustainability includes environmental and equity dimensions, a municipality must complete the following actions related to each to earn a certification. The required actions are cumulative–for example, to earn a Platinum certification, you must fulfill all of the requirements for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.
