project highlights COMMUNITY SUSTAINABILITY TOOL The Community Sustainability Tool is a planning resource for community leaders, mayors, public works directors, and community members. Many communities face difficult decisions about updating or replacing aging drinking water and wastewater utility infrastructure. Investments are necessary to provide customers with compliant, safe drinking water and sewage treatment. Infrastructure is expensive and it takes careful planning by community decision makers. When it is time to upgrade or improve water or wastewater infrastructure, this tool can help communities understand their ability to pay for these large investments over time. The Tool uses a combination of user-input and program-generated data to broadly forecast the community’s ability to sustain infrastructure investments in relation to the community’s median household income throughout the duration of the financing. The tool is available for Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. • Use the tool for your community at wichita.edu/communitysustainabilitytool. 14 wsu environmental finance center | 2021 annual report