Criterion is an urban and regional planning firm specializing in sustainable community development. Established in 1979, the firm has become a nationally-recognized leader in formulating strategies and tools that help achieve environmental quality, economic prosperity, and community livability.

From integrated land-use and transportation planning to wastewater recycling, Criterion's experience and commitment is focused on resource solutions that are both innovative and practical. And the firm's talk gets emphatically walked. In the last decade alone, Criterion-planned projects have saved over eight billion pounds of global warming emissions through energy efficiency and renewable power generation.

Areas of service include:

• Urban and regional planning.
  
  
• LEED-ND green neighborhood certification.
  
  
• Climate change action planning.
  
  
• Community energy planning.
  
  
• Planning support software development.
  
  
• Community indicators modeling.
  

During the past 28 years, Criterion has completed assignments in these and related fields for public and private sector clients throughout North America. Much of the firm's work is focused on developing planning support systems for communities, including software tools for land-use, transportation, environmental, and climate change analysis. The firm is known in particular for its INDEX planning support software.

Criterion is an active member of the American Planning Association, Congress for the New Urbanism, U.S. Green Building Council, Urban & Regional Information Systems Association, and the National Association of Environmental Professionals.