04-23-2024 PRF Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 . INTRODUCTION What does sustainability mean to local governments? What is a sustainability plan and why is it a good thing for my local government? How does sustainability planning fit in with ICLEI's other tools and pro- grams? Read this introduction for answers to these questions, which provide key background informa- tion on sustainability planning. 1 .1 SUSTAINABILITY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS Perhaps no group has adopted the maxim. "think globally, act locally" more convincingly than today's local government leaders. Only a generation ago, many of the most complex and far-reaching environ- mental and socio-economic issues were discussed only at the national and international levels. Not so, today. Visionary local leaders embrace action on climate change, environmental justice, energy inde- pendence, natural resource conservation, unemployment, poverty, and public health. They recognize their opportunity to address these issues in collectively powerful ways, and their duty to act, since the impacts of such problems are often felt first at the local level. Local leaders also recognize that these seemingly disparate issues are inexorably linked because they deal with the same core fact: As a society, we are living beyond our means and will not be able to con- tinue down this path. To address all of these issues is at the heart of sustainable planning. When local governments bring their services, land use, and infrastructure in line with sustainable principles, they can achieve broad benefits for their communities. 1 .2 WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY? According to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, sustainability means "meet- ing the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The three, interrelated pillars of sustainable development include the environment, social equity, and economic development (see Figure 1). To act sustainably is to balance the aims of these pillars with the need to use resources more efficiently. Sustainability is not an end goal, but a journey that local gov- ernments can take to improve the social equity, environmental, and economic conditions in their jurisdiction. A common frame SUSTAINABLE work to guide their efforts is a sustainability plan, which ties together a community's goals, strategies, implementation plans, ,, '" and metrics for improving sustainability. { This toolkit provides the guidelines and resources for any local government to develop a sustainability plan and begin The Three Pillars of Sustainability its journey. Figure 1 1 .3 WHY DEVELOP A SUSTAINABILITY PLAN? Developing a sustainability plan may seem like a daunting task. Yet local governments will find that the benefits of having an overarching plan—one that ties together all of their sustainability policies and pro- grams—will far outweigh the costs of staff time required to develop the plan. A sustainability plan is not only a useful tool for local governments just starting out on their sustainability journey, but also for more "green" jurisdictions that want to package all of their various measures under a single umbrella. Many local governments have already implemented a number of environmental and energy saving programs, often on a one-off basis. However, they often lack a single framework for measuring the impact of their 5