Sustainable Communities

1. Sustainable Communities Lecture 8

2. Overview • Definition • Role in sustainable development • Developing a Sustainable Community • Local Agenda 21, part of Agenda 21 (Rio + 10 this summer) • Ecovillages and the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) http://gen.ecovillage.org • Healthy Communities Initiative • Custom sustainable community Initiative • The Local Context • Partnerships • Summary and Conclusions

3. Ecovillages • Communities that foster lifestyles which are "successfully continuable into the indefinite future", are living models of sustainability, and examples of how action can be taken immediately. They represent an effective, accessible way to combat the degradation of our social, ecological and spiritual environment. • In 1998 the first ecovillages were officially named among the United Nations' top 100 listing of Best Practices, as excellent models of sustainable living. • Examples: Eco-Village Network of Poland in Staroscin; Association for Earth in Kamionka; The Findhorn Foundation in Scotland

5. Healthy Communities Initiative • U.S. based initiative: National Civic League • Mission • Healthy People....Healthy Communities (HPHC) national health initiative is to promote the capacity of individuals, families, and communities to increase healthy behaviors and lifestyle choices and make informed consumer decisions. The initiative will strengthen community leadership and promote the formation and enhancement of quality partnerships and infrastructures to meet local health and health care needs. The initiative will bring together the extension, teaching, and research resources of the land-grant university system and its stakeholders to address health care issues. • Goals • Educate and empower individuals and families to adopt healthy behaviors and lifestyles. • Educate consumers to make informed health and health care decisions. • Build community capacity to improve health.

7. What is a Sustainable Community? • A "sustainable city" is a city designed, constructed, and operated to minimize waste, efficiently use its natural resources and to manage and conserve them for the use of present and future generations. • Sustainable development comprises global and local reforms • Sustainable communities are local jurisdictions that carry out the local reforms • Economic Development + Community Development + Ecological Development

8. There is no single template of a sustainable community -- cities, towns, and villages nationwide have individual economic and environmental features and social needs. By addressing these specific needs and characteristics simultaneously, sustainable communities create a balance between growth and development and the limits set by ecology.http://www.chesapeakecommunities.org/projects.html

9. Local Economic Development • Supports community life and power, uses the talents and resources of local residents • Distributes benefits of development equitably • Ensures a basic quality of life for all social groups • Sustains benefits for all social groups over the long term • Prevents waste of ecological wealth and degradation of ecosystems by economic activity

10. Role of Local Governments in Sustainable Economic Development • Local governments have enormous impacts on the local economy • Build & maintain infrastructure essential for economic activity • Set standards, regulations, taxes, and fees that control economic development • Procure products and services, influencing markets • Local governments must change the way they do business • Organized and operated using principles of sustainable development • Sustain delivery of municipal services, equitably distributed, for future generations

11. Municipal Systems • Infrastructure: transit, sewage, power, communications • Programs: health, safety, education • Procedures: development approval process • Management: waste collection, building inspections, tax collection • Interventions: pollution control, police

12. Introduction to Local Agenda 21 • UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) June 1992 • Local Agenda 21 is Chapter 28 of Agenda 21 • Title: Local Authorities’ Activities in Support of Agenda 21 • Supported in its writing and implementation by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI)

13. TEXT “Because so many of the problems and solutions being addressed in Agenda 21 have their roots in local activities, the participation and cooperation of local authorities will be a determining factor in fulfilling its objectives. Local authorities construct, operate, and maintain economic, social, and environmental infrastructure, oversee planning processes, establish local environmental policies and regulations, and assist in implementing national and sub-national, environmental policies. As the levl of governance closest to the people, they play a vital role in educating, mobilizing, and responding to the public to promote sustainable development.”

15. The 5 Steps in Sustainable Development Planning (1) Partnerships (2) Community-Based Issue Analysis (3) Action Planning (4) Implementation & Monitoring (5) Evaluation & Feedback

16. More details… • Questions to be addressed: • Who are your partners in providing services? How do the service users participate? • What services do people want? • What is the capacity of existing service systems? Can they sustainably meet service demands • How do service systems affect other systems? • When and how can sustainable service systems be established? • How will plans be monitored and evaluated?

17. More about the 5 Steps • Partnerships: • Establish an organizational structure for planning by service providers and users. • Establish a shared community vision 2. Community-Based Issues Analysis: • Identify the issues that must be addressed to achieve the community vision. • Do detailed assessments of priority problems and issues. • Action Planning: • Agree on action goals • Set targets and triggers • Create strategies and commitments to achieve these targets, formalize into an action plan.

18. Implementation & Monitoring: • Create partnership structures for implementing and managing systems for municipal compliance. • Monitor activities and changes in services. • Evaluation & Feedback: • Periodic evaluations using target-based indicators • Results to service providers and users • Repeat issues analysis and action planning at specified trigger thresholds • Celebrate and reward achievements

19. 1. Partnerships • Pressures (globalization, costs, legal issues, urbanization, crime, pollution, changing values and norms) make it difficult for one entity to develop, supply, and maintain a single service. • Services are ever more frequently being delivered by partnerships (users, local authorities, investors, businesses, trade unions, religious groups, community organizations, other levels of government) • Partners = Stakeholders • Who coordinates actions of stakeholders? • How do they agree on a common purpose?

20. Six Basic Steps for Creating Partnerships • Planning Exercise: • Scope, goals, and objective • Scope= comprehensive or specific, geographic area, relevant jurisdictions (political, geographic, service), time frame (short, long), institutional and community resources available for planning activities • Done by initiating organization (municipality) in consultation with the stakeholders • Include preliminary educational campaign to generate public interest and support • Stakeholder Group (SG): • Create or designate a Stakeholder Group to coordinate and plan the overall planning effort • Working Group (WG): • Establish WG’s under the supervision of the SG for each planning task (setting priorities, analyzing issues, visioning, action planning, implementation, etc.) E.g. recreation, cultural assets

21. Indentify partners to participate in the SG and WG’s • Establish the terms of reference, e.g., the relationship between the stakeholders and statutory processes (e.g. land development) • Develop a Community Vision to guide the entire planning process

22. Summary and Conclusions • There are several possible approaches to creating a sustainable community • LA 21 • EcoVillages • HCHP • Others • We will use LA21 as the basis for this course • LA21 has five steps • The first one, Creating Partnerships, helps identify all the key players or stakeholders.