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

4
(No Transcript)
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.

6
(No Transcript)
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.ht
ml
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.

14
(No Transcript)
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 WGs 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
  WGs
• 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.