Municipal Sustainability Planning
Whether north or south, big or small, urban or rural, the most economically competitive communities (and businesses) are those that are plotting a deliberate course towards greater sustainability. Our research, and that of others, show that businesses and individuals are choosing to live and invest in municipalities that are thinking about and strategically planning for the future of their people, environment and economies. Having a vision and focusing on sustainability can make a big difference to a municipality’s long-term outlook.
Sustainability planning involves purposefully optimizing and nurturing your municipality’s particular mix of long-term strengths and values (e.g. good schools, energy efficiency, vibrant businesses, affordable housing and transit, healthy green space, community spirit, volunteerism etc.) It means leveraging a community’s skills, energy and human and financial resources to follow an agreed upon course towards a long-term higher quality of life, economically, socially and environmentally. Ultimately, sustainability planning just makes great economic sense.
Through our services, we support municipalities to undertake a variety of different approaches, or a combination, depending on the specific circumstances of the municipality:
- Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP): We support communities to develop actionable, long-term sustainability plans that make good economic sense based on: a united vision; meaningful stakeholder engagement; public-private sector partnerships; measurable indicators for social, environmental, economic, cultural and governance priorities; organizational capacity-building, process management and financial capacity.
- Adaptive Management/Learn by Doing: This approach involves a series of individual steps towards sustainability over a period of years that produces visible results, educates and informs the community and that generates growing community support for the sustainability ethic. Importantly, Adaptive Management can provide a “no-fault” playing field for testing and evaluating new approaches involving technology and process innovations. This can be very important in promoting a more empowered, enabling corporate culture. We help communities to develop adaptive management strategies;
- Sustainability Training and Capacity-Building: A necessary pre-condition for successful sustainability planning is an educated and supportive Mayor, Chief Financial or Administrative Officer, Council, senior staff and other community leaders/potential partners. We provide interactive training and capacity building workshops specific to the particular community that get everyone on the same page.
