Process of Developing a Sustainable Community
Communities develop sustainability initiatives in many different ways. However,
to illustrate this process, a sample of some of the most common steps is
discussed in this chapter.
Below are seven procedures that communities often go through as they develop sustainable community efforts:
Not all sustainability processes happen this way; each community has unique
elements in its process. This sample was presented to illustrate the general
process that communities go through in developing sustainability efforts.
Many communities also organize their activities around basic community elements.
These elements refer to the five functional and physical components that are the
basis for our modern communities. Major community elements include the built
environment, transportation, energy, water and wastes, and flora and fauna.[2] "Built environment" refers to buildings, such as
residential, businesses, and other structures, and issues related to such
structures. Issues addressed in this area include building materials, safe and
affordable housing, and urban design. Transportation includes issues related to
mobility and access to transportation. Water and waste includes issues such as
drinking water, waste water, solid waste, and hazardous waste management. Flora
and fauna refers to issues regarding natural resources and habitat such as green
spaces, parks, species protection, agriculture, habitat restoration, and
ecosystem management. Many communities try to address these elements in their
organizational structure and activities. Again, in addressing these elements
most communities consider the environment, economic issues, and social aspects
and how they are interrelated.
This functional approach based on community elements is important for assessing
the comprehensiveness of a sustainability activity. Some activities address one
or two areas; others are more comprehensive and address all five. This structure
also illustrates some of the confusion around the definition of sustainability
and overuse of the term. If a project focuses only on energy issues, is it truly
a sustainable community effort or just an energy activity? Such a judgment falls
outside the scope of this report. However, it is important to be aware of such
issues when thinking about the relationship between community activities that are
called "sustainable" and P2.
In practice, most communities combine the issue and functional approaches. To
illustrate this combination of such approaches, consider two different community
organization examples: EcoVillage at Ithaca Guidelines for Development, and the
Civic Forums in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
This example illustrates how the City of Cambridge focuses on a wide range of
social, economic, and environmental issues in its discussions about the future.
It places a great emphasis on social issues, such as justice, health, and the
arts, in its process. For instance, health and well-being issues include
citizens' physical well-being, which also may include mental issues such as
stress and anxiety, health services delivery issues, and community access
issues.
These two examples illustrate how each community takes its own approach to
organizing environmental, social, and economic issues. The EcoVillage at Ithaca
organizers have placed a greater emphasis on the practical functional elements of
the community in providing their community guidelines, while Cambridge Civic
Forums are organized around broader social and philosophical community issues.
These differences also make sense given the nature of these two different
sustainable community efforts: EcoVillage at Ithaca and its guidelines are
focused on implementation (i.e., building a new neighborhood), whereas Cambridge
Civic Forums are currently focused on a community visioning and planning process.
An effort focused on the planning and visioning process may require a different
structure from an effort focused more on implementation of specific projects,
especially projects that focus more on technological and infrastructure changes.
Note that if an effort's focus changes and evolves, such as moving from a
visioning process to an implementation process, the organizational structure may
also evolve.
This fundamental point about differences in approach may seem frequently
repeated, but one should remember that sustainable community efforts are unique,
because each community's interest, goals, objectives, problems, members, and
physical location are unique. Understanding this uniqueness means that the type
of opportunity for P2 practitioners varies as well.
[2] These community elements were originally discussed by Jim
Waddell and the author based on his 1995 NSTC draft white paper called
"Reinventing the Urban Environment: The Role of Science and Technology."
[3] For more information, see EcoVillage at Ithaca, New
York, WWW page: http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/ecovillage/.
[4] For more information on the Cambridge Civic Forums, see its
WWW page: http://civic.net/cambridge_civic_network/ccf/ccf.html.
Developing an Ongoing Governance Structure
Many sustainability efforts are started by enthusiastic individuals or
organizations who want to help their community and environment. Such individuals
or groups help motivate other members of the community to participate in the
process. Often the process begins with a core group of volunteers and
organizations meeting in a committee or workshop fashion. The group begins to
organize a structure for the ongoing sustainable community effort, such as a
steering committee that meets regularly and is open to the public. As the effort
progresses, special subcommittees or task forces are created to develop and
implement specific projects.Creating a Vision
As a common first step, the sustainable community committee or group will first
develop a vision for their sustainable community. This process typically
includes reaching out to a wide range and large number of community stakeholders
to help in developing the community vision. In developing this vision, community
members often are asked by the sustainable community group questions such as:
What does sustainability mean for my community or what do I want my community to
look like in 20, 50, or 100 years? This development process frequently includes
many discussions, public forums, and consensus building to create a common
community vision. In this vision-making process, communities often create their
own unique definitions of sustainability, as will be illustrated in Chapter Five with the City of Seattle's sustainable
community effort. Setting Goals and Objectives
Next, the group defines goals and objectives for their sustainable community and
develops specific indicators to measure progress toward the community goals.
Such a process may be time consuming, especially when it includes many different
stakeholders and attempts to build community consensus. For instance, an
indicators development project in Seattle took over three years. Seattle-area
volunteers spent thousands of hours designing and researching the integrated
"report card" on long-term trends in their region.Developing Guiding Principles
Some communities also develop sustainability guiding principles to help
individuals and organizations within their communities. For instance, Portland,
Oregon, has developed sustainable city principles as guidelines for city elected
officials and staff. Burlington, Vermont, has developed six principles of
sustainable community development. Examples of these principles include:
"Encourage economic self-sufficiency through local ownership and the maximum use
of local resources"; "Equalize the benefits and burdens of growth"; and "Protect
and preserve fragile environmental resources."[1]Choosing and Implementing Activities
Once the sustainable community group has defined its vision, principles, goals,
and objectives, it develops and prioritizes specific projects and actions to meet
its goals and work toward the vision. Often the committee or subcommittee and/or
task forces meet and brainstorm to generate ideas and analyze and discuss them.
Key issues discussed include political and economic feasibility and resources
available for implementation. After this discussion and analysis process, the
ideas are prioritized for implementation. Then the community begins to choose
which ones to implement and how to implement them. Some of the larger
longer-term activities may require generating outside support and interest. Such
a need occurs frequently when developing an eco-industrial park, as in
Northampton County, Virginia, which attracted businesses to participate in its
Sustainable Technologies Industrial Park. Short-term and low-cost projects may
be started immediately, such as holding an educational meeting about home
sustainability practices for local residents.Evaluating Progress and Revising Activities
Communities evaluate their progress and revise activities accordingly. This
evaluation and revision step is especially important since sustainability is an
evolutionary process. Some have criticized sustainable community activities
because some communities have underemphasized the importance of measuring the
actual effect of their activities. It is important to include a program
evaluation process within such activities to measure the effectiveness of the
program and to make necessary changes to improve it. Organizing for Sustainability
How communities organize themselves for sustainability and how they organize
their sustainability issues are both important parts of how sustainable
communities develop. Communities tend to organize their functional structures
and activities around sustainability issues. Specifically, they organize to
address the economic, social, and environmental issues that are most pressing or
most highly valued in their community. Many times they also address governance
and management issues, such as fairness in their community, fairness in their
sustainabilty process, and basic management logistics for the process.
Integrating these issues is key, since communities are trying to address their
problems in a more holistic and integrated fashion. EcoVillage at Ithaca
EcoVillage at Ithaca created its Guidelines for Development over the course of
nine months with input from over 100 people. These ideas are meant to be taken
as guidelines rather than specific requirements. The Guidelines for Development
were written for the following ten areas:
The focus areas of these guidelines address all five of the major community
elements as well important social elements of the community, including the
Village Center. The guidelines focus on practical goals and objectives, such as
the goal, "To maximize open space" and the objective, "Neighborhoods will
surround an open, vehicle-free village green." Most of the guidelines are
focused around the specific functional elements of the community that is being
built.Cambridge Civic Forums
The second example is from Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Cambridge Civic Forums
are a joint project of the Center for Civic Networking, the Cambridge Center for
Adult Education, the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, and the Sustainable
Cambridge Coalition. The Civic Forums bring together Cambridge citizens to
envision a healthy sustainable future for their community. In the forums,
community members attempt to engage in a constructive dialogue, collaborate on
defining a common vision, and participate in generating an action plan for the
city's future. The Civic Forums have been organized around seven areas of
conversation. These seven areas are:
[1] The President's Council on Sustainable Development,
Sustainable Communities Task Force Report, Final Draft, October 1996, p.
47.
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