1

Planning Sustainable Communities

Dr. Sheila Selkregg March 3, 2015

SWAMC Annual Conference

Captain Cook HotelAnchorage Alaska

2

Intent of Presentation

• What is sustainability?• How do you create a community plan• How do they fit together? • Why are they important?

3

What is Sustainability?

The 1987 U.N. World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland, published its report,“Our Common Future.”

It defines Sustainable Development as, “…development which meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

4

Pillars of Sustainability

United Nations Value & Principal 2002 World Summit Outcomes:

“The interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars of sustainable development are“

economic development social development, and environmental protection.

Each of these are important and interdependent.

http://responsibilitytoprotect.org/world%20summit%20outcome%20doc%202005%281%29.pdf#page=28&zoom=auto,-73,136

5

Building sustainability community is about our choices and their impacts

6

Sustainable communities have an agreement to value the continuity of the

whole Sustainability relies on cultural agreements that respect and value the future in current decisions and actions.

It acknowledges that Earth is a closed, connected system of large and small interdependent relationships that ultimately rely on one another.

The cultural understanding of sustainability plays a central role in human survival

http://www.thesustainableleader.org/2014/01/05/sustainability-connecting-the-dots/

7

Every community is at some point along a continuum of

sustainability

8

Sustainability is imbedded in cultural agreement & perspective

Sustainability is like the perfectly balanced marble.

Should key elements of our world, such as community, business, and environment, be neglected or pushed above the others, the plane will tilt and the marble will fall.

http://www.thesustainableleader.org/sustainability-101/

9

Community Sustainability have common qualities

Maintain, and, if possible, enhance its residents’ quality of life- livability.

Enhance local economic vitality that is essential to sustainability.

Promote social and intergenerational equity that does not deplete resources, destroy natural systems, or pass along hazards to its great-great-grandchildren.

Maintain and enhance the quality of the environment and find ways to co-exist within that environment.

Incorporate disaster resilience and mitigation into its decisions and actions.

Use a consensus-building, participatory process when making decisions.

http://responsibilitytoprotect.org/world%20summit%20outcome%20doc%202005%281%29.pdf#page=28&zoom=auto,-73,136

World Summit 2005

10

Sustainably is about the choices we make.

Every community is at some point along a continuum of capacity.

Every community is a magnification of its own values.

Sustainable communities’ decisions and actions value the interconnectivity of life and care for today and the future.

There are no neutral actions.

You are and will be how you act

11

Sustainability is a choice

12

Sustainability balances short & long term goals

Sustainability relies on cultural attitudes and behavior that mediate between short term and long term goals in light of ecology, technology and equity.

It requires observation and assessment of our interaction with the changing realties of our lives.

13

Community plans create a map to guide and be a partner with change

Your community values and how you do it, determines what you get.

All Plans use a basic pattern.

• The Plan can be formal or informal.

• Actions reflect and leverage your capacity

• The Plan can be for big changes or small acts

• Plans Create big and small changes

14

The Pattern and the Outcome

15

Consistently matching your choices to the realties we have and the realties of what we want to create is how we effect change.

Here is wise advice from The Sustainable Leader website:

Go Local. Forget about Silver Bullets. Look for Collaborations, not Scapegoats. Ditch the Hierarchy. Focus on the Process, Not the Outcome. Look for the Opportunities in Each Crisis. Embrace Change.

http://www.thesustainableleader.org/2014/10/16/7-steps-to-true-sustainability/

Sustainability is about the choices we make

16

WE ARE HOW WE ACT!

If your don’t plan to save the world, where do you plan to live?

Where will your children's, children's, children's live??

We are all in this together

17