Fostering Sustainability in Cities

Johanna Schussler Burnsville Jun 7, 2006 23:25 pm

Hi there!

The City of Burnsville will be undergoing a Community Visioning Project (Burnsville for the 21st Century) in the coming months. I will be helping to facilitate the committee discussions on the environment. I'm not exactly sure what will come up, but I'm thinking that if there were ever a time to focus on sustainability issues, this would be it. I'm really interested in hearing from people who work with cities. How have you used CBSM to promote sustainability in your city? Do your cities have long-term plans that include becoming more sustainable? If so, what was the route to making that plan? I'd be interested in hearing about anything from projects you've done/are doing to how you "sold" the ideas to the city councils and residents. Any information you can provide would be much appreciated. Also-thank you for all the lively conversation of late. I've been learning a lot!

Regards,
Johanna

Johanna Schussler
Natural Resources Technician
City of Burnsville 13713 Frontier Court
Burnsville, MN 55337
952-895-4518

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Paul Payten Blue Mountains Jun 7, 2006 23:54 pm

Hi Johanna,

Check this as an example of our local process: http://www.ourfuturebluemtns.nsw.gov.au/

Kind regards,
Paul Payten

EcoSTEPS - Sustainability Partner

Riley Neugebauer Washington Jun 8, 2006 11:22 am

Johanna,

DC has GreenDC Week every year now, or at least for the last 2-3 years. It is one way to get the word out about sustainability in the city. www.greendcweek.net This is mainly planned by the DC Energy Office and their Sustainable Solutions Division which you can check out at: http://dceo.dc.gov/dceo/cwp/view,a,3,q,601401,dceoNav,%7C32974%7C,.asp

Riley

Riley Neugebauer
Environmental Coordinator American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016
202-885-3757
Fax: 202-885-1165

Steve Mecca Jamestown Jun 8, 2006 20:20 pm

Johanna,

We have assisted a couple of Florida cities with sustainability by helping to establish a "Greening Anytown" program. The Mayor or City Council or School Board will sign or pass a "Greening Anytown" Resolution that will sanction initiatives and activities that promote sustainability. The city employees have a sense of empowerment when they have ownership of helping the city save money and natural resources and reduce emissions through things such as water conservation programs and energy reduction initiatives.

Steve Mecca

Ecotech Water
www.ecotechwater.com
(401) 560-0050
(877) 341-9500

Burt Hamner Jun 10, 2006 11:39 am

Hi all.

My website Links directory has a page about clean production and pollution prevention in communities, with great links to practical stuff http://cleanerproduction.com/Directory/sectors/urban2.htm On the page is a link to another page of sustainable city networks around the world. Through them you can find lots of examples. You can also get a great CD ROM reference with best-in-class publications on this topic at http://cleanerproduction.com/hits/local.htm It will save you a lot of time downloading and all the publications are described so you can find what you want fast. Finally, the US EPA Region 9 (California and west) has a website about Green Star programs in communities to promote green business specifically. http://www.efc9.org/ I helped the Philippine League of Cities start a Clean Cities project that has helped them immensely - we trained the mayors' advisors in green business methods using Total Quality Management as the foundation because they are really into TQM there due to large Japanese manufacturing presence. TQM is an EXCELLENT foundation for practical sustainability because it is team- and process-based. People and product, not policy and PR. The advisors then got the Mayor to get lots of businesses on board. The Mayor in Philippine cities has a lot more *real* power than American mayors. When he says jump you jump. We started our green biz programs on City Hall so all the council members got the idea, then spread to the companies that do a lot of business with the City. We focused on reducing solid waste management costs thru prevention, design and recycling in new small businesses. We got savings and new jobs. In CBSM terms this was role modeling by the Mayor, and incentives (don't piss off the Mayor), and prompts all the time by community leaders. I hope that gives you some ideas. If anyone on this list is particularly interested in CBSM applied to small business, I am working on that now with City of Seattle and others. Please reply if you'd like to share ideas. I have not found any good articles showing specifically how CBSM can be applied to small businesses and am thinking of writing one based on lots of sort-of-related examples. Any references will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Burton Hamner

Director, Cleaner Production International Producer, http://www.CleanerProduction.Com
5534 30th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105
[email protected]
(206) 526-5308 mobile
(206) 491-0945 fax
(215) 565-4558 (yes, different area code)

George Hoguet Media Jun 12, 2006 14:30 pm

Just came back from the 2006 BALLE conference in Burlington, VT entitled Creating Sustainable Communities. There were 460 of us from the U.S & Canada, and even a few folks considering networks in Nepal, Japan and Australia. A great presentation was given by Sustainable Connections in Bellingham, Washington. Worth checking out: http://www.livingeconomies.org/aboutus/networks/spotlightsc.

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