Many APA-SCP members are pushing the envelope of sustainable community planning in their own jobs and organizations. Here are some recent reports of this good work:
member update: State of the Environment report for Chatham County, NC
by Amanda Campbell, Environmental Science and Policy Consultant
I writing a ‘State of the Environment’ report for Chatham County, NC to help inform sustainable community planning as we begin our land use plan update. The report contains indicators pertaining to land, air, water resources, waste, environmental education, and environmental health, and touches on how the natural environment contributes to a vibrant economy and healthy residents. The purpose of the report is to identify and describe yardsticks to measure progress.
member update: The Natural Step – USA
by Heidi Speight, The Natural Step – USA
The City of Lake Oswego, Oregon is updating its comprehensive plan using The Natural Step (TNS) Framework. The revised plan now includes a vision that Lake Oswego will be sustainable in 2035. The comprehensive plan’s goals have been reduced from 19 to 7 for easier understanding. In addition the city has prepared a sustainability planning tool for citizens to better understand and engage in the process. Notably the tool integrates TNS strategic questions: does a particular goal, strategy or action, move the city closer toward its vision of sustainability, is it a flexible platform, and what is the return-on-investment?
Natural Step Associate Duke Castle is facilitating a one-day training specifically for planners. Creating a Sustainable Community using The Natural Step, Thursday, February 17, 2011 from 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM (PT) Oregon City, OR. Visit http://www.naturalstepusa.org/sustainability-courses/ for additional courses.
TNS-International will complete its 2010 strategy from being a small licensee network over the past 20 years to becoming an open, dynamic, global network of sustainability leaders. See this special issue of our newsletter.
We are going to be at the Green Professionals Conference 2011 and Wisconsin Bioneers. Maybe we’ll see you there!
report: TNS Integrated Community Sustainability Planning course
by Scott Edmondson, Sustainability 2030
The 5-month-long Fall 2010 The Natural Step-Canada Integrated Community Sustainability Planning (ICSP) course will conclude in mid-January. We recently completed two productive workshops in Toronto in October and December (details). In two words: powerful and inspirational. As the final homework assignment, I will prepare an ICSP process plan on renewing the San Francisco Sustainability Plan for advances in sustainability over the past 12 years, including the next-generation, powerful integrative approaches to community sustainability planning that are essential for sustainability success.
APA-SCD 