CitiesGoGreen - November 2008 - (Page 17)

term strategy in the community, that benefit both the environment and the economy, and that provide social fairness to our residents. Putting every bad land use in a low-income neighborhood is not a way to create a sustainable community. So even issues of land use, or issues of low-income areas, key neighborhoods, those kinds of issues are about sustainability, too. It’s not just environmental, although the environment is certainly a focus. If you look at the history of civilizations, those that abused their environmental settings have not been successful societies. So the idea of sustainability means we try to make decisions based in the center of that Venn diagram. the scenes are the ones making a lot of not a dialogue, although it needs to be. What we’re trying to do in communi- the business decisions. We are professionties is encourage a broader-based con- als, and we are trying to encourage the versation about what the community wants to be, what its If you look through the history of civilizations, future should be, what are the threats, what are the natural those that abused their environmental settings advantages our communities have. All of those visioning- have not been successful societies. type formats that are increasingly popular around the country are change occurring in each of our organizapart of that idea. Environmental issues tions toward more of a common sustainable culture. are often at the core of the discussion. Encouraging change Local governments are a powerful source of change. I think one of the really positive things, one of the reasons I’m involved in the advisory committee of ICMA for sustainability, is that local entities are choosing to make an impact now. Very frequently you’ll see a lot of leadership coming from local units of government. We have elected officials to be out front on these issues. The business managers of cities and counties are usually not the people that want to be out front. That’s why we have alliances with the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties and the US Conference of Mayors. Those individuals, those political leaders who will likely rise up in office, they’re very interested in being out front and being involved in these issues. But there’s a place for us who are behind the scenes. The managers behind Respect for people and place In America, we are a society that used to pick up and move whenever things didn’t go right. You could always go west, and now a lot of people are looking at the fact that you can’t go west any longer. You have to go back and reinvest in places where you were. Sometimes its investing in inner-city neighborhoods, and sometimes its redeveloping your communities in a more sustainable way, like smart growth and higher density levels in certain areas and agricultural preservation in other areas. A resettlement of America is taking place in our cities and towns, one of denser development, of more civic space. I see it as a major sea change in the last decade and a half. The disappearance of the frontier has obviously been a fact for longer than that, but not necessarily the idea that sustainable community is where you try to honor the history of the place. We teach our employees, for example, about the natural environmental history of Alachua County, because it’s important when they become employed here that they recognize this as a unique place. There are historical places here, places that don’t even have signs, yet everyone in our county can tell you what that historical place is. Our leadership ethic here in Alachua County is really about creating respect for people and place. Those people are not only our employees but the public we serve, the taxpayers, the people who live here who consider Alachua County a special place. Then there’s also that idea of place itself. We have new towns being developed, modern university facilities at the University of Florida in Gainesville and historic structures. We have natural systems here such as wetland systems. We 17 Creating conversation The overlapping area between any two of the circles, such as between the environment and the economy, or between social equity and the economy are areas where we as managers really need to focus on building community conversations. Building community requires conversation, and to create a sustainable community, you need to encourage conversations between those elements of the community that are represented by those overlapping parts of the circle. Community discussions are typically geared to the public forum format, where there are two sides, like a bride side and a groom side. People pack the place, and there are already positions taken. It’s really Three Elements of Sustainable Communities Environment Social Equity Economy THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE November 2008 http://www.nlc.org http://www.nlc.org http://www.naco.org http://www.naco.org http://www.usmayors.org http://www.usmayors.org http://www.co.alachua.fl.us http://citiesgogreen.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CitiesGoGreen - November 2008

CitiesGoGreen - November 2008 Contents In Motion Disaster Housing for $200: The Hexayurt Coming Soon: A Code-Ready Green Building Standard from ASHRAE ICMA Embraces Sustainability Fort Collins, Colorado Interview: ClimateWise, Business Smart 12-for-1 Parking: Bike Corrals Fresno County More Biking and Walking for Better Communities

CitiesGoGreen - November 2008

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