30 KEY 1
HIRE A COORDINATOR TO RUN THE SHOW
Many hands will touch a sustainability plan and many voices weigh in, but one person must be the quarterback, and in countless cities, that’s either a sustainability coordinator or another internal staffer dedicated to shepherding this process. To coordinate the planning process for Baltimore’s sustainability plan, for example, Mayor Sheila Dixon created an Office of Sustainability and designated one project manager to coordinate the planning process full-time and added a part-time manager as well.
KEY 2
OBTAIN BUY-IN FROM A BIG WIG
Buy-in from an elected official (or multiple officials if possible) is essential. Elected officials play a critical role in communicating key messages to the public and ensuring the commitment and participation of government departments. In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s strong and visible commitment drove the creation of PlaNYC.
KEY 3
FORM TEAMS THAT BUILD BRIDGES ACROSS CITY DEPARTMENTS —AND BEYOND CITY HALL
Bringing together the right people is essential. Developing a sustainability plan requires assembling an interdepartmental team of local government staff, plus outside experts and community leaders knowledgeable in a range of fields. For example, the City of Tacoma, WA, formed a 30-member sustainability advisory board of elected officials, business leaders, environmental and community advocates, labor leaders, planners, and developers.
KEY 4
DEVELOP A GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS INVENTORY
To conduct a sustainability assessment, a local government needs to research and assess a range of environmental, economic, and social equity challenges within the jurisdiction. A key assessment is the greenhouse gas emissions inventory, which touches upon many sustainability factors, including housing, air quality, and infrastructure capacity.
Local governments are on the front lines of climate change, and a sustainability plan can drive a city or county’s climate mitigation efforts. The first step, however, is to obtain accurate data on the overall GHG emissions and their individual sources, such as buildings and transportation.
KEY 5
DEFINE CLEAR, RELEVANT, AND
MEASURABLE GOALS
The hallmark of a successful sustainability plan is a list of high- level targets that can be measured. During the creation of PlaNYC, Mayor Bloomberg’s emphasis on “you can’t manage what you can’t measure” led to the creation of 10 overarching goals that could be tracked and quantified—and could also inspire. Two of the goals: “Open 90 percent of our waterways for recreation by reducing water pollution and preserving our natural areas;” and “Ensure that all New Yorkers live within a 10-minute walk of a park.”
KEY 6
ALLOW COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO EXPRESS THE SUSTAINABILITY GOALS IMPORTANT TO THEM
Two central principles in sustainability planning are transparency and inclusiveness. Local governments should include the public throughout the planning process, via public meetings, events, or website surveys. Newark’s Green Future Summit in 2007 enabled the people of Newark to define what sustainability means to them, and what goals will make Newark a more sustainable place to live and work. The Summit results provide a starting point for the development of a plan.
KEY 7
DEVELOP IM- PLEMENTATION PLANS WITHIN A PLAN
Once a city has nailed down the individual measures to achieve major goals, the next step is developing implementation strategies for each. These mini- plans can include an implementation timeline, responsible department/ organization, key milestones for each measure, and available funding.
PlaNYC, for example, contains 127 initiatives aimed at achieving the city’s 10 sustainability goals. It includes a matrix of initiatives and goals and the implementation plan matrix used day- to-day to manage and coordinate the plan.
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KEY 8
RELEASE A DRAFT PLAN FOR PUBLIC COMMENT
In addition to engaging community stakeholders, it is essential to solicit broad community feedback before the plan is finalized. This helps build understanding, galvanize support, and deepen buy-in. In Baltimore, community members had six months to provide feedback on its sustainability plan via Baltimore’s online public consultation portal and through public meetings.
KEY 9
OBSESSIVELY TRACK THE IMPLEMENTA- TION STATUS OF INITIATIVES
Plans that succeed, versus plans that sit on a shelf, are ones that include indicators, data sources, and baseline data to continually track progress. For example, the Minneapolis GreenPrint includes 25 sustainability indicators (healthy infants, renewable energy, affordable housing, etc.). A coordinator was assigned to each indicator, whose job was to implement the measures and strategies, coordinate activities across departments, and track progress.
KEY 10
REMAIN ACCOUNTABLE TO THE PUBLIC
Each year, New York City releases a PlaNYC Progress Report to the public with detailed updates on progress toward the 10 sustainability goals. One year after PlaNYC’s release in April 2007, the city could report that it had launched 93 percent of the 127 initiatives in the plan; two years after the release, the city reported that all of the initiatives had been launched, 35 had been completed, and 50 were on time. PE
PLANET EARTH \\ SUSTAINABILITY SUCCESS STORY
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