by Rebecca Walker — December 4, 2009—ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability USA has launched a comprehensive resource to guide cities and countries, step by step, through the process of greening their communities.
The 55-page Sustainability Planning Toolkit is modeled after the city of New York’s highly successful PlaNYC guide and was developed by ICLEI in collaboration with the New York Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability.
The toolkit is replete with best practice examples, checklists, templates and guidelines that provide an explicit how-to for users. Steps covered include building the planning team, structuring the planning process and a look at the strategies and measures to include in plans.
The guide is premised on “five milestone” tasks that authors say local governments must complete to in order to move forward:
- Milestone 1: Conduct a sustainability assessment
- Milestone 2: Establish sustainability goals
- Milestone 3: Develop a local sustainability plan
- Milestone 4: Implement policies and measures
- Milestone 5: Evaluate progress and report results
By following that path, local governments can devise effective, measurable goals that can be measured over time, the organization says.
The toolkit is the first of two key resources that will offered by ICLEI USA. The second is the STAR Community Index, which is expected to formally launch in 2011 and is to provide a framework for “gauging the sustainability and livability of U.S. communities,” the organization says.
For more information, see the Web site.
