Community sustainability is something that a lot of municipal governments are working on. Vancouver, Calgary, Whitehorse, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax and many others are adopting policies and plans to help them become more sustainable. Note that I’m saying “more sustainable”.  That is because community sustainability is a moving target.  Deborah Curran’s article “Wicked” in Alternatives, which discussed how community sustainability fits the definition of a “wicked” problem summed up much of what I encounter on a regular basis working for a municipality.

Curren introduced the concept of wicked problems with a quote from John C. Camillus of the University of Pitsburg.

“Wickedness isn’t a degree of difficulty.  Wicked issues are different because traditional processes can’t resolve them. …A wicked problem has innumerable causes, is tough to describe, and doesn’t have a right answer. … Environmental degradation, terrorism, and poverty – these are classic examples of wicked problems.  They’re the opposite of ordinary but hard problems, which people can solve in a finite time period by applying standard techniques.  Not only do conventional processes fail to tackle wicked problems, but they may exacerbate situations by generating undesirable consequences.”

Up until recently, most municipal governments set up their organization so that one department would be responsible for specializing in one set of problems or a specific desired outcome. Its how a lot of organizations are set up and the “silos” can be really effective in dealing with single issues. But as Curren noted and as I regularly observe, many “solutions” offered by this model can lead to new problems, complications or don’t reach all of their objectives.

Municipalities have started to tackle the wickedness of sustainability by attempting more integrated and nuanced approaches, like community sustainability plans. Below are a few things that community sustainability plans offer that is different from what has been done in the past.

Vision

Municipalities used to figure out their future direction by assuming that current trends (like population-growth, land-consumption and energy-use) could be extrapolated indefinitely into the future. This may have been a good short-term strategy but it doesn’t really work well in the long-term. With community sustainability plans, municipalities are now asking questions like ‘what kind of community do we really want to be and how should we get there?”

markham's sustainability fair, october 2009

Long-term Planning

Most municipalities only look at maximum of 20 to 30 years into the future, sometimes because that is the common practice and other times because that is the provincial legislation.  Community sustainability plans are giving municipalities the chance to look at longer timeframes, like 100 years, and consider trends that other plans might overlook, like climate change, peak oil, economic restructuring and food security.

Connections

The “silos” that have dominated municipal government departments is starting to be tweaked by community sustainability plans.  With broad, overarching vision and goals that don’t coincide with the typical department breakdown of municipalities, community sustainability plans are pushing not only different departments to work together, but also for municipalities to work with their neighbours, other levels of government, businesses, NGOs, and residents.

Multiple Bottom-lines

The “business case” is integral to any report that goes to a municipal council and it is unlikely that that is going to change much.  But thankfully it is being joined by other bottom-lines related to the environmental, social and cultural goals that a municipality sets when they undertake a community sustainability plan.

markham's sustainability fair, october 2009

Community

Community consultation is common practice for municipalities.  What makes community sustainability plans different is that they don’t just ask community members for their reactions, they also get them involved during the process of developing the plan and just as importantly the implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Municipalities are still beginning to figure out community sustainability.  These new approaches might not entirely resolve the wickedness of it but they are offering some much needed rethinking to how municipal governments should be making decision and interacting with residents, which is an important step in the right direction.  So check out what your municipality is doing and if they have a sustainability office get in touch to see how you can become involved.

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