A “Sustainable Community Plan” sets goals for the future that help communities realize a vision, uses indicators to track progress towards these goals, and includes action plans that have roles for government, citizens, businesses, schools, and civic organizations. Such plan is created through a dialogue that incorporates local residents’ desires for the future and an understanding of the impact every community has on regional and global sustainability issues such as sprawl and global warming. The plan should also include a vision statement and a comprehensive set of goals for becoming a sustainable community, indicators to track progress toward each goal and targets for achievement, in addition to action plans.

Once goals and targets have been identified, actions answer the question of “How will we get there?” Action steps are the programs, policies, and projects that will be adopted to achieve the goals set by the Sustainable Community Plan.

Sustainable Community Plan vs. Municipal Master Plan

Actions under the umbrella of the Sustainable Community Plan address a broad community planning process separate from the municipal Master Plan. A municipal Master Plan directs the future development of the municipality and typically focuses on issues related to land use, while a Sustainable Community Plan may include actions related to energy use or influencing individual behaviors. Although the Sustainable Community Plan tracks a variety of conditions and guides actions to improve those conditions, it may also include elements related to community development. For this reason, after developing a Sustainable Community Plan, municipalities should ensure consistency between their Sustainable Community Plan and municipal Master Plan.

Why is it important?

Any community can benefit from the development of a Sustainable Community Plan. For those municipalities considering sustainability for the first time, this planning process is a logical step. Communities that have already taken important initiatives toward sustainability can gain advantages from a Sustainable Community Plan by highlighting existing achievements, evaluating past programs, and coordinating future efforts.

Sustainability requires local action. While the major issues of pollution and climate change transcend national boundaries, it has been estimated that as much as 60% of efforts to achieve environmental sustainability will need to be addressed at a local level.1 International, federal, and state initiatives for sustainability cannot succeed without the active leadership of local communities.

A Sustainable Community Plan showcases commitment to a green future. By articulating a forward-thinking vision, a Sustainable Community Plan raises the green profile of a municipality and prepares the community to better compete in the 21st century economy.

A Sustainable Community Plan builds public support. Creating a Sustainable Community Plan enables citizens to learn about sustainability issues and captures community spirit. A participatory process encourages individual commitments to sustainability while building support for public initiatives.

Participatory planning expands community capacity. A thoughtful planning process engages community stakeholders to build a common vision and enhance local capacity for action steps.

A Sustainable Community Plan can stabilize local budgets. Many actions toward sustainability will generate long-term cost savings. Energy, waste management, and water use, for example, are areas in which judicious policies benefit the citizens of the future and budgets of today.

A Sustainable Community Plan facilitates tracking and accountability. Building indicators, targets, and reporting into a plan allows citizens to monitor community progress toward sustainability and holds government and private stakeholders accountable for action steps.