John Colton is chair of the Centre for Rural Sustainability and is an Associate for The Natural Step. In this article he explores the issues and challenges surrounding planning and implementation of Municipal Sustainability Plans, of which the most commonly used were The Natural Step Frame work, for Municipal World.

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Municipalities across Canada have either developed or in the process of developing Integrated Community Sustainability Plans (ICSPs) or similar types of planning documents that support municipal sustainability. While the catalyst for many of these initiatives is the opportunity to access funding through the federal gas tax program, there is also growing awareness that planning for sustainability is the right thing to do.

[...] Sustainability planning was supported by a number of frameworks from which municipalities borrowed key concepts that would support their planning. Those frameworks most commonly used were The Natural Step, Life Cycle Analysis, and (to a lesser extent) Smart Growth. Several municipalities invested resources into training staffto better familiarize them with sustainability frameworks and processes. This occurred most frequently with The Natural Step, and where this occurred it was noted that the cultural mind shift toward sustainability planning was enhanced significantly. Unfortunately, while many respondents noted the importance ofsupporting a cultural mind shift with respect to susfainability, lack offunds was a barrier to this type of training.

To read more, please click here. Thank you to John Colton and Municipal World.