Sustainable Development Initiative

The Sustainable Development Initiative approaches community and economic development, education, planning and research from a sustainable perspective, incorporating the cornerstones of sustainability into our work and program offerings. These cornerstones are:

  • Inclusion:  Sustainability promotes inclusion of a broad base of stakeholders in community visioning, planning and implementation
  • Long-term:  Sustainability takes a long-range perspective, looking out to future generations to insure that the decisions we make today do not cause harm 
  • Interconnection:  Linking and interconnecting social, economic and environmental goals so that all three spheres thrive in unison
  • Multidimensional:  Development of measurements of success that link and balance social, economic and environmental goals of community.

We offer a wide range of services including community planning (comprehensive, land use, economic development, community visioning/goal setting), educational resources, in-services, curricula and research results. Since our establishment in 2000 we have designed and guided 11 communities in the development of plans using sustainability cornerstones. These communities include counties, cities, villages, townships and regions. Copies of plans are accessible through the Completed Projects page of this site. We also offer a number of related programs that can be undertaken in support of sustainable community building. These include Sustainable Entrepreneurship, First Impressions and Renewable Energy. These links can be found at the bottom of this page.

We offer a progressive level of services and fees, from access to our resources on the web to design and facilitation of sustainable community planning projects. Click here to view the levels of services provided for comprehensive community planning.

Leadership for development and implementation of the Sustainable Development Initiative is provided by Myra Moss through the Community Development Program Unit.

Program Offerings

Completed Projects and Updates

Educational Resources
Research Material Overview

 

 


Related programs: