Governance for Resilient, Sustainable Cities – Conference Report
Creative Commons photo by Shawn McClung
What is it about current governance and decision-making systems that make them so resistant to change and act as barriers to implementing sustainability? A packed room of city counselors, sustainability consultants and public participation advocates explored this question with workshop leader Chris Lindberg at a Gaining Ground workshop on Wednesday.
Participants identified four reasons that our government and decision-making systems slow-down sustainability initiatives:
- Multi-jurisdictional systems reduce the capacity to act and dilute ownership of key issues
- Leaders are hesitant to share power and take risks
- The perfect can get in the way of the good
- Lack of imagination for alternatives to business-as-usual.
Planning Implementation Gap
Conference moderator Rob Abbott answered the question by pointing to communities’ habit of spending an inordinate amount of time crafting the plan, vision, or growth strategy, and not enough time on the organizational and institutional reforms required to achieve goals. Lindberg suggested two solutions to this gap: (a) continuity: ensure integration of the planning and implementation systems, and, (b) alignment: look for ways to complement sustainability planning with other community plans and signals.
Gibsons’ Community Leadership
Gibsons Town Councilor Lee Ann Johnson shared a success story, where government collaborated with citizens to achieve a sustainability success. Backyard burning was a common way of disposing of household trash and yard waste in Gibsons, but it can produce toxic smoke and smog. So, the town began a program with information, moved to voluntary participation in a free backyard waste drop-off program, and finally passed a rule to outlaw backyard burning. Gibsons’ incremental approach developed many champions for the program, and enforcement is now community-led.
Systemic Views
This Gibsons story is a good example of engaging all three players in governance for sustainable cities: leaders (elected and administration), communities (the represented), and systems in which the first two are embedded. It’s this last piece that is the hardest to grapple with, but the most essential for ensuring long lasting change. Check out leaders in this field such as Donella Meadows, Jamais Cascio, and Peter Senge.
Chris Lindberg’s Assessment of Sustainability Barriers in Governance and Decision-making Systems
Structures
- Short term emphasis of political cycle
- Existing, entrenched systems
- Resources and funding processes (people, time, money)
- Counter-productive rewards and incentives
- Marginalizing sustainability
- Silos and performance incentives
- Lack of integrated structure for planning and decision-making
Processes
- Debate instead of dialogue
- Over reliance on technical expertise and consultants
- Existing decision-making tools insufficient
- Difficultly maintaining momentum (inertia)
- Lack of clear vision of community future that includes sustainability processes
Attitudes
- Lack of leadership and political will
- Lack of sustainability literacy and capacity
- Sustainable community development frameworks not practical (too complex / resource intensive)
- Failure to understand that sustainability is about economics
- Failure to use appropriate policy instructions and strategies
Chris Lindberg’s Assessment of Sustainability Opportunities in Governance and Decision-making Systems
Enablers
- City wide (sustainability) visions
- Management basics: strategic planning, performance measures, reporting
- Accountability mechanisms
- Ongoing stakeholder engagement
- Cross-departmental teams
- Decision-making tools (triple-bottom line analysis)
- Smart policies that shift incentives
- Flexible, adaptable systems
- Sustainability champions (internal, external, hybrid actors)
Strategies
- Compelling stories
- Bold, inspiring outcomes
- Accountability (Dockside Green had accountability built into its procurement process)
- Align all aspects so it supports
- Integration
- Build capacity ongoing
- Empower and delegate (offers powerful source for action – crowd)
- Innovate and take risks
- Incentives and structures
- Leverage assets and multipliers
- Lead
