Sustainable Communities

The Sustainable Communities Commitment

The resolution on sustainability has been put into the form of a personal commitment that you as an individual member can adopt. As an international local government leadership organization, it’s critically important that we establish our place in the sustainability conversations that are taking place everyday at the local level. And to compete for the talent of the next generation, we need to be relevant and continue to make sustainability a priority of this organization in order to attract the best and the brightest into our profession. The Sustainable Communities Commitment is a special way for members to come together to raise and leverage their collective voice for responsible growth and development. Join a growing number of your fellow ICMA members who have already signed the Sustainable Communities Commitment. To read and sign the commitment, click here.

"To transmit this city, not only not less, but greater, better, and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us." For decades, professional managers have drawn inspiration from the ancient oath of the Athenian republic, taken by citizens to assert their responsibility to leave a legacy for future generations.

Today, a worldwide movement to create sustainable communities has defined such communities in terms very similar to the Athenian oath: “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” City and county managers are responding to the call to provide leadership in their communities, and guidance and support to their elected officials, in meeting this challenge.

For ICMA, sustainability means balancing the values of environmental stewardship, economic development, and social equity. ICMA members understand that a “balanced scorecard” approach is necessary to determine whether a community is achieving its objectives. City and county managers are the key executives in local government who see the community and the organization in its entirety, without being tied to one department, one interest group, or one political point of view.

For these reasons, ICMA has for many years been in the forefront of helping local governments meet the challenges inherent in building sustainable communities. To further this work, in 2007 ICMA launched the Sustainable Communities Leadership Initiative.

The leadership initiative has the following components:

• Generating a dialogue among members to define and establish the manager’s role in building sustainable communities—to participate in the conversation, members can sign up for ICMA’s Sustainability Discussion Forum.
• Establishing a Sustainability Advisory Group of ICMA members to lead the discussion and provide guidance to the organization.
• Developing management tools, establishing priorities, and measuring performance.
• Education in leading practices through publications, resources, conferences, and workshops.

On October 9, 2007, the ICMA membership adopted a Resolution on Sustainability, committing the organization and its members to several goals for building more sustainable communities.

For more information about ICMA’s perspective on sustainability, download this Management Perspective or review additional ICMA resources on sustainabilty in our Resource Center.

Related sustainability initiatives include:

• Redevelopment of Brownfields 
• Environmental Management 
• Smart Growth 
• Active and Healthy Living 
• Intergenerational Communities 
• Local government awards for sustainability 

ICMA also addresses sustainability through:

• Consulting services and policy and quantitative research offered through ICMA Results Networks 
• Workshops and courses offered through ICMA University 
• Publications offered through ICMA Press 
• Training and support offered through ICMA International. 

Downloads

ICMA Resolution on Sustainability (Adobe Acrobat Document, 23 KB)

Sustainable Communities Management Perspective (Adobe Acrobat Document, 240 KB)