[OKC] From Stormwater: National Survey Shows Local Governments Slowly Adopting Sustainability Initiatives

[Miles, Karen]

September 23, 2010


National Survey Shows Local Governments Slowly Adopting Sustainability
Initiatives

Washington, DC - A new survey released today by ICMA, the International
City/County Management Association, shows that while communities across
the nation are increasingly conscious of sustainability issues, many
localities are still at the beginning stages of turning green-focused
priorities into concrete actions related to sustainability and energy
conservation.
As the first national survey to establish benchmarks for sustainability
initiatives in local government, the Sustainability Survey 2010 features
the responses of 2,176 local governments from throughout the nation.
"While there is near shared agreement in the desire to create more
sustainable communities, putting goals into action is a larger
challenge," suggests Tad McGalliard, ICMA's Director of Sustainability.
"This survey helps ICMA better understand where the issues are in
implementing sustainability as a strategic priority and certainly will
guide us as we create new knowledge resources, partnerships, and other
support for local governments."
The survey findings include the following notable results:
* Most local governments consider the environment and energy
conservation key priorities: A full 70% of respondents called "energy
conservation" a "priority" (46%) or a "high priority" (24%). Similarly,
nearly two-thirds of local government respondents (62%), consider the
"environment" a priority, including 21% of respondents calling it a
"high priority."
* While governments are conscious of the need for sustainability,
specific plans are slower to take hold: When asked what specific
planning actions related to sustainability and energy conservation they
had taken, only 29% had adopted a resolution outlining specific policy
goals - and that was the most popular response. Additionally, most
localities had yet to assign dedicated staff to sustainability efforts
(27% had), establish specific benchmarks related to sustainability(19%),
established or appointed a task force (28%), or provided a budget
specifically for their efforts (16%).
Article continues at: 
http://www.stormh2o.com/the-latest/icma-sustainability-initiatives.aspx
 
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