Local Strategies for Accelerating Sustainability - Burlington, VT, USA

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Developing a Cohesive Strategy for Sustainability in Burlington, USA

STRATEGY
Building a new culture of sustainability

CHALLENGE
To broaden community understanding of the need for long-term and interconnected projects to revitalize the urban center (local economy and environment) in the face of regional suburbanization

ACTION
Develop a long-term community vision, based on sustainability principles and a multi-faceted action plan to provide the basis for nurturing a culture of sustainability.

PROFILE
City of Burlington, Vermont, U.S.A.
Population: 39,824
Land Area: 27 km2
Municipal Budget: US$158 million

CASE
The City of Burlington is the largest urban center in the state of Vermont and its economic hub. Over the past two decades, Burlington has become known for its progressive approach to governance and its strong tradition of activism. The government of Burlington, local organizations and residents have implemented many diverse projects with a focus on sustainable community development and principles of economic self-sufficiency, equity, environmental protection and participation.

Raising awareness of its citizens and providing access to information are central to Burlington's sustainability strategy. Over the years, Burlington has developed several mechanisms for citizen engagement in the governance process, including citizen commissions and boards working with each municipal department.

Burlington has also been active in a number of initiatives to improve the quality of the natural and built environment.

A major initiative to revitalize the city's waterfront was undertaken in the 1980s which involved cleaning up abandoned industrial sites and creating community and recreational resources.
The municipally-owned Burlington Electric Department has implemented many energy conservation and efficiency measures, which have resulted in a decrease in community energy consumption by 18% since 1989.
Several projects have focused on creating equitable opportunities for local residents to participate in the economy. For example, the city has begun employment training programs including a job readiness training center to provide resources and support for higher skilled jobs and Step Up For Women, a free program to teach low- and moderate-income women trade skills.
Economic initiatives have helped to strengthen markets for and access to locally produced goods and services.
In 1988, the city supported the development of the Burlington Housing Trust Fund that assists non-profit groups to establish perpetually affordable housing for low- and moderate-income households. More than 750 affordable housing units have been created.

In spite of Burlington's success in the 1980s and 1990s in improving its community, it became apparent that these initiatives were not well connected to each other and a broader method to promote sustainability was required. More recently, the city has faced a number of interrelated problems, including a shortage of affordable housing, increased poverty, environmental degradation and population decline, as a result of rapid suburban growth and other local development trends.

Legacy Project
In response to these new challenges and as the organizing component of its strategy to promote sustainability, Burlington embarked on a comprehensive process to develop a community vision for the future of the city. As well, the city set out to create a plan that integrates its diverse initiatives into a common framework. Initiated in 1999 by Mayor Peter Clavelle, the Legacy Project seeks to engage all citizens in a dialogue about the principles and actions that will guide the community over the next 30 years.

The planning process, Burlington's most extensive participation effort to date, was directed by a steering committee comprised of stakeholders from non-governmental and business institutions along with youth and municipal representatives. Their actions will have a major impact on the future of the city.

Over a period of a year-and-a-half, more than a 1,000 residents contributed to the development of the vision through a multi-faceted participation process. In March 2000, a "Summit on the City's Future" was held in which more than 300 participants finalized the Legacy Project Action Plan. The plan presents goal statements that describe Burlington in 2030, priority actions for achieving these goals and indicators for assessing the city's progress. Burlington City Council unanimously approved the plan in June 2000. The principles and objectives of the Legacy Plan have since been integrated into the city's overall municipal development plan.

The common vision that emerged through this process is of Burlington as a regional economic center with an enhanced quality of life and economic security for all residents, a responsive government and extensive civic participation, and a healthy natural environment. The Legacy Project was successful in formalizing a community vision which had been developing over time, resolving a number of fundamental issues facing the city and integrating many diverse policies and programs into a comprehensive strategy for the city. This success was a result of the widespread participation of citizens and community organizations in the process, the forum of open debate that was created, and the commitment of key stakeholders, including political leaders, to the process.

The challenge of the Legacy Project is to balance future growth with the principles of sustainability that underlie the community's vision:

economic security, local self-sufficiency and equity;
empowerment and responsibility;
social wellbeing;
ecological integrity.

The Legacy Plan provides a framework for implementing these principles through a series of diverse actions. Collaboration among all stakeholders is the approach adopted for initiating these actions. Municipal departments and the stakeholder groups have made commitments to implementing components of the plan, including providing information and resources. The project steering committee meets quarterly to assess whether progress is being made on their commitments and to ensure accountability in the implementation process. Once a year, the city produces an annual report, and a town meeting is held to evaluate the community's progress and assess whether any changes need to be made to the priorities established in the plan.

RESULTS
Through the Legacy Project, a number of changes have been implemented to make the governance system more accountable and democratic, including changes to the City Charter that make municipal departments directly accountable to the Mayor and hence voting citizens. The Legacy Project has helped to further educate citizens about the critical issues facing the city and the necessary actions for sustainability.

One recent action that furthers the aims of the Legacy Project was Burlington's endorsement in June 2001 of the Earth Charter, a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society. In committing to the Charter, the city recognized that the issues facing Burlington are not isolated problems, that other communities around the world have similar concerns and values, and that sustainable development requires a global framework to unite human efforts. "If we could all be working from the same page, success is more likely," states Mayor Peter Clavelle. For Burlington, like the many other municipal signatories, the Earth Charter is an important educational tool for enhancing citizen awareness about the complexities of sustainability and for guiding the work of individuals and institutions.

LESSONS LEARNED
The commitment of local political leadership and representatives of the city's major organizations to the concept of sustainability has been critical to the process. Citizens and representatives of business, local organizations and governments have become more aware of the critical issues facing the city and the principles and necessary actions for implementing sustainability.

Although Burlington's collaborative approach has been one of its strong points, it has also been very challenging to implement as there was initially no institutionalized structure in place reflecting this new model of governance. Finally, despite its success in raising the awareness of its citizens, Burlington's experience has demonstrated the challenge of aligning attitudes with behavioral change and that nurturing a culture of sustainability is a long-term endeavor.

KEY REPLICATION FACTORS
Burlington's strategy of fostering a culture of sustainability has demonstrated the importance of adopting a long-term, integrated approach to sustainable development and grounding a city's sustainability framework in a set of principles that are defined by the community. Nurturing broad citizen participation and collaboration with community organizations in the visioning and implementation processes are key factors of success.

CONTACT
Mark T. Eldridge
Director of Planning and Zoning
City of Burlington
Fax: +1-802/865-7195
Email: meldridge@ci.burlington.vt.us

Link to the full Burlington case study.

Kolding, Denmark
In 1994 the Town of Kolding, Denmark, signed the Aalborg Charter and committed itself to pursuing sustainable municipal development. This commitment was acted upon in the town's Municipal Plan in 1998. Among other actions, this document obliges the municipality to increase its environmental management through green planning and purchasing. Kolding evaluates all products and services on environmental criteria as well as on price and quality. Kolding is the area's largest employer and this action has considerable potential for widespread impacts.

Jinja, Uganda
In 1995, Jinja, the second largest urban center in Uganda, launched its Local Agenda 21 (LA21. Before this an unemployment rate of 70 percent and widespread poverty prevented the municipality from collecting sufficient taxes to provide basic services. Most residents lacked access to clean water and the waste management system was inadequate. Jinja's LA21 set out to improve services to residents while protecting the natural environment.

A wide variety of stakeholders participated and the process was particularly successful at including women. The LA21 initiatives eventually resulted in the identification of numerous self-run community projects. Projects include a profit-generating composting initiative and a biogas digester which uses human waste to generate methane that is then used as an energy source for lighting and cooking. These projects are run by elected management committees independently of the municipality, provide essential services to the community and have nurtured community capacity. Working together for a more sustainable future has become commonplace in Jinja.

This process has changed residents' attitudes, instilling a spirit of volunteerism, demonstrating the value of resources, and, perhaps most importantly, building their capacity. Local people are more positive about their ability to influence their situation, take care of their environment, and improve their living conditions.

Decentralization promoted by the national government has undoubtedly been a facilitating factor to the LA21 process, and conversely, LA21 has encouraged residents of Jinja to participate in local government.