This is Part II in a 7-part series “All About ICLEI”
All About ICLEI: Part I – The Mayor’s Speech
Our series began by providing video and text of the Mayor’s Announcement that New Rochelle was one of three cities selected to participate in an ICLEI initiative. This got us wondering who is ICLEI, what the Mayor hopes to accomplish specifically and what alternatives to an ICLEI partnership exist for New Rochelle.
Our goal in this series is to drill down on this statement and understand the organizations and terms behind it. When we find a new term or organization in a description of a preceding term or organization we will seek to explain that term or organization and continue to drill down until each term and organization is explaine
We began with the Mayor’s announcement…
What is the ICLEI initiative Mayor Bramson is talking about in his speech?
ICLEI and the City of New York Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability are developing a Sustainability Planning Toolkit to assist local governments in sustainability planning, using New York’s PlaNYC as a model. The framework of the toolkit is the Five Milestones for Sustainability, which provides a step-by-step process for developing and implementing a sustainability plan. To ensure the Five Milestones for Sustainability are replicable for communities with varying needs and sizes, ICLEI and the Mayor’s Office are working with three local governments to pilot the draft guidelines in the toolkit from March through May 15, 2009.
ICLEI held a competitive application process for the pilot program and received 25 applications for the three slots. The three pilot communities include:
Miami-Dade County, FL
Newark, NJ
New Rochelle, NY
OK. So, let’s break that down further.
What is PlaNYC?
PlaNYC is a design for the sustainability of New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s outline for his vision for the city over the next twenty-five years. The plan means to set priorities for the refurbishment of city infrastructure. The plan calls for more city control over large-scale projects with the creation of a new authority composed of both city and state employees. The plan retains some veto power for the governor…One of the most controversial aspects of the plan is the mayor’s call for congestion pricing, specifically a bid to levy a fee of $8.00 on all cars entering midtown Manhattan during peak hours on weekdays.
What are the Five Milestones of Sustainability?
ICLEI’s Five Milestones provide a simple, standardized means of assessing sustainability challenges, establishing goals, developing and implementing a plan, and monitoring, measuring and reporting performance.
The methodology underlying the Five Milestones for Sustainability is based on the Five Milestones for Climate Mitigation and involves a more broad process for addressing both climate and sustainability.
Local governments that wish to develop a plan that not only addresses greenhouse gas emissions reductions, but also includes related measures to improve local sustainability, should follow the Five Milestones for Sustainability. The Five Milestones for Sustainability also complement the STAR Community Index, which is currently in development. Local governments will be able to follow the Milestones while also receiving credits through the STAR rating system.
What is the Sustainability Planning Toolkit?
ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA, in collaboration with the City of New York Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, is developing a Sustainability Planning Toolkit to aid local governments that wish to create a sustainability plan. The toolkit will feature ICLEI’s new Five Milestones for Sustainability, a process drawn from PlaNYC. The toolkit will also include templates, checklists, best practices, case studies, model ordinances, and a database of sustainability initiatives.
That’s a start but there are still plenty of undefined references here. More tomorrow…