Linking Culture and the Environment

126 ‘The Natural Step’ to Sustainability Planning
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community taskforces use these priorities to develop and implement
specific action programmes.
Accompanied by an informative community-based interactive web site
that provides ongoing support and a continuous feedback mechanism
for stakeholders engaged in various sustainability-related initiatives
(http://www.whistler2020.ca/whistler/site/explorer.acds) and supports
the extensive efforts at engaging locals in ‘owning the plan’.
Supported with an annual monitoring programme that systematically measures
the progress of each proposed action towards the CSP’s priorities.
Discussion
Several factors shape Whistler’s adoption and commitment to TNS and its
Whistler 2020 and CSP outcomes. They relate to two broad themes: (i) TNS’s
role in creating the ‘tipping point’ conditions needed to encourage Whistler
stakeholders to pursue the development of its sustainability initiatives; and
(ii) the value of TNS as a guiding fiction needed to frame the public discourse
that is necessary to catalyse community action.
Contextual factors
Social movements or epidemics are ‘sensitive to the conditions and circumstances
of the times and places where they occur’ (Gladwell, 2000, p. 139).
McCool and Moisey (2001, p. 347) reinforce this position and suggest that
‘[u]nderstanding where in the development stage of a destination we are might
provide insight into why participants may or may not embrace sustainability,
engage in appropriate actions or meaningful discourse with other segments’.
This was certainly the case in Whistler, where quite by chance the TNS
approach was introduced to decision makers at a critical time. The widespread
acceptance by the community of a limit to growth of 52,500 bed units (despite
the fact that growth management principles state that with community consensus
growth limits can be changed) was established (and remains a guiding
benchmark) in Whistler for about 15 years. As this ‘build out’ limit approached
around 2000, the RMOW found itself painted into a difficult corner (Gill,
2007). A no-growth scenario was not attractive, especially in light of the potential
negative impact it would have on traditional local government and business
revenues generated by new real estate developments. Further bed unit
limit was creating an intolerable escalation in housing prices that threatened
the ability of the resort to house an acceptable proportion of its labour force.
The solution lay in changing the discourse regarding growth from one that
focused on the bed unit limit to one that diffused the tight relationship between
a bed unit limit and environmental quality. To do this, an RMOW initiative to
introduce the concept of ‘sustainability’ into the policy arena was undertaken.
It involved orchestrating an extensive consultation process with a wide range
of stakeholders – residents, local businesses, non-government organizations
and early adopters. Among other concerns, a priority issue emerging from