An Environmental Plan for the New City of Toronto: How to Make It ...

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Recommendation: That the Environmental Plan recommend the creation of a stakeholder group (such as a sustainability roundtable) to advise Council on sustainability issues and champion the recommendations of the Environmental Plan. Public profile – measuring progress, sustainability days Hamilton-Wentworth's annual report card Signposts on the Trail to Vision 2020 and Seattle's Monitoring Our Progress have been successful in providing tangible evidence of progress. These are not meant to be extensive reporting documents like Lancashire’s audit or Toronto’s (the former Metropolitan level of government) State of the Environment report (1995), but community endorsed indicators which simply measure progress towards a long term goal - providing inspiration and motivation for the public, corporate staff and politicians. A similar ‘report card’ or measurement of progress would provide continued public profile for the Environmental Plan. An identification of methods to measure progress is intended to be a component of the Environmental Plan. Hamilton-Wentworth, in partnership with the community, also organizes annual ‘Sustainability Days’ held concurrently with release of the report card and the presentation of awards recognizing community sustainability efforts, to promote Vision 2020 and the concept of sustainability. Toronto has a long established program of neighbourhood ‘Environment Days’ to promote reuse, recycling and composting. This could relatively easily be expanded to address environmental sustainability and promote the strategies of the Environmental Plan. Recommendation: That the Environmental Plan identify methods to promote its strategies to the community such as reporting on progress and holding events such as sustainability days. Vision Identifying a vision can be an important process in terms of engaging the community, and providing a common destination to strive for, as experienced by Hamilton- Wentworth in the preparation of Vision 2020. An evocative vision, like that of the Manchester City-Region project, can be an incredibly powerful tool to expedite thinking and developing the long term strategies necessary for real change and movement 29
towards sustainability. As actions are refined and changed and priorities shift, a popular vision can endure through political change and government restructuring. It is not, however, critical to successful implementation. Lancashire, for example, can be considered to have a successful plan, but has not articulated a ‘vision’. The Environmental Plan does contain a vision which was developed in all day workshop involving representatives from environmental groups, agencies, city staff and councillors held on September 29 th ,1998. To be most effective, a vision should engage the wider community (that is beyond the already committed stakeholders), corporate staff, and councillors. This would require further consultation on or ‘testing’ of the vision developed at the September workshop with a larger group of people. Simple/easy to communicate Effective communication requires that concepts be explained in a tangible, easy to understand format that has meaning for the community and corporate employees, both in terms of the overall concepts of sustainability and the small actions individuals can do to improve the environment. Recommendation: That consultation on the draft Environmental Plan specifically address the appeal of the ‘vision’ to the community and to corporate staff. International Recognition International profile and recognition can garner considerable political and corporate support for the Environmental Plan. The international recognition received by Hamilton- Wentworth for its innovative work on sustainable community development and its membership in Local Agenda 21 has assisted in its successful implementation. Local Agenda 21 was the conceptual framework for five out of the six plans reviewed, and for the Environmental Plan. The City of Toronto’s formal membership in Local Agenda 21 would achieve council’s commitment to sustainability, provide international exposure to the city's programs and policies (including the Environmental Plan), provide an opportunity to learn from other cities, and potentially provide resources to assist with projects (Salsberg, 1998). 30
Page 1 and 2: An Environmental Plan for the New C
Page 3 and 4: Executive Summary The new Environme
Page 5 and 6: address implications for applicatio
Page 7 and 8: The United Nations defines sustaina
Page 9 and 10: the principles of the Natural Step
Page 11 and 12: to engage people in a discussion of
Page 13 and 14: commitment to “follow the princip
Page 15 and 16: Political commitment is everything
Page 17 and 18: 2.3.4 Key elements of Success Poli
Page 19 and 20: 2.4.3 Implementation The Comprehens
Page 21 and 22: 2.5.2 Process: Plan Development The
Page 23 and 24: 2.5.4 Key elements of Success Poli
Page 25 and 26: how developing/implementing long te
Page 27 and 28: The Environmental Policy is to appl
Page 29: criteria were identification of a p
Page 33 and 34: is not legally binding, but is an i
Page 35 and 36: 4 CONCLUSIONS 34
Page 37 and 38: 17. Ravetz, Joe, City-Region 2020:
Page 39 and 40: Appendix 1 Interview Questions 1. W

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