Alberta's Municipal Sustainability Awards

From Alberta’s Urban Municipalities Association comes this report which contains some interesting ideas.

Oct 5 2011
What can you learn from municipal sustainability award winners?

The purpose of AUMA’s Municipal Sustainability Awards is not just to provide kudos to the winners. It is also to share the stories behind their success as a model for other municipalities to follow. This year’s awards winners provide examples of the vision, leadership and innovation required to effectively develop and implement municipal sustainability and other related plans.

Town of Hinton – Founder Communities Award

· The Town of Hinton is a founding community in adapting and applying AUMA’s MSP Initiative:

· Hinton went beyond consultation to have a Citizens Advisory Group lead development of what the Town has coined its Community Sustainability Plan (CSP).

· The Town signed partnership agreements with 25 local organizations who have committed to lead implementation of specific actions identified in the plan.

· A monitoring committee will guide implementation, report to the community regularly and review the plan every five years.

· The Town has consistently shared its experience and the planning resources it has developed with other AUMA membersTown of Morinville- Visionary Communities Award

· Morinville’s vision for the future includes being a regional business hub and aims to achieve the “lowest energy and water consumption and smallest ecological footprint in the region.” The Town is putting a great deal of effort towards ensuring the vision is realized:

· Stewardship of the MSP is entrusted to four governance bodies: Morinville Council; MSP Community Stewardship Committee; MSP Community Leaders and Partners; and Morinville Executive Team. The groups will meet for an annual Community Action Workshop to review progress and identify potential actions for the coming year.

· The Town has a new senior position, Deputy Chief Administrator, who will support the MSP implementation process.

· An MSP Champion Award was created to recognize individuals or groups that make valuable contributions to sustainability.

· A Strategic Planning Framework ensures business planning processes are aligned with the MSP.

· Performance will be reported annually with progress on longer term MSP targets and the effectiveness of the governance model reported tri-annually prior to each municipal election.



City of Red Deer- Innovator Communities Award

· The City of Red Deer has demonstrated innovation in a number of ways:

· In developing its MSP, the City “took the plan to the people” by offering pedestrians at locations across the city five dollar gift certificates for nearby coffee shops if they took 10 minutes to complete a survey on the plan’s focus areas. The City was at first concerned about potential backlash at paying people for their opinions, but ended up getting positive feedback on the approach and a better quality and quantity of responses than from traditional consultations at a comparable price.

· To ensure that each city department is committed to implementation, each action identified was assigned to a department for input before the actions were finalized.

· The City has committed to providing an annual report on the progress of the MSP.

· The City is addressing the five dimensions of sustainability by creating master plans for each. A master plan for the cultural dimension is already in place and in 2010 the City embarked on the creation of an Environmental Master Plan with the involvement of the community.



Les Quinton, Parks and Recreation Manager, Town of Black Diamond- Leadership Award

· In 2006 the Town of Black Diamond adopted its Municipal Sustainability Plan with a future vision to 2035. The Town credits Mr. Quinton for taking the steps to ensure that it stays on its path to sustainability. Les spearheaded a number of key initiatives including:

· Making energy saving retrofits and installing solar and wind energy systems at the local arena resulting in 20,011 lbs of green house gas reductions to date.

· Introducing xeriscaping in the Town’s parks.

· Establishing a Green fund where every dollar saved through implementing green projects is put into reserve and used towards future green projects.



To read more:

http://www.auma.ca/live/MuniLink/Communications/Member+Notices?contentId=12264