Toward Sustainable Communities, Fifth Edition: Solutions for Citizens and Their Governments

By Mark Roseland, Margaret Stout and Maria Spiliotopoulou

The go-to guide for sustainable community development, from the neighborhood to the regional level

Fully revised and updated, Toward Sustainable Communities is the definitive guide to the why, the what, and most importantly, the how of creating resilient, healthy, equitable, and prosperous places.

This fifth edition introduces the innovative Community Capital Compass as a powerful tool for maximizing the environmental, economic, and social benefits of complex community and regional decisions, and has been completely revamped to serve readers in the US, Canada, and abroad.

Those seeking a comprehensive approach to sustainable community planning and development from the neighborhood to the regional level will benefit from:

• An expanded Community Capital framework that organizes community resources into eight interrelated forms of capital
• The Community Capital Compass process for navigating complex situations involving everything from municipal services and land-use planning to housing and climate change
• Elaboration of collaborative governance, community mobilization, public engagement, capacity building, infrastructure, policymaking, and promising practices
• A companion website featuring case studies, profiles, online resources, interactive tools, videos, and more.

Packed with concrete, proven strategies, this "living book" is the go-to guide for sustainable community development. Toward Sustainable Communities is essential reading for current and aspiring professionals, practitioners, policymakers, educators, purpose-driven organizations, engaged citizens, and anyone concerned about their communities and a sustainable future.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: New Society Publishers
• Release date: Nov 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9781771423649

Mark Roseland

Mark Roseland is Professor and Director Emeritus, School of Community Resources and Development at ASU, Senior Global Futures Scientist at Global Futures Laboratory, and Professor Emeritus at SFU. A Registered Professional Planner, Dr. Roseland lectures widely and advises communities and governments on sustainable development policy and planning.

Book preview

A book cover titled 'Toward Sustainable Communities' with the subtitle 'Solutions for Citizens and their Governments'. The main image is a stylized globe surrounded by symbols of sustainability such as wind turbines, bicycles, and trees. Overlaid on the globe is a compass design labeled with 'Environmental', 'Economic', and 'Social' pointing to the respective compass directions. Below the globe, the authors' names are written: 'Mark Roseland, Margaret Stout, and Maria Spiliotopoulou'. The cover also features a round badge indicating it's the 'Fifth Edition'.

Praise for Toward Sustainable Communities — Fifth Edition

In this age of widespread racial and climate injustice, in which business as usual solutions to urban and community development are neither just, effective, or trusted, Mark Roseland, Margaret Stout, and Maria Spiliotopoulou have created an elegant and actionable playbook for city builders to rethink our time-tested and often misguided approaches to urban planning, design, and development. Now in its 5th edition, Toward Sustainable Communities is both exhaustive and approachable – providing new thinking, powerful solutions, and an elegant framework that reveals the interconnections and relationships between the three legs of the sustainability stool.

— Rob Bennett, founder, EcoDistricts, Senior Advisor, Partnership for Southern Equity

Roseland, Stout, and Spiliotopoulou have masterfully woven together a comprehensive collection of abstract concepts and terminology from the realms of economics, social science, and urban planning in the fifth edition of Toward Sustainable Communities. Utilizing the helpful eight forms of Community Capital organizing framework, providing a historical perspective on the evolution of ideas, and supporting concepts with clear illustrations and community-based examples, the authors have produced an essential text for all practitioners and students of sustainability planning.

— Karla A. Ebenbach, Chair, American Planning Association Sustainable Communities Division, AICP, LEED Green Associate, President, Ebenbach Consulting LLC

This important fifth edition of Toward Sustainable Communities is groundbreaking. The authors correctly link environmental degradation and social inequality to our economic system. By recognizing and accepting that the laws of thermodynamics — loosely put, that we only have one planet and we must accept that we can only use resources at the rate that they are replenished — are the starting point for public policy, the authors create not just a compelling case for action to build sustainable, resilient communities, but create critical insights on how to do so. A must-read for academics, practitioners, and everyone concerned about the economic, environmental, and social future of our planet.

— David Miller, Managing Director, C40 Centre for City Climate Policy and Economy

Using the compass as a foundation, Toward Sustainable Communities orients readers to an updated framework aligned with the ever-evolving field of sustainability science. Maintaining the three pillars as a back-drop, the text explores eight forms of community capital, each interconnected and dependent on the other. From defining key terms to describing sustainable development’s back story, it is essential reading for those new to the space and should be on the shelf of every practitioner as their go-to reference.

— Hilari Varnadore, Vice President for Cities, U.S. Green Building Council

Praise for Toward Sustainable Communities — Fourth Edition

This book clearly demonstrates that the progress we are making in addressing key sustainability issues such as climate change is being built largely from cities and towns, in that most resilient and hopeful tradition of social innovation. With its modern accoutrements of digital tools and social networks, Toward Sustainable Communities is the single most significant book of its kind. It demonstrates that the future we need can be achieved, and that the future we need can be a future we want. Toward Sustainable Communities is essential reading for everyone who wants a sustainable world, now and in the future.

—Konrad Otto-Zimmermann, Secretary General, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability

As any sustainability professional knows, the battle for sustainability will be won — or lost — in cities. After all, the way cities are designed and governed determines over 80 percent of its residents’ resource demand. There is no better guide than Mark Roseland, for showing us what’s possible so we can win this battle. Please give this book to every local official you know.

— Mathis Wackernagel, Ph.D., President, Global Footprint Network

Toward Sustainable Communities deftly situates community sustainability efforts in the broader policy arena and introduces the ‘community capital framework’ to advance a systems perspective that enhances our understanding of the complexities involved. The book provides a wealth of real-world examples and tools aimed at mobilizing citizens as well as governments. It is an invaluable resource for practitioners and policymakers alike.

— James Goldstein, Director, Sustainable Communities Program, Tellus Institute

Toward Sustainable Communities represents the best kind of resource in this time of rapidly evolving approaches to making our cities and towns resilient, healthy, and just. By providing both strong frameworks for understanding community sustainability and pragmatic information on current best practice, this book is a treasure for policymakers, planners, thought leaders, and anyone working to shape the future of our communities.

— Tom Osdoba, Chair, Portland Sustainability Institute

About The Cover Art

Eve Faulkes is a professional graphic designer and Professor Emerita from West Virginia University, having enjoyed a long career as an instructor, including serving as the coordinator of the Graphic Design program, and holding the J. Bernard Schultz Endowed Professor of Art. Her passion as both a teacher and practitioner is design for social good—design that improves our social, political, and economic systems (evefaulkes.com). Her clever design of the book cover art draws inspiration from all elements of the Community Capital Compass.

North = Natural Capital

Land: recycling truck, hills, trees, tractor

Water: river

Air: clouds, bird

Energy: solar and wind energy

Northeast = Cultural Capital

Self-Efficacy: Black power

Heritage: Washington monument

Creative Arts: piano, yoga/dancer

East = Human Capital

Agency: thinker with an idea

Potential: students outside a school building

Well-Being: bicyclist and play structure, raised bed garden, produce store

Southeast = Relational Capital

Solidarity: justice scales

Community: family next to house

Collaboration: equity demonstrators with signs

South = Organizational Capital

Public: capitol building

Nonprofit: faith building

Business: ice cream shop

Civic: community gardener

Southwest = Political Capital

Authority: home rule sign

Influence: public hearing on chicken regulations

Empowerment: vote here sign on courthouse

West = Financial Capital

Economic Strength: people in exchange with circular economy symbol

Economic Development: funded small business idea

Investment: philanthropy, bank

Northwest = Built Capital

Buildings: communications infrastructure building

Landscapes: green roof and landscape plants

Travelways: road and bridge, rapid transit, plane, cyclist, pedestrian

TOWARD SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

TOWARD SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

Solutions for Citizens and their Governments

FIFTH EDITION

Mark Roseland, Margaret Stout, and Maria Spiliotopoulou

New Society Publishers logo: a line drawing depicting a tree stump, with a seedling growing out of the top. Rays of light form a halo around the seedling.

Copyright © 2024 by Mark Roseland, Margaret Stout, Maria Spiliotopoulou

All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh.

Cover art by Eve Faulkes.

Printed in Canada. First printing November 2023.

This book is intended to be educational and informative. The author and publisher disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk that may be associated with the application of any of the contents of this book.

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Toward Sustainable Communities 5 should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below.

To order directly from the publishers, please call 250-247-9737 or order online at www.newsociety.com.

Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:

New Society Publishers

P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada [phone]

Funded by the Government of Canada' written in both English and French, followed by the word 'Canada' with a stylized maple leaf logo.

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Title: Toward sustainable communities : solutions for citizens and their governments / Mark Roseland, Margaret Stout and Maria Spiliotopoulou.

Names: Roseland, Mark, author. | Stout, Margaret, author. | Spiliotopoulou, Maria, author.

Description: Fifth edition. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20230478565 | Canadiana (ebook) 20230478573 | ISBN 9780865719743 (softcover) | ISBN 9781550927689 (PDF) | ISBN 9781771423649 (EPUB)

Subjects: LCSH: City planning. | LCSH: City planning—Environmental aspects. | LCSH: Sustainable urban development. | LCSH: Sustainable development.

Classification: LCC HT169.C2 R67 2023 | DDC 307.1/216—dc23

New Society Publishers, Certified B Corporation. The Forest Steward Council logo, which is a check mark that transforms into a simple tree outline on the right, with the letters FSC below. This book is certified as being made from a mix of paper from responsible sources. FSC C016245.

Contents

Preface to the 5th Edition

Foreword: Journeys, Transformations, and Relationalities by Julian Agyeman

How the Book Is Organized

Pando: The Online Compendium for This Book

Acknowledgments

Part 1: Mobilizing for Sustainability

1. The Global Context for Sustainability

2. Sustainable Community Development

3. Policymaking for Sustainable Community Development

4. Planning for Sustainable Community Development.

5. The Community Capital Compass

Part 2: Sustainable Community Development Building Blocks: Place, Prosperity, and People

Part 2 Section 1: Environmental Sustainability (Place)

6. Natural Capital (Land, Water, Air, Waste, Energy)

7. Built Capital (Buildings, Landscapes, Travelways)

Part 2 Section 2: Economic Sustainability (Prosperity)

8. Organizational Capital (Public, Nonprofit, Business, Civic)

9. Political Capital (Authority, Influence, Empowerment)

10. Financial Capital (Economic Strength, Development, Investment)

Part 2 Section 3: Social Sustainability (People).

11. Cultural Capital (Self-Efficacy, Heritage, Creative Arts)

12. Human Capital (Agency, Potential, Well-Being)

13. Relational Capital (Solidarity, Community, Collaboration)

Part 3: Moving the Needle

14. Navigating Community Change

15. A Call to Action

Notes

References

Index

About the Authors

About New Society Publishers

Preface to the 5th Edition

Toward Sustainable Communities was first published in 1992 by Canada’s National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, with three subsequent editions from New Society Publishers in 1998, 2005, and 2012. This 5th edition was prepared in light of the book’s 30th anniversary, during a global pandemic and a time of tremendous social and economic upheaval. It is now completely revised and updated, and differs from the earlier editions in several important ways:

First and foremost, this edition benefits from the contributions of my brilliant and accomplished co-authors. Margaret Stout is a scholar of public administration and a seasoned researcher and practitioner of community development. She greatly strengthened the social sustainability dimensions of the book and its usefulness to current and aspiring professionals in the U.S., including its use of the compass metaphor and expanded community capital framework. Maria Spiliotopoulou is an emerging scholar-practitioner with considerable international experience who spent much of the last decade researching sustainable community development for her doctoral degree. Her immersion in recent literature and research ensured that our perspectives are fresh as well as seasoned. Together, we work in three major North American research universities, and we are also experienced practitioners in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and elsewhere. The melding of our experience and our knowledge has resulted in a book we believe can have an extraordinary impact.

While the book continues to appeal to a global audience, this edition is explicitly designed to serve policymakers, educators, businesses, and engaged citizens in both the U.S. and Canada.

The Community Capital Framework introduced in earlier editions is now expanded to include eight forms of capital.

The Community Capital Compass metaphor so beautifully illustrated on the cover helps guide the reader to navigate complex situations and find strategic direction.

This edition is full of new material and is completely reorganized to follow the Community Capital Compass framework and method.

In order to create room in this edition for more explanatory content, the many examples that filled the previous editions have been moved to Pando | Sustainable Communities (pando.sc), an online compendium of examples, tools, and resources.

This book is dedicated to the citizens and local government officials who are working toward sustainable communities. Your efforts to create a sustainable future sustain us as well.

—Mark Roseland

Foreword:

Journeys, Transformations, and Relationalities

Is ‘sustainability’ a destination or a journey?

Does ‘sustainability’ imply a few simple policy changes, or does it imply transformation, a paradigm shift?

These are the opening questions in my 25-year-old Tufts University graduate Developing Sustainable Communities class. They are also questions that have concerned my friend and colleague Mark Roseland over the five editions of this excellent, evolving book, Toward Sustainable Communities: Solutions for Citizens and Their Governments. In this sense, the editions of this book, like sustainability itself, represent a journey rather than a destination, but this latest 5th edition also marks a transformation, a paradigm shift in thought and theorization from earlier versions.

The ideas of sustainability and sustainable development first achieved prominence among academics and international policy makers, together with policy entrepreneurs in NGOs and progressive governments, in the 1980s. They quickly became central concepts in policy, planning, and development discourses, from global to local, especially after the publication in 1987 of the Brundtland Report Our Common Future, which defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs; and the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, aka the Rio Earth Summit, which gave us Agenda 21 and Local Agenda 21—global and local agendas for the 21st century.

To those who think these concepts are somehow trendy, ephemeral, fly-by-night ideas, think again. The first time I remember reading about these concepts was in a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) publication around 1980. For nearly 45 years, we have been excited by these concepts—debating them, refining our definitions, our practice, our policy, and our planning. Since then, these terms, and arguably more popular variants such as sustainable communities and especially sustainable community development have become pervasive in government at all levels, among business leaders and in activist and civil society discourses. No one has been more central to Bringing Rio Back Home through giving practical, on-the-ground expression to UN-speak like Local Agenda 21, to the rise and shaping of the sustainable communities paradigm, than Mark Roseland.

Having used each of the earlier editions of his book, especially the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in my Developing Sustainable Communities class, I can attest to the fact that my urban planning students really liked the focus on the various tools and techniques (community, planning, and economic), strategies, and innovations that are required in the move towards sustainable communities. Similarly appreciated by my students was the use of vignettes from around the world to both ground and illustrate the use of such tools and techniques.

But this latest 5th edition represents a far more rounded, theoretically grounded, and transformational book, with both a much deeper engagement with social sustainability, and an expansion of the innovative Community Capital Compass, framework, and method, thanks to the inputs of Mark’s co-authors Margaret Stout, and Maria Spiliotopoulou.

The expanded Community Capital framework organizes community resources into eight (formerly six) interrelated forms of capital—natural, built, organizational, political, financial, cultural, human, and relational. To accommodate more explanatory material in this 5th edition, the many vignettes that my students love—and which filled the previous editions—have been moved from the book to Pando | Sustainable Communities (pando.sc), an online digital compendium, organized to reflect the chapter structure of the book, and a Pando LinkedIn group, which together make the book a living document.

This living book is the go-to guide for all of us seeking a comprehensive approach to sustainable community development, from the neighborhood to the regional level. The book invites us, as current and aspiring professionals or practitioners, policymakers, educators, purpose-driven organizations, engaged citizens, and anyone concerned about their communities and a sustainable future, to raise our game to maximize our impact, using both:

The Community Capital Compass, which moves us beyond considerations of purely financial capital, using an embedded theory of community change, toward a dynamic systems-wayfinding tool which uses key capital stocks (natural, built, organizational, political, financial, cultural, human, and relational) as the assets necessary to achieve ecological, equitable, and just outcomes. The Compass also has indicators and metrics to help map out key sustainable community development strategies—environmental, economic, and social. In essence, it asks the crucial questions: Are we moving the needle on issues of ecology, equity, and justice? Are we achieving our goals for places, prosperity, and people? In asking these questions, the Community Capital Compass helps us navigate complex situations involving everything from municipal services and land use planning, to housing and climate change, and to suggest strategic directions by illustrating dynamic interactions, synergies, and tradeoffs.

And

Pando | Sustainable Communities, an online digital compendium featuring case studies, profiles, online resources, interactive tools, illustrative examples, references, and descriptions of professional associations, networks, and NGOs; a glossary; and other tools and resources to aid sustainability advocates in their own research. Pando is being completely revised and relaunched on a new platform to accompany the 5th edition of this book and is best used in combination with the Pando LinkedIn group of researchers and practitioners on sustainable community development from around the world.

Of particular interest to me is a concept that I think anchors so much of this book, and indeed the wider sustainability movement, both theoretically and practically: relationality.

I came across this concept, and its associated concept—belonging—when researching mine and Duncan McLaren’s book Sharing Cities: A Case for Truly Smart and Sustainable Cities (MIT Press 2015). Relationality—relational capital—is about trust, sharing, and caring. It is about solidarity, community, and collaboration. It is fundamental to the theory and practice of commoning, which underlies this book. It is about a shift from our dominant social practices, namely transactionalism and individualism such that, as the authors note: Relational values include tolerance, empathy, patience, forbearance, care, compassion, mutuality, fellowship, and love. Relational norms include honest, ethical, transparent behavior, and generalized reciprocity (as opposed to expectations of quid pro quo exchange).

Mark, Margaret, and Maria have very effectively reinvigorated and re-theorized Towards Sustainable Communities. Recognizing the roles of interconnection and mutual impact, of interdependencies, interactions, and relationalities between different forms of community capital, they argue that the Community Capital Compass helps people see how changes in one form of community capital could generate positive or negative changes in others.

Alongside this deeper, richer engagement with social sustainability and expansion of the Community Capital Compass framework and method has been a great improvement in the Compass visuals for this 5th edition, aiding our visualization of complex ideas and intersectionalities in the same way Kate Raworth’s doughnut economics metaphor does.

Are we closer to our destination of sustainability? I’m not sure, but the journey and our path forward just got a whole lot more interesting and clearer thanks to Toward Sustainable Communities: Solutions for Citizens and Their Governments (5th Edition).

— Julian Agyeman Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning Tufts University

How the Book Is Organized

This book has been written primarily for students and practitioners of local government and community development in the North American context (the United States and Canada). However, it may also be useful to community advocates of all types and in other countries. The book covers three interconnected aspects of community development practice at the local scale: environmental/physical development, economic development, and human and social development. For each topic addressed, the book promotes a comprehensive, integrative approach to sustainability through collaborative governance across public, private, and civic sectors.

The book has been substantially reorganized and rewritten from the 4th edition. Part 1 (Mobilizing for Sustainability) establishes the rationale for why, where, and how we pursue sustainability. Chapters 1 and 2 provide an overview of why and how global and local contexts are unsustainable in environmental, economic, and social terms and introduces the meaning of sustainability that we use. Locally, we must recognize the importance of growth planning and development patterns when it comes to buildings, transportation, and infrastructure. Chapter 3 explains the public policy process and how it plays out through collaborative governance across sectors. Common policy types are introduced as a foundation for the many sustainability tools described in Part 2. Chapter 4 explains how local governments plan, and how they can better pursue sustainable community development (SCD). Chapter 5 introduces the Community Capital Compass, which expands previous community capital frameworks to include eight forms (natural, built, organizational, political, financial, cultural, human, and relational). The Compass has been added as an organizing metaphor to emphasize the importance of knowing where you are in dynamic relation to all eight forms of capital (destinations) as you orient action toward any particular community development objective (true North). This imagery supports approaches to holistic analysis and assessments of whether synergies or tradeoffs are being generated (attention to all eight directions). It also supports the development of causal models and maps that spiral communities up or down in the pursuit of sustainability. Lastly, it provides a gauge of sorts for book navigation, showing how each sustainability territory has been covered as the reader progresses through the chapters in Part 2.

Part 2 (Sustainable Community Building Blocks: Place, Prosperity, and People) covers key stocks in each form of community capital and how investments and interventions can increase their sustainability. An online compendium adds myriad examples to illustrate these methods. Each chapter covers one form of capital, and the chapters are organized into three sections. Section 1 covers the forms of capital that contribute to environmental sustainability: natural and built. Section 2 covers the forms of capital that contribute to economic sustainability: organizational, political, and financial. Section 3 covers the forms of capital that contribute to social sustainability: cultural, human, and relational. Ending on relational capital sets up the discussion of mobilizing locally for sustainability through comprehensive initiatives in Part 3.

Part 3 (Moving the Needle) explores how to pursue sustainable community development and whether we are achieving SCD goals. Chapter 14 explains how to use the Community Capital Compass approach to guide comprehensive initiatives that include public, private, and civic actors, emphasizing the importance of alignment across all sectors of society to achieving sustainability. It highlights the research aspects of the overall community development process—assessment and evaluation—using community capital stock indicators and benchmarking. Chapter 15 reviews how communities are integrating sustainability and illustrates the SCD transition process, demonstrating how the CCC approach can support local sustainability initiatives. It then highlights the value of community alignment in achieving synergies and co-benefits, concluding with a call to action.

Since the scope of this edition is broader and deeper than the earlier versions, it was tempting to produce a longer book. We decided against that to ensure the book’s accessibility by keeping the cover price as low as possible. Instead, the book is accompanied by Pando | Sustainable Communities (pando.sc), an online compendium organized to reflect the chapter structure of the book, along with links to a Pando LinkedIn group. Together, these digital companions effectively make this book a living document that will remain vital and relevant many years after its publication date.

Pando:

The Online Compendium for This Book

WWW.PANDO.SC

Pando | Sustainable Communities is the digital companion to this book. It includes an online compendium, organized to reflect the chapter structure of the book, and a Pando LinkedIn group, effectively making this book a living document.

Why Pando?

In the Fishlake National Forest of Southern Utah appears to be a forest of individual trees. But underground, this clonal colony of over 47,000 individual male quaking aspens is actually a single living organism with one massive underground root system. At 106 acres and 80,000 years old, Pando is the largest, heaviest, and likely the oldest tree on Earth. In Latin, Pando means I spread. As one of the world’s most resilient organisms, Pando symbolizes sustainable community development and collaborative governance.

Pando is now under threat—from cattle grazing, exploding deer and elk populations (due to the elimination of predators), misplaced development, and the impending prospect of radical climate change. Learn more about Pando and how to help at: https://pandopopulus.com/

What Is Pando | Sustainable Communities?

Pando is an online compendium of illustrative examples, initiatives, references, and professional associations and networks; a glossary; and other tools and resources to aid sustainability advocates in their own research. Since the field of sustainable community development is growing and changing rapidly, readers of this book can stay abreast of new developments by visiting the Pando website at pando.sc.

Is Pando New for This 5th Edition of the Book?

Yes and no. Pando was originally launched to accompany the 4th edition of Toward Sustainable Communities at the ICLEI World Congress of Local Governments for Sustainability, associated with the Rio+20 Earth Summit in 2012. It was revised and relaunched at the ICLEI World Congress in Seoul in 2015. Pando is being completely revised and relaunched on a new platform to accompany this 5th edition of the book.

What Is Pando LinkedIn?

Readers of this book can interact with the authors and with other readers by joining the Pando LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13988462/

Acknowledgments

Many people helped directly or indirectly to bring this edition to fruition. In particular, we want to thank Julian Agyeman for writing the foreword, Eve Faulkes for her cover and interior art, Ray Tomalty and Sean Markey for contributing text boxes yet again for this edition, and all those who have given us their blessings to use their images in this and previous editions.

We would be remiss if we did not acknowledge the many people whose work is described in this book, as well as the hundreds of people whose work is referenced and cited. All of them have in some way provided support or inspiration along the way, and this book would not be possible without them. We also extend our gratitude to all those who inspired, contributed to, or helped with the earlier editions of the book—although we cannot list all your names here, your contributions also infuse this edition. There are so many people who have contributed directly or indirectly to this book that credit for its virtues must be widely shared; however, responsibility for its failings rests with us.

Thanks also to our colleagues at Arizona State University, Simon Fraser University, and West Virginia University for giving us the opportunity to teach sustainable community development. Each of the faculty, staff, instructors, program coordinators, students, and community collaborators who were a part of our academic, professional, and outreach programs have contributed in some way to this edition. Our students used the previous editions and drafts of this one as a text, providing valuable feedback and new material. Indeed, dozens of student research papers as well as several graduate theses and dissertations over the years have deepened our understanding of the field and influenced the conceptualization and presentation of this edition.

We thank the many West Virginia University graduate students who have learned with Margaret Stout for over a decade through service-learning research for co-authored comprehensive plans, project implementation plans, and policy analysis reports. The indicators research Daniel Eades contributed to Chapter 14 is deeply appreciated, and literature reviews completed by the following students have been extremely useful in preparing this book: Christopher Agba, Philip Avis, Brooke Bailey, Andrew Benjamin, Amy Cook, Leah Cunningham, Daniel Eades, Linsey Ferguson, Caitlin Fulp, Owen Gray, Amy Loomis, Dawn Mackenzie, Festus Manly-Spain, Hannah McCoy, Katy Moran, Lucia Mosesso, Spencer Moss, Matthew Oliver, Lauren Prinzo, Nicholas Reeder, Robert Riddle, David Roberts, Elizabeth Satterfield, Kent Walker, Paige Wantlin, Perri Williams, and Dana Wright.

We also thank Arizona State University researchers Alison Almand, Emily Chan, Dawn Drake, Corey Kaufman, Anna Melis, Taylor Schulz, as well as the support provided through the Undergraduate Research Program in the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions.

Our thanks and appreciation go to editor Rob West and the entire team at New Society Publishers for encouraging this fifth edition. For over 40 years, New Society has published ahead-of-the-curve books on sustainability, and we are again honored to be in such good company.

Last but by no means least, we acknowledge the support of our families. Margaret acknowledges and thanks Celina V. Tchida as one of her greatest collaborators and mentors, particularly regarding their passion for social, economic, and environmental justice. As a scholar and activist, they push and expand Margaret’s boundaries in important directions.

Maria acknowledges and deeply appreciates Aris Klados, her spouse, for his infinite support throughout co-authoring this book.

Mark is beholden to his partner Susan Day, his stepson Sean Rigby, and his children Miranda Roseland and Aaron Roseland, who represent the future we are trying to make sustainable. Miranda and Aaron came into this world between the second and third editions. Now that they are a bit older and wiser, the significance of this book becomes more personal with each passing year. A sustainable future may still be within their generation’s grasp, but it will require an enormous and sustained effort to achieve. With that in mind, we dedicate this book to all those who are working toward sustainable communities.

PART 1

Mobilizing for Sustainability

The chapters in Part 1 establish the rationale for why, where, and how we pursue sustainability. Chapters 1 and 2 provide an overview of why and how global and local contexts are unsustainable in environmental, economic, and social terms and introduce the meaning of sustainability that we use. Locally, we recognize the importance of growth planning and development patterns when it comes to buildings, transportation, and infrastructure. Chapter 3 explains the public policy process and how it plays out through collaborative governance across sectors. Common policy types are introduced as a foundation for the many sustainability tools described in Part 2. Chapter 4 explains how local governments plan, and how they can better pursue sustainable community development (SCD). Chapter 5 introduces the Community Capital Compass, which expands previous community capital frameworks to include eight forms (natural, built, organizational, political, financial, cultural, human, and relational). The Compass has been added as an organizing metaphor to emphasize the importance of knowing where you are in dynamic relation to all eight forms of capital (destinations) as you orient action toward any particular community development objective (true North). This imagery supports approaches to holistic analysis and assessments of whether synergies or tradeoffs are being generated (attention to all eight directions). It also supports the development of causal models and maps that spiral communities up or down in the pursuit of sustainability. Lastly, it provides a gauge of sorts for book navigation, showing how each sustainability territory has been covered as the reader progresses through the chapters in Part 2.

1

The Global Context for Sustainability

In the pursuit of sustainability, we first need a basic understanding of what that means. A long-standing but evolving term, sustainable development has been open to interpretations and debates; some of which we will look at here. The term sustainable implies a constant state, or the ability of a system to maintain, uphold, or preserve its functions. Thus, a sustainable society is one that can persist over generations, one that is farseeing enough, flexible enough, and wise enough not to undermine either its physical or its social systems of support.1

Sustainability is a concept that emerged in response to environmental concerns but is one that has expanded to include the economic and social implications of how humanity survives and thrives on planet Earth at all levels of analysis—from global to local. Sustainable development is the process and activities leading toward the end state of sustainability.2

The 1987 Brundtland Commission Report defined sustainable development as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs3 and endowed the concept with political credibility. Sustainable development can connote sustainable use of renewable resources within their capacity for renewal,4 but it historically carries industrialized world connotations.5 This is because when sustainable development is conflated with sustainable growth, it becomes an oxymoron—nothing physical can grow indefinitely. While quantitative increases in population, production, and income are aptly described as growth, qualitative changes, such as improvements in health, knowledge, quality of life, social justice, and efficient use of renewable resources, are more accurately described as development.

Sustainable development is also sometimes confused with protection of the environment. For additional clarity, environmental protection generally prevents land, water, and air pollution from human waste; environmental conservation generally manages land and bodies of water used by humans in a sustainable manner; environmental preservation keeps land and bodies of water pristine and excluded from human use; and environmental restoration recovers already degraded or damaged ecosystems (see Chapter 6).

In practice, the very concepts of environmental protection, conservation, preservation, or even restoration are based on the separation of humanity from nature; we draw a boundary around what we think of as nature, then try to protect what’s within the box. In so doing, we risk ignoring the fact that human activity outside that box—housing, economic development, transportation, and so on—has a far greater impact than environmental policies within the box.

In a similar way, climate action and climate policy are sometimes conflated with and potentially used as proxies for sustainable development. While action to mitigate climate change impacts and to adapt to a changing climate can help tackle multiple challenges to sustainability, governments, corporations, and other organizations attempt climate action while pursuing economic growth, presumably to pay for, among other things, protection of the natural environment.

For example, climate mitigation pathways (e.g., reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adopting technology efficiencies, and decarbonization policies) are prevalent in governmental and organizational policies in an effort to reduce and eventually eliminate the contribution of fossil fuels in energy production.6 However, in some cases these are only end-of-pipe solutions while we avoid dealing with the root causes; preventative low-carbon strategies need to be part of systemic transformation.7

Finally, sustainability has become linked to the concept of socio-ecological resilience, a concept first introduced by the renowned natural scientist C. S. Holling in 1973, that refers to the ability of a system to absorb disturbance after a sudden shock or a continuous stress, manage change, and reorganize while still retaining its function, structure, identity, and feedbacks.8

Research psychologist and global thought-leader Judith Rodin argues that resilience enables people, communities, and organizations to better withstand disruptions and to improve their current systems and situations.9 Resilience enables people to build new relationships, take on new endeavors and initiatives, and reach out for opportunities that may have never been imagined before. Entities with a resilience deficit experience greater impact from disruptions, recovery takes longer, and their options are reduced. Entities that invest in resilience experience lesser impacts from disruptions, recover faster, and their opportunities expand—this is a resilience dividend.

While moving in the same direction, the concepts of sustainability and resilience are vying for the same definitional space. Sometimes resilience emphasizes adaptation to the impacts of unsustainable practices while sustainability focuses on redressing these impacts and preventing them in the future.10 However, in a resilient social-ecological system, disturbance has the potential to create opportunity for doing new things, for innovation and for development11 while valuing diversity and natural and social capital.12 In this respect, resilience supports sustainable development by recognizing the need for whole-systems decision-making.13

Why Care About Sustainability?

One need only watch the daily news to get the idea that sustainability is of concern globally, as well as locally (see Chapter 2). In the media, issues like climate change are usually linked to images of extreme forces of nature: hurricanes, floods, droughts, fires, and migrating disease vectors, to name a few. Our current geological age, the Anthropocene, is marked by the detrimental impact of human (anthro) activity on the planet’s ecosystems, evidenced by:

increased frequency of natural disasters resulting from climate change;

the decline of ecosystem viability, the spread of invasive species, and the unprecedented rate of species extinction; and

pandemics and the spread of deadly viruses often linked to practices such as industrial agriculture, deforestation, and trade of exotic species.

In turn, these ecological impacts contribute to socioeconomic inequalities, a lack of access to basic necessities, and increasing climate refugees. Taken together, the Earth may soon not be able to sustain growing human populations and associated economic activity while maintaining ecological and social well-being.14

The notion of our planet’s carrying capacity considers the degree to which natural ecosystems can remain viable while continuing to provide critical resources to support human populations. In November 2022, the global human population reached 8 billion. The United Nations (UN) projects that it will reach 9.7 billion by 2050,15 which may be untenable in terms of food production, the availability of land and resources for human use, and the ecological integrity of undeveloped land.

Scholars have long warned us about the possible implications. Almost 200 years ago, English economist Thomas Malthus argued that unabated growth will eventually cause all populations to succumb to famine and disease. In their 1972 classic, Limits to Growth, Meadows et al. pointed out that while populations grow exponentially, the technology to increase resource efficiency only grows linearly.16 Therefore, we must establish limits to physical growth and extraction industries that deplete natural resources beyond their capacity to renew.

In recent years, proposals for no growth, decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, and even degrowth (e.g., transforming production and consumption patterns in high-income societies) have been put forward, albeit not without debates on whether such paths are feasible, desirable, or even adequate to achieve sustainable outcomes.17 Alongside these proposals, there is the discourse on continuing on our current path more sustainably through limited growth. Herein, we identify practices that both redress previously problematic growth and enable sustainable growth within ecological limits (also see Chapter 2).

The argument for limited growth is strongly supported by current research on exceeding planetary boundaries.18 Geographer Jared Diamond explained that population pressures in combination with fragile ecosystems and myopic political institutions have led many civilizations to collapse in the past.19 Other scholars have explained that Earth is a complex closed system; thus, thermodynamics pose limits, which, if exceeded (by depleting resources faster than they regenerate year after year) will lead to collapse.20

As many argue, we need to perceive human beings as part of this closed system. For example, social ecologist Murray Bookchin eloquently argued decades ago that we must create an ecological society in harmony with nature.21 Recently, the People’s Republic of China set a policy to create an ecological civilization through which people would live well within the ecological limits of planet Earth.22 Nonetheless, for convenience and clarity, we will discuss humanity and nature as distinct parts of the whole ecosystem.

One way to consider human impact on natural ecosystems is to consider our ecological footprint; the natural resources on which we draw to sustain our population and systems of production.23 Nonrenewable resources such as fossil fuels and minerals must be conserved until they are replaced with alternatives, while renewable resources can provide goods and services (e.g., food, clean water, energy) in perpetuity if managed sustainably.24 Furthermore, the ecosystem must be able to absorb or eliminate by-products of production, such as pollutants and emissions (e.g., the atmosphere’s ability to regulate the planet’s climate).25

The ecological footprint tool compares human demand for resources to the renewable resources available on Earth.26 It estimates the amount of land in global hectares (gha) required for human demand by totalling the area providing these renewable resources (cropland, grazing land, fishing grounds, forest area), the area of built infrastructure, and the area needed to absorb waste (carbon demand on land).27 Similarly, the Earth’s biocapacity is also measured in gha that represent an average of bioproductive capacity, i.e., the renewable ecological goods and services available for consumption.28

Scholars estimate that, in the 1970s, humanity entered a state known as ecological overshoot, i.e., consuming more resources than ecosystems can regenerate and producing more waste than can be absorbed. The Global Footprint Network calculation considers each natural resource as a form of capital being drawn down through use, then measures the newly regenerated portion of the resource, which is conceptualized as resource interest.29 When use exceeds interest, we enter a state of overshoot; in ecological footprint terms, we are appropriating carrying capacity from distant elsewheres30 and eternalities,31 meaning future generations. In 2022, Earth Overshoot Day occurred on July 28. The current rate of global ecological overshoot triggers consequences such as rapid climate change.32

A large portion of the overall ecological footprint is generated by greenhouse gases (GHGs), which (with the exception of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs) are naturally occurring compounds in our atmosphere. In order of abundance, GHGs include carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, ground-level ozone (a component of smog), and halocarbons such as CFCs and other synthetic gases.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is part of the natural carbon cycle i.e., the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon moves between the atmosphere and all living beings. Atmospheric carbon primarily originated from volcanic activity and the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and the oceans.33 While some spheres release more carbon than they absorb, others act as carbon sinks that absorb more than they produce, like forests and oceans. Over the past 10,000 years, carbon has been at relatively stable concentrations in the atmosphere, allowing human civilization to flourish.

The abundance of CO2, however, is only half the climate change story. Gases like methane and nitrous oxide are far more effective at trapping heat than others, e.g., CO2. As well, some gases reside in the atmosphere much longer than others: CFCs, for example, remain for about 100 years, compared to about a decade for methane. Differences in absorption rates and residence time coupled with different levels of relative abundance in the atmosphere make it difficult to determine the relative contribution of the various gases to climate warming. As a matter of convenience, when speaking of CO2 levels in the atmosphere, scientists usually assume that the other gases are being considered too.34 The bottom line is that humans are producing far more GHGs than our ecosystems can absorb.

The global carbon footprint currently sits at 60 percent of the global ecological footprint.35 Carbon emissions are directly linked to climate change—a thorny and seemingly intractable problem. Compounding the problem is that GHG emissions are produced by sources that are as numerous as they are diffuse. Unlike the problem of ozone-layer depletion, which was substantially addressed through relatively painless phase-outs of ozone-degrading substances, climate change demands fundamental and sweeping long-term changes in how we organize our lives and develop our communities.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) developed a widely used set of five emissions scenarios that present possible trajectories for the Earth’s temperature over the next 100 years.36 IPCC predicts that, unless deep reductions in GHG emissions occur soon, along with global warming exceeding 2°C in the 21st century, the frequency and intensity of related extreme phenomena will exponentially increase, with impacts on human and natural systems.37 It is expected that every region will increasingly experience concurrent and multiple changes with every increment of global temperature increase. Such changes and impacts include:

decreases in permafrost, snow, glaciers, and ice sheets will result in the continuation of current trends of sea level rise, increased frequency and severity of flooding events, acidification and eutrophication of fresh and saltwater sources, and overall alteration of water cycles;38

severe weather events such as heavy precipitation, tsunamis, and droughts will more frequently occur in most regions in North America, Africa, Asia, and Europe;39

many areas (such as coastal cities or arid communities) are more likely to experience compound events, e.g., concurrent heatwaves, wildfires and deforestation, droughts or extreme rainfall, and sea level rise;40

extreme heatwaves, deteriorating air quality, and migrating pest and disease vectors will pose significant health risks in all regions;41

continuing shifts in ranges of plants and animals poleward; for example, species of North American birds have shifted their breeding colonies further north as traditional habitats become increasingly inhospitable;42 and

increasing temperatures and extreme weather events, compounded by plant and livestock diseases, will have detrimental effects on agricultural production over the long haul.43

Meanwhile, national, and international efforts like those of climate conferences in Copenhagen (2009), Cancun (2010), Paris (2015), and Glasgow (2021) have shown little success at controlling, let alone reducing, emissions. Such conferences are chronically hamstrung by controversy over differentiated responsibilities, the level of financial support to developing countries, technology transfer limits, and trade subsidies and sanctions.44

Since the 2015 Paris Agreement to keep a global temperature rise this century below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C, little progress has been made. For example, despite the recently adopted and much-anticipated Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S., which pledges significant climate investments to reduce GHG emissions by half by 2030 (below 2005 levels), it is estimated that the investment is not sufficient to reach the goal and that more action is needed.45

Scientists agree that global average temperature has already increased by approximately 1.0°C above pre-industrial levels and, on our current path, will likely reach the 1.5°C increase shortly after 2030,46 and could increase by as much as 2.8°C by 2100.47 Although the precise nature of the impacts will be studied for years to come, the temperature gains are now expected to be irreversible, with long-lasting impacts.

Climate change may well be the defining issue of our time; it is already putting our food and water in jeopardy, threatening our health and well-being, and increasing competition between nations over access to resources.48 As António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, remarked in Glasgow: Our addiction to fossil fuels is pushing humanity to the brink. We face a stark choice: either we stop it, or it stops us. It’s time to say, ‘Enough […] We are digging our own graves.’49

The Path To Unsustainability

Arguably, based on this overview of Earth’s carrying capacity, environmental crises are the most prominent shared existential threat; without coordinated corrective efforts, we face global natural calamities. We live quite literally on the brink of destruction due to serious compromise of the biosphere.50 The impacts are evident not only in the continuing trend of record-breaking global surface temperatures (2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2020 were all record-breaking years);51 impacts are also felt locally in the water, soil, and forests necessary to sustain life:

acidification and eutrophication of fresh and saltwater sources;

rising sea levels and severe weather events;

deforestation and soil degradation due to mass agricultural production and fossil fuel energy production and use; and

micro earthquakes linked to hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.

One-planet living or one-Earth living keeps consumption within Earth’s carrying capacity. We currently consume at the rate of 1.75 planets on a global annual basis.52 If we attempted to bring all nations up to North American living standards, we would require the equivalent of 8 planets.53 As World Resources Institute founder James Speth warns, If you take an honest look at today’s destructive environmental trends, it is impossible not to conclude that they profoundly threaten human prospects and life as we know it on the planet.54

We are definitively on an unsustainable trajectory. The human condition has become a predicament: a devastating political and economic system has led us to the brink of ecological catastrophe that reveals the delicate balance of the ecosystem, what political theorist William Connolly characterizes as the fragility of things.55 The