SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES PROGRAM
Building Resilient and Green Communities
The Sustainable Communities Program by Audubon International assists communities in adopting sustainable practices that enhance environmental health and quality of life.
For information about joining the
Sustainable Communities Program
Please contact Jill Moore at
518-767-9051 x124 or
jill@auduboninternational.org
What is a Certified Sustainable Community?
An Audubon International Certified Sustainable Community has a long-term, flexible framework to support its sustainable future. To verify that a community’s approach to sustainability is effective, Audubon International ensures that each community completes all program requirements to become an Audubon International Certified Sustainable Community.
The certification program requires communities:
take actions that demonstrate sustainability principles are in place for all applicable focus areas and
institute plans and policies that ensure a long term, community-led commitment to a sustainability program.
While there are mandatory elements in both the action and process areas, every element has broad requirements that can be met in a wide variety of ways.
Most communities use Audubon International’s three-stage process to achieve certification. Each stage educates and engages community members in the community’s sustainability initiative. The process will be tailored to fit any steps your community has already completed.
Each step towards certification brings immediate, long-lasting benefits to the member community. Also, the community’s progress through these steps is recognized by an award at the end of each stage. The first stage provides a simple starting point, establishing a baseline assessment of your community focusing on environment, quality of life, and economic vitality. Stage 1 is helpful for engaging a wide group of residents in discussing sustainability and identifying both community strengths and areas needing improvement. If the community decides to move through Stage 2, the community’s sustainability goals will be incorporated into a long-term vision plan. This plan will be held to Audubon International’s standards for planning. In Stage 3, the community will report initial implementation of the plan to earn certification.
An annual membership fee and progress reporting maintains certification and provides the community with continuing access to Audubon International’s customized support and guidance.
A community is certified as an Audubon International Certified Sustainable Community once it meets all program requirements as stated below.
This acknowledgement from Audubon International will aid in the promotion of our continued efforts to place environmental sustainability in the forefront of Town initiatives. For many years Hilton Head Island has been known for its great natural beauty and for innovative, environmentally sensitive practices. This achievement recognizes the Town's commitment and strides toward creating a sustainable environment.
Drew Laughlin
Mayor | Town of Hilton Head Island
Benefits of Membership
Pursuing sustainability is an investment in your community – in the well-being of the people, the economy, the environment, and the future. In many ways, your participation in Audubon International’s Sustainable Communities Program is the first deposit in that investment.
As a member of Audubon International’s Sustainable Communities Program you will receive:
The expertise of Audubon International’s staff
Step-by-step instructions to create or enhance your community's sustainability effort
Tailored guidance in enhancing existing sustainability efforts, strategic planning, and
establishing measures of successTools for engaging and educating community members about sustainability
Regular email updates with new resources and funding opportunities
Fact sheets on common topics
Access to a network of communities pursuing sustainability and facing similar issues
Assistance with promoting your successes
Over time, you’ll invest in other ways as well: with money, human capital, time, and effort that help to make your community a healthier, more desirable and more vibrant place in which to live, work, and play.
FAQs
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First, you will host an Audubon International staff member on an initial site visit helping to reach out to the community and learn, first-hand, about your community. You will work with Audubon International to identify a “sustainability coordinator” to act as the main liaison to Audubon International staff and develop a steering committee made up of various stakeholders throughout the community.
Audubon International provides a survey to gather some basic information (Community Baseline) about your community that will be used to provide recommendations for actions to help to "green your community."
The next step is to formulate a plan. For each indicator, Audubon International will work with you to identify specific ways you can take action to become more sustainable.
Upon completion of the long-range plan, the final step is implementation of the long-range sustainable plan that has been created.
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“Sustainability” can have many different meanings. Audubon International has developed a specific set of sustainability indicators from successful community-based long-term plans and best practices. The Sustainability Indicators are specific measures that can be evaluated or calculated for a community. When you choose a representative sampling of indicators that are both appropriate for your community and representative of sustainability’s component categories, you then have a system of measures that allow you to assess your community’s progress towards sustainability. With Audubon International’s emphasis on place-based strategies and flexibility, each category of sustainable indicators below has greater or lesser importance for a particular community on a case by case basis.
Agriculture
Economic Development and Tourism
Education
Environmental Issues
Governance
Public Health
Housing
Open Space and Land Use
Planning, Zoning, Building and Development
Population
Public Safety and Emergency Management
Recreation
Resource Use
Volunteerism and Civic Engagement
Transportation
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The Sustainable Communities Program is designed to begin a healthy dialogue among citizens and local government. Through dialogue, the program engages technical and educational partners to act on long-term ecologically-focused economic and social welfare development. The program charts a course towards a future that capitalizes on a community’s existing valuable assets while addressing its problems and needs now and into the future. This is an accredited recognition of achievements which also assists communities with long-term sustainability planning.
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In strict financial terms, some of your efforts will pay off immediately and start saving or earning you money. Other efforts will have an up-front cost, but will have a definite payback period. Others still will not be as easily measured in economic terms, but will pay off in other ways that are just as meaningful, tangible, and important.
In addition, by becoming a more sustainable community you can expect to see many of the following long-term results:
Recognition as a leader in defining a future for your community
Enhanced community pride and heightened cooperation among community members
Improved environmental quality
Improved quality of life and community safety
Enhanced recreational opportunities
Increased tourism and other economic development
Financial savings through more efficient practices
Increased desirability of your community for potential residents and increased property values
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No. Sustainability is not a test or something that can be addressed with a checklist. It is a process, based on a set of Audubon International Principles for Sustainable Resource Management. Programs and efforts that identify environmental performance and sustainability programs by a set of graded questions have value and can be legitimate tools for progress. Audubon International believes placed-based environmental education and performance-measuring are the best way to change policies, practices, and people. So, the Sustainable Communities Program uses a set of principles, indicators, and a formal process to guide communities down a more sustainable path, but that path must be one that is developed and built by and for the community itself.
Sustainable Communities Success Stories
We are proud of our certified members accomplishments and have highlighted their stories! Browse the featured Sustainable Communities success stories by clicking on the link below to learn about the incredibly diverse environmental stewardship projects and activities that take place at Audubon International Certified Communities.
To see your success story featured here, please send an email and an overview of your story to us.