“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

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.

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

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.