Critical Thinking for Sustainable Community Decision-Making

The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) is a wonderful source for economic and community development tools that take into account issues of sustainability. In the past, the term "sustainability" in a community development context, meant the sustainability of a program - where can we find new grants. Sustainability, as RMI and an increasing number of communities define it, is environmental sustainability - Being sure today's decisions will have a positive, or at least neutral, effect on our environment.

Purdue Extension is uniquely positioned to help Indiana communities think about this new meaning of sustainability and RMI has some tools to help. For instance, they have something called, A Community Leadership Toolkit that helps decision makers evaluate projects and programs from a sustainability point of view. It asks questions like the following:

1. Long-Term Effects: Is this proposed action compatible with the community’s stated
   goals—its vision or preferred future? What effects might the action have in ten years? How will it affect future generations? Can future problems be minimized or avoided ?
2. Off-Site Effects: Will the action cause effects somewhere other than the place where the action will take place? These kind of effects might be, for instance: next door, blocks away, in the next community, downstream or downwind. If there are negative off-site effects, can these be reduced or turned to the community's advantage?
3. Cumulative Effects: An action may seem benign when considered alone, but it may have important negative effects when considered in light of other decisions and actions. Consider these kinds of effects by thinking about previous or likely future actions regarding similar issues. Is the problem we are attempting to solve caused by some earlier action? If so, might today’s proposed action create problems? Where would this action lead us; what problems might it create for future leaders? What will be the cumulative effect of this and other related actions? (i.e. Approving a subdivision
   may contribute to a gradual loss of farmland).
4. Self-Reliance: Will this action affect the community’s self-reliance? Will it make the community less or more vulnerable to outside influences (e.g. global trade, severe weather, economic downturns, corporate or governmental decisions)?
5. Economic Diversity: Will it affect the community's economic diversity? Will the community become more or less dependent on a single large employer or one type of business activity? Will it enable local businesses or residents to produce or buy things locally, instead of outside the community? Does this action put all the community’s eggs in one basket? Is it an all-or-nothing prospect? Or can the strategy withstand partial failure while achieving overall success?
6. Environmental Diversity: Will this action affect environmental diversity? Will it decrease habitat size or type, or number of species?
7. Growth: Will this action make the community better or just bigger? If the action would make the community bigger, who will pay the costs of the expansion? Might this action lead to, or be part of, a boom and bust cycle?
8. Throughput (the quantity and flow of resources that are processed, used, and turned into waste, e.g. the number of harvested bushels, cut trees, or tourist days.):Will this action increase "throughput,” in certain areas without creating the means to pay for associated costs? Has the community reached the point where increasing throughput in certain areas increases costs more than benefits?
9. Fairness: Will this action create inequitable costs and benefits? Will one group receive the benefits of this action while another pays disproportionate costs? Consider age, gender, race, income, and disability. What kind of environmental, social, or economic effect will this action have on less fortunate members of the community? Can the action be changed to distribute benefits and costs more fairly? Will the costs of this action be imposed on future generations who receive less or none of its benefits?
10. Public Services: Will the action affect existing public services (schools, police, roads, water, sewer, etc.)? If the effect is negative, who is being affected by reduced quality of service? Or, who is paying the additional costs to expand services? Is it possible to avoid expansion by using existing resources more efficiently?
11. Finances: What is the net effect on community finances (revenues vs. long-term costs)?
12. Natural Resources: Will this action positively or negatively affect natural resources (water, energy, land, soil nutrients, minerals)? Will the action use resources renewably? If the action will significantly reduce or exhaust a resource, what will the community do? Will the action foster efficient use of resources? Are there opportunities to get the same or more benefit by using fewer resources?
13. Waste: Will this action create significant amounts of waste or pollution ? Is there a way to reduce, reuse, or recycle the wastes? What are the economic, community and environmental costs of disposing of the waste? Are there ways to put the waste to work in the community creating more jobs or income?

The decision-making tool is available here. As community's consider how to both grow and stay "green" what will be Purdue Extension's role in helping them find their way? Resources like this might help.