Item A: Sustainability Commission Work Plan

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The eight issue areas the Sustainability Commission have identified are listed down the left hand side of the matrix and include: climate change, transportation, triple bottom line, land-use, green building, business initiatives, waste and food. The need to respond to climate change is a primary focus of the work plan. The other issues listed under climate change can be seen as ways to help respond by both reducing our emissions and planning for medium and longer term consequences of climate change. Climate change is acknowledged as a major social and economic issue as well as an environmental one. Implicit in the issues listed, especially transportation, land-use, and food is the need to plan for the effects of increasing petroleum prices which will impact all aspects of our society. In each of the matrix cells four steps are proposed: 1.Research current action and develop relationships with the aim to partnering with groups and organizations to undertake sustainable initiatives 2.Propose action to City Council 3.Implement and/or monitor action as appropriate 4.Develop measures and report back to the council on outcome of action The first step will include information-gathering to help identify and prioritize which initiatives will have the most positive impact on community sustainability. Assessment of best practice approaches to addressing the issues, both in North America and beyond, will be undertaken. As outlined, building partnerships with organizations and groups already implementing sustainability will be an important part of our work. It is vital that the commission develop working relationships with other groups and organizations including the Planning Commission, Human Rights Commission, governmental organizations, non-profits, educational institutions, as well as business and community leaders in Eugene and Lane County to develop a regional sustainable vision and identify where the commission can be most effective. There is growing understanding that everyone and each organization has a role to play in addressing issues such as climate change. Next, specific actions will be proposed to the Council to address the issues noted in the matrix. Once approval for these actions is received from the council, the commission will help implement, monitor, or undertake the action as appropriate. Metrics for measuring results will be developed in conjunction with the action taken. Development of metrics for sustainability within the City and community are crucial in order to track and assess the results of actions. Finally, the commission will report to the council, on a quarterly basis, on the outcomes of its work. Timeline To begin this work, it is proposed the commission will first hear from each City department on current sustainability initiatives with particular emphasis on the eight issues identified in the work plan framework, as well as education and outreach. The commission will then develop subcommittees as needed to work on advancing specific parts of the eight priority issues, both within the City organization and within the community. These subcommittees will enable more detailed discussion and development of recommendations back to the full commission and ultimately the council. The commission as a whole will be responsible for education and outreach. A Gantt chart outlining the commissions’ proposed work plan is included as Attachment B. One of the challenges in developing a more detailed action plan is to ensure integration of the social, economic and environmental considerations into any action proposed. While the commission has begun F:\CMO\2008 Council Agendas\M080423\S080423B.doc