It is increasingly accepted that communities with a high quality of life embody three principles of sustainable development. First, they balance the social, economic and environmental components of their community. Second, they meet the needs of the current generation without sacrificing the quality of life of future generations. Third, they respect the needs of other communities in the wider region or internationally to make their communities sustainable.
Sustainable communities should:
- Be Diverse – value similarities and differences at the personal, interpersonal, institutional and cultural levels.
- Thrive Economically – achieve economic well-being through dynamic job and business creation.
- Provide Opportunity – provide a sustainable wage and economic opportunity for all citizens.
- Demonstrate Environmental Stewardship – foster “cradle-to-cradle” thinking about natural resources not just compliance with environmental laws and regulations.
- Be Open and Viable to All – provide affordable housing to all members of society near their place of work.
- Be Accessible – provide safe and healthy transport- ation alternatives to the automobile and stimulate economic development through the timely and efficient movement of goods and services.
- Promote Learning – equip students with the skills for success and generate a personal commitment to life-long learning.
- Promote Health – promote responsible personal behavior and active lifestyles through systems that are accessible to all.
- Be Safe – foster a sense of personal safety and individual behavior that does not have to be dramatic- ally modified to avoid fear and harm.
- Promote Creativity – use arts and culture to develop the skills that contribute to innovation and a sense of well-being.
- Be Engaged and Caring – understand the value of public goods, and promote engagement in civic processes and reinvestment in the community.
This report evaluates our recent progress towards improving our sustainability by measuring key indicators of the region’s quality of life.
We hope that this report will be used in several ways. Most importantly, we hope that the policy recommendations that are woven throughout the text will be used by decision- makers to craft public policy at the local, county, regional and state levels of government. In our view, there is a need to improve our current approach to public policy – which is too often reactive rather than proactive and incremental rather than strategic – with a perspective that is both longer and broader in view.
We trust that the business community will use this report to formulate investment and community engagement strategies that will benefit today’s employees, owners, investors and their children and grandchildren. Further, we anticipate that various institutions in the nonprofit and civil sectors of our community will use this report to develop strategies in keeping with their respective missions. This includes the region’s three United Way organizations, our community foundations, the religious community, labor unions and the countless institutions that contribute collectively to our overall quality of life.
Similarly, we encourage organizations that have a more local focus (e.g., neighborhood and interest-based organizations) to use this report as a backdrop against which to develop and pursue their objectives.
We encourage the media to use this report in deciding when and how to facilitate the public’s ongoing discussions about the future of the region. We hope that this report and the discussions that it engenders will contribute to a broader understanding of the region’s assets, challenges and potential among citizens; and that this, in turn, will lead to their engagement in the full life of their respective communities.
Finally, we encourage school systems to use this report to supplement curricula, particularly at the high school level. The front lines of public policy are increasingly local and regional rather than statewide and national in nature. Again, this report should serve this purpose.