The world is changing. Climate change is real and impacting communities. The cost of oil has been rising. Recent legislation requires that local governments incorporate greenhouse gas reduction targets by 2010. Water shortages, booming population growth, decreasing ecosystem health, rising transportation and food costs, among other things, all indicate that NOW is the time to start down the path towards leadership in sustainability. What are the key global trends to address in a sustainability strategy?

• Climate Change click here
• Energy click here
• Water click here
• Biodiversity click here
• Demographics click here
• Economics click here
• Food click here

The sustainability strategy will help the Comox Valley be resilient and responsive to these global trends.

What does “sustainability” mean?

Sustainability is an umbrella term that is commonly used to have a discussion about actions to be taken in response to global trends. Here are some widely examined definitions that we use as a starting point: The concept of sustainability gained widespread recognition and acceptance with the release of the Brundtland report in 1987, which set out to address concerns regarding rapidly-disappearing natural and agricultural lands, poor air quality, and GHG emissions and their effect on global warming. The report also addressed the issue of social and inter-generational equity, which is encapsulated in the World Commission on Environment and Development’s (WCED) definition of sustainable development:

development that meets the needs of the current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (WCED, 1987; 43).

Sustainability is more broadly defined as balancing and integrating economic, social, and environmental dimensions in all development (Roseland, 1992).