Sustainability as a vision for the future
There are three elements to developing a successful vision for your community:
- The community creates a vision of its future that balances economic, environmental and social needs. The community views its future in the long term, not years but decades or generations;
- The vision incorporates the views of a wide cross-section of the community; and
- The community figures out how to keep track of its progress in reaching that future vision, that is, the community uses indicators or measures.
Sustainable communities acknowledge that there are limits to the natural, social and built systems upon which we depend.