PlacerSustain: Voices of Placer County's Sustainability Community

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PlacerSustain

The Sustainability Initiative Framework

This material is divided into three sections:  Sustainable Community Organizing Principles, proposed Placer County Sustainability Initiatives, and the Core Implementation Structure.  Collectively these sections represent a Framework for ongoing community action.  The Principles represent some of the critical elements of a conceptual, social, and organizational structure that supports the sustainability paradigm.  The Initiatives contain an outline of the networking and capacity building needed to engage new community resources, and the more efficient use of existing resources, in creating a sustainable future.  Finally, the Implementation Structure identifies the key mechanisms necessary to support needed action.  This is a start, and a work in progress.

I.                    Sustainable Community Organizing Principles:

A Sustainable Community is a community that has created the human resources and capacities to creatively and adaptively steward our social and natural resources in a healthy and thriving condition for the benefit of future generations.  The framework for developing those resources and capacities is a Community Sustainability Network that is connecting people and empowering collaborative action.

1.       Information and People.   In this context, there are two key resources; information and people.  The multi-billion dollar advertising industry and the explosion of social networking media sites are founded on the connection of people with information, and information about people.   This approach and its application to building sustainable communities were acknowledged by WorldWatch in its State of the World 2010 Report, which was focused on building sustainable communities.

Sustainable communities move a lot of high quality information, information about skills, practices, people, businesses, projects, programs, cultural interests and values, and so on.  Information is the cultural lifeblood and foundation of sustainable community, but not information alone.  For information to be powerful, it must be held and delivered in a social context. The sustainable community qualities presented here are about the nature of that context, and relationship between information, people, and action.

 The critical importance of reframing the social context is a point made by Peter Block in his book, “Community: The Structure of Belonging”—

"The real intent of community transformation is to shift the umbrella under which the traditional problem solving, investment, and social and community action now take place."

The primary initial task is to collect and consolidate information about resources, and provide a mechanism for connecting people with those resources—namely,    a communication and collaboration network that has resource information and operates to greatly expand resources by allowing for the flow of information across existing barriers and “silos,” and by harvesting the information that is resident in our people and organizations.  The work involves strengthening and connecting silos, and collaborating across silos to address unmet needs.  The quickest and most efficient method of increasing market exposure or to expand social enterprise constituencies is to connect existing business or social interests and communicate through expanded and shared information channel(s) to a now much larger shared audience.[i]

Organizations, businesses, or individuals that have not actively created their own effective network, which involves building networking, communication, and collaboration skills, have that developmental work to do with or without the larger community network; however, a primary purpose of the larger network is to support this development.

In almost every community there are individuals and organizations already building communication and information networks in areas that involve sustainability—which is really the entire spectrum of social, economic, and environmental interests.  A community network hub starts connecting these networks and individuals, and creates a core organizing focus that supports the development of capacities at all the existing networking (information and people) capacity levels.  This connecting and facilitating function can exist and be flexibly configured to fit the circumstances of any particular community social landscape, because the process of doing this work is “Self-Organizing” and builds upon the existing framework.

2.       Self Organizing.  The creation and support of sustainable communities is a Social Movement. [ii]This social movement and related community attributes are emergent properties of communication, information, relationships, and interests/values. This is a Cultural framework.[iii]  The Self Organizing framework operates at all levels, from the formal governmental to the informal social group.  However, in terms of any large scale local community movement, the basic social processes will tend to the informal.  In this context, more informal self-organizing means that the community itself comes to, creates, uses, and develops community resources and capacities without the intervention of a formal centralized structure, management, control, or organizational ownership.[iv]  Not only are there insufficient organizational resources to create the level of needed community engagement (and this is a permanent condition); but organizational control and ownership actually represses the emergence of community vitality.  Other qualities are related to self-organization--bottom up, non-hierarchal, peer to peer, diverse, no command and control, adaptive, and so on.  Wikipedia, Craigslist, Facebook, Social Networking for Business (IBM, AT&T, etc.) are examples of relatively informal social organizing.  This is not to say that organized interests do not have a major role to play in supporting and nurturing the process.

3.       Self Replicating.  In view of the limited resources of organizationally sponsored projects and programs relative to the level of public involvement needed for large scale social change (not a temporary condition), reliance on the formal organizational framework to directly create such change is not a successful strategy. Instead, these efforts must be directed to sparking processes in communities that not only can be replicated, but are designed to replicate.[v]   The mission is working with forces that are likely to create self-generating replicable local action.  Too many resources are being devoted to create results that are limited in scope and effect.  This is the trap of a project by project paradigm, rather than programmatic, ongoing, community supported effort.  There will be, and should be "projects," but they have to be strategically and tactically prioritized based on whether the work is likely to be self generating and replicable.  This means that resources need to be devoted to creating the capacities and context for supporting replication and leveraging.  If necessary, fewer projects with more self generating replication potential should be pursued. [vi]

4.       Strategic--Leveraging Resources and Actions.  Leveraging is related to Replicability.  Undertaking actions that are replicable is a method of Leveraging.  In addition, actions need to be designed so that they Build Community Capacities.  Does the action create a model that others may learn from? Are people and organizations acquiring skills that would be of use to others, and is there a potential for training others?  Is the work going to be captured in a Community Knowledgebase so the experience is available to others?  Has the project been designed so that relationships are being created that will support future actions?   Is there on-going support for the continuation and replication of the relationship and information resources that are being employed?  Is the project related to programmatic and systemic goals, objectives, and processes?  If the work is not replicable, leveraged, and building community capacities, what is it contributing to sustainable community?  The “umbrella” referred to above by Peter Block is a new strategic framework for working in Community.

13.   Efficiency Through Collaboration.  The following items represent examples of the greater efficiencies that result from networking and collaboration:

a.       Consolidation and Integration of Fragmented and Separated Local Programs, Initiatives and Outreach.

b.      Shared administrative and logistical expense

c.       Coordinated media campaigns

d.      Consolidated meetings and conferences

e.      Cooperative Distribution of Education/Outreach/Mission materials between Partners

f.        Consolidated Public Access to Information Portals

g.       Reduced marketing and social enterprise constituency building through Community Sustainability Networking Hub.

14.   Local and Small Group Focus and Scale.  Communication, Collaboration, and Action processes must ultimately be local--at the community, neighborhood, group, and individual level and scale is the foundation.  This is not to say that in many communities where local capacities are in the early developmental stages that larger scale interests are not organized first.  However, if what we are doing is not creating growth and change in values and behavior at the local level, both the effects and the duration of effects are limited--not leveraged and of short duration.   

 Local empowerment also strengthens regional/national/global institutions.  Further, we are much further along in the development of large scale institutions and capacities than at the local level.  What works at the larger scale (e.g. regionally) may not be the methods and organizational culture that works at the local level.   "Higher" level organizations and programs should be heavily engaged in supporting local capacity building and implementation.  An empowered and robust local community network is a resource to all larger scale programs and interests.  The small group scale is the foundation for work and transformation.  A sustainable community is built upon a foundation of robust and connected small group communication and collaboration networks.  Information flowing from and into small group work is vital.  If “regionalization” is not actively supporting “localization” there are problems.  However, regional organizations cannot exclusively use a traditional regional organizational model at the local level.  The primary engine of localization is self-organizing.  There is a role for conventional structure at the local level, more formal alliances of organizations and institutions, but this must be coupled with, and in support of, the emergence of a self-organizing community network.  This is good news, because established institutions and organizations at whatever level do not have, and never will, the resources to conventionally manage the level of community engagement necessary to innovate a sustainable future.

15.   The Learning Community--Information Delivered Strategically.  We have learned from the business sector through the work of Peter Senge and others that it is necessary to be a Learning Organization in order to thrive in a rapidly changing economic climate.  Likewise, a Sustainable Community is a Learning Community. Some believe the evolutionary lesson is not that the fittest survive, but the most adaptable—i.e. those who have the capacity to learn.

a.       Ongoing Critical Self Appraisal / Awareness.  There must be ongoing critical feedback available to the entire community on what's working and what is not working.  Without this information there is no adaptation and change.  The degree to which this is happening is part of what determines whether the system (community) is open or closed to change. 

b.      Open to New Information.  New information must flow in and out of the community, and internally within the community.  One indicator of the "health" of a community is the degree to which these flows exists, are organized and available to all, are not being filtered by political and organizational turfs, i.e. freedom from constraint.

c.       Feeds Knowledgebase.  Information is being captured, stored, and is retrievable.  This includes the history of the communities communications, collaborations, solutions, personal stories, and so on.  Our history and knowledge repository tells us where we come from and who we are.  Not just dry facts, but also stories about people.

d.      Adaptive Strategic and Tactical Collaboration.  Not just information, but the use of information as part of ongoing strategic and tactical collaboration between citizens, and between community leaders, formal and informal.  The product of this work in turn is made part of the Knowledgebase.  This is not about static plans that get put on the shelf.  This is not about Visions that lack ongoing strategic and tactical implementation processes and networks.  This is about formal and informal strategic collaboration as part of the community culture and part of a Community implementation network (i.e. "Community Sustainability Network")

e.      Developmental Support.  Information and technical support are delivered strategically to promote capacity building and developmental movement in individuals and groups.  This support is delivered in concrete experiential action contexts, and is continuing as needed.  We acknowledge that individuals and groups are at various developmental stages in terms of skills and capacities.[vii]

16.   Values and Interests.  We have to know WHY we are doing what we are doing.  We don't have to all have the same values and motivation, which goes to the issue of diversity that will be discussed below, but we have to know our Whys.  Why operates at the level of identity, which is fundamental.  Why needs to be part of the public dialogue and the ongoing strategic collaboration process.   We say that a sustainable future involves cultural transformation.  The heart of "culture" is Why. 

Much of our governmental and other sustainability efforts are focused on "what" and “how,” with a heavy emphasis on behavioral modification and “doing.”   Yet it is well known in many organizational and social system fields that attempts to modify or intervene at the behavioral level is inefficient, expensive, and provokes resistance, in short, not sustainable.  Just providing information about benefits and consequences, sometimes called "public education" moves towards Why, but information and education alone is not sufficient.  What needs to be added is deeper communication, conflict resolution practices and skills, support for important differences and diversity as part of Community, building social capital in the form of trust relationships and collaboration skills, and continuing learning and technical support.   Part of the values and interests discussion are the questions of Justice, Fairness,  Equity, all of which must be embodied in community processes in order to be enduring.

17.   Communication Space Qualities

a.       Open Information Access

b.      Equal Participation Opportunities

c.       Transparent and open participation in decision-making  about administration of communication space/network

d.      Freedom of Expression and Action

e.      Decision-making and autonomy at the individual and group levels.

f.        Minimal centralized management of Communication/Relationship Space

g.       Neutral, non-judgmental, non-ideological, minimal content or content filtering by “management”

h.      High Levels of Participation/Cooperation/Collaboration (Relationship Quality)

i.         Appreciation and Acceptance--Relationships based on who people are, not who they "should be."

18.   IntegrativeNetworking,  Communication, and Relationships

a.       Full Range of Sustainability Interests-Economy, Community, and Environment ("Horizontal").  Systemic multi-disciplinary awareness, exchange of information, and strategic collaboration.

b.      Full range of participation--Formal governmental, non-profit, business, community groups, and individuals "(Vertical").  Full range engagement of interest at all levels of formality and interest in the network as a whole.

c.       Cross-networking and collaboration--strategic work across organizational silos, subjects and size scales.

d.      High quality information and technical support available to the smallest working units.

e.      Appreciative cross-cultural, diverse, developmental at all levels and types of ethnicity, worldviews, economic status, and politics.

19.   People Based.  Grounded in interests, values, and goals of individuals and the groups they are affiliated with.  People based is Interest based, Value based, Personal and Concrete.[viii] People are moved by an entire spectrum of interests and values, ranging from principles about the sacred nature of Gaia to a desire to reduce energy costs; but in each case, what moves people is personal and involves something the person has made their own.   Too often in the environmental arena the “problem” has been framed as a conflict between individual economic self interest and principles of stewardship of the Commons.  The sustainability movement itself represents a shift toward acknowledging the important of economic interests in the environmental equation.  We are dealing with a multi-cultural, multi-worldview social environment.  A deeper framing of the role of self interest is not just an acknowledgement of the important of economic values, but the actual promotion and support of the importance of the individual, and his or her core values and identity, as a social force leading to change.  The proposition that people are incidental to pursuit of the common good, or that “people” are the problem, actually undermines and diminishes the resources we need (i.e. people) to steward our future.

20.   Developmental Leadership.  At every cultural developmental level (Spiral Dynamics “Meme”) there are people and organizations that are devoted to meeting the needs of a particular level, and people who are ready to take the next step to another level (with all the appropriate shades of grey in between).  We need leaders that are capable of working within a particular developmental level, and leaders who support movement through levels.  The social developmental process through various levels has been written about extensively by many, including Don Beck (Spiral Dynamics) and Ken Wilber (Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality and other works).  Sustainable Community involves strengthening the capacity of people to get their needs met at all levels, and supporting the movement of people toward higher levels of awareness and capacity to care for the whole—community, environment, and economy.  At each level we are building Tipping Points that foster large scale movement of people to levels at which they have greater capacities and resources to creatively sustain themselves and others. 

As Ken Wilber states in his book, “Integral Psychology:”

The ecological crisis--or Gaia's main problem--is not pollution, toxic dumping, ozone depletion, or any such.  Gaia's main problem is that not enough human beings have developed to the postconventional, worldcentric, globals levels of consciousness, wherein they will automatically be moved to care for the global commons.  And human beings develop to those postconventional levels, not by learning systems theories [the science of global warming, ecosystem dynamics, etc.], but by going through at least a half-dozen major interior transformations, ranging from egocentric to ethnocentric to worldcentric, at which point, and not before, they can awaken to a deep and authentic concern for Gaia.  The primary cure for the ecological crises is … learning ways to foster these many arduous waves of interior growth, none of which are addressed by most of the new paradigm approaches.

12.            Action.  There is no shortage of information about necessary actions that support sustainability.  What we lack is the social, including economic, capital, strategically deployed to build long term capacities to act.  The above qualities and principles are intended as a start on addressing the question of social capital.  The following material represents ideas and proposals for various sustainability related local initiatives in Placer County.  These ideas are informed by the above principles.  They are presented in outline form.  Most of the material has been published in greater depth on the PlacerSustain website.

II.  Placer County Sustainability Initiatives: [For a more detailed list of PlacerSustain projects and proposals See This Link]

A.      Economic Development

1.       Economic Development Community Collaborative

a.       Economic Development Agency Professionals

b.      Educational Institutions

c.       Private Businesses

d.      Non-Profits

e.      Individuals

2.       BuyLocal Campaign and Branding

3.       Green commerce Directory

4.       Consultant Expert directory

B.      Sustainable Energy. 

1.       Energy Collaborative.  A local energy networking hub that facilitates communication and collaboration between all the various community interests with a stake in sustainable energy-vision, community goals, action plans, coordinated public outreach and education, access to private, public, and non-profit information and technical assistance resources, and so on.

a.       PG&E

b.      Other Public Utilities

c.       Business Organizations

d.      Training and Educational Organizations

e.      Citizens

f.        Community Organizations

g.       Governmental Agencies

h.Education

2.       Public Access to Private, Governmental, and Non-profit information and technical assistance resources. 

3.       An Energy Practices Knowledgebase.

C.      Local Food Collaborative

1.       Community /Church/School Gardens

2.       State College Sustainable Agriculture

2.       Food coops

3.       Buyers clubs

4.       Local Grower Business and Marketing Development

5.       Agricultural Infrastructure

a.       Commercial Kitchen

b.      Storage and Distribution

c.       Financing

D.      Health/Nutrition/Lifestyle

1.       Health Coalition

a.       Public Health Organizations and Non-Profits

b.      Insurers

c.       Health Providers

d.      Alternative Health Community

e.      Faith Community

f.        Private Health Clubs and Services

g.       Recreation Agencies

2.       Sustainable Health Campaign

a.       Media

b.      Public Education

c.       Community Meetings

d.      Health Fellowship Support Citizen Groups

3.       Community Based Health Corps

a.       Lay Health Advocates

b.      Para-Professionals (e.g. Latino Leadership Council)

4.       Volunteer Health Clinic(s)

E.       Conservation

1.                      Conservation Collaborative Hub

2.                      One Stop Conservation

3.                      Conservation Education and Capacity Building

4.                      Conservation Social and Economic Infrastructure

5.                      Sustainability Learning Center

F.       Arts and Culture Community Networking

1.       Consolidated Artists Directory/Web/Public/Searchable

2.       Web Portfolio Galleries/Public/Searchable

3.                      Local Artist Supported Poster Campaigns for non-profits, governmental agencies, and community organizations

4.       Artists Experience/Work/Community Involvement Stories

5.       Consolidated Online Arts and Culture Web Presence/Magazine

6.       Consolidated Arts and Community Print Publication

7.       Expanded Arts Networking Partnership with other Sectors of the Community

8.       Coordinated Media Campaigns with Other Community Interests

9.                      Coordinated Outreach/Relationship Manager with Business/Corporate/and other Arts Sponsorship Partners.

10.   Cooperative Arts and Community Events Planning

11.   Rotating Artist Portfolio Exhibits in Business, Public, and Community Locations

 

II.                  Core Implementation Structure :

 

A.      Community Sustainability Vision, Goals, Principles, and Action Strategies

B.      Community Inventories and Indicators

C.      Community Sustainability Network

1.       Community Meetings

2.       Working Groups/Alliances/Collaboratives

3.       Identifying and Linking with Existing Groups and Organizations.

D.      Public Sustainability Campaign

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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