Bloomington's city government has pursued sustainable programs for years, but without a formal plan to guide or assess its actions. Until now.
The Sustainability Action Plan, expected to be finalized this month, outlines the city’s long-term goals, short-term priorities, responsible parties, timelines and cost estimates related to the city’s sustainability efforts for the next five years.
It emphasizes climate change mitigation activities along with seven other priorities relating to sustainability, said Autumn Salamack, assistant director of sustainability for the Economic and Sustainable Development Department.
“I hope that this plan can help really catalyze the next wave of sustainability programs for the community,” Salamack said.
Eight focus areas are identified in the plan: climate change and adaptation, energy and the built environment, transportation, local food and agriculture, waste, water, ecosystem health and city operations. The last chapter focuses on how the city can lead by example.
The sections were established to support the city’s Comprehensive Plan, a road map for land use and development through 2040.
In line with the Comprehensive Plan, the sustainability plan describes action items to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2024.
It also calls for a community climate adaptation plan by 2023.
Each chapter identifies three simple things community members can do to help the city meet its big-picture goals.
“No matter who you are, you should be able to find some very specific actions you can take that will help us meet the overarching goals for the community,” Salamack said.
Every year, the city will produce a progress report to assess its success in implementing the stated goals, Salamack said.
The plan designates a few action items for 2018, but Salamack said the majority are for 2019, 2020 and 2021. Some immediate projects include working to increase use of the Bloomington transit system, developing an inventory of green building projects at city facilities and restarting Team Green, a group of employees who have worked off and on over the past decade to address sustainability opportunities at city facilities.
More than 175 community members were involved in the development and review of the plan, according to the document. When the draft plan was available for review during a two-week period in August, Salamack said around 300 comments from the public were submitted. The draft is available on the city’s website.
The plan will likely be finalized this month, and will be presented to City Council near the end of October.
