Sustainability

The inter-related challenges of climate change, peak oil, and economic disruption require focus on sustainability to achieve stability.  Significant multi-path communication and coordination between government, business, and citizen interests is necessary to achieve sustainability.

Guiding Principles

Here you will find Spokane’s framework regarding efforts to become more sustainable as a community and a government.  The City has set policy and goals for both City government and for the community of Spokane.

Connectivity

What are we doing to facilitate interaction among citizens and removing barriers to such interactions? What else should/could government be doing? Here the concern is not only with local interactions but also interactions between communities. The idea is that increasing movement of, and providing ways to move, people, goods, services and information efficiently is an important government role. The resulting contacts and connections provide a fertile base for a more resilient and effective economy and society.

Stewardship

As populations grow, people live more closely together, and the world seems generally smaller, there is a growing appreciation for practicing good stewardship with available resources. This helps provide for more, but also helps to assure that we will not be as impacted as we might otherwise be should hard times befall us. It also helps assure that we are keeping costs to a minimum and not wasting available energy and resources.

Resilience

Resilience here refers to the ability, both of City government and the community of Spokane, to survive and perhaps even thrive during hard times. We expect this ability to be related to having critical supplies locally derived and to have found work-arounds for items in limited supply. There is also a “community working together for the common good” aspect to this.

Socio-Economic Health

Equitable and comprehensive planning for varying scenarios of change will help the City and its citizens recover if faced with unforeseen hardship. This principle suggests that the City plan ahead for different scenarios and prepare itself accordingly. Fostering socio-economic health means that the City appreciates that all individuals, regardless of demographics or economic status, must have that same opportunity to “bounce back.”