The Three E’s Revisited: How Do Community-Based Organizations Define Sustainable Communities and Their Role in Pursuit of?

Tony G Reames,Nathaniel S Wright

doi:10.3390/su13168825

Abstract

A sustainable community seeks to protect and enhance the environment, meet social needs, and promote economic success. On average, local governments lack meaningfully connecting their environmental and economic sustainability efforts to equity and social justice. Community-based organizations (CBOs) have emerged as local leaders with a growing capacity for pursuing community sustainability. Based on data from a national survey National Community Action Partnership member organizations, this study explores (1) how CBO leaders define sustainable communities; (2) how important each of the three pillars of sustainability are to their mission; and (3) with what organizations do CBOs collaborate in their pursuit of sustainable communities. A content analysis of responses to an open-ended query to define sustainable communities revealed a significant focus on the social equity pillar of sustainability which is closely linked to economic sustainability. Similarly, CBO leaders ranked social equity and economic sustainability as the highest priority for their core mission. Lastly, CBO leaders heavily engaged in local collaboration in their sustainable community efforts. Therefore, serious pursuit of sustainable cities and communities must shift from a go-at-it-alone, centralized government approach to more inclusive, collaborative efforts that take advantage of the economic-social equity sustainability focus of CBOs in both planning and implementation.

Highlights

Sustainable development remains a dominant policy paradigm
Action Partnership is a national, 501(c)3 nonprofit membership organization that provides technical assistance, training, and other resources to Community Action Agencies, nonprofit and public groups funded by the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), a federal program that allocates funding to states to connect Americans to greater opportunity.”
The survey was pre-tested with a group of experts and community-based nonprofit organization representatives, to ensure that survey questions are properly adapted for the target audience

Summary

Introduction

Sustainable development remains a dominant policy paradigm. The climate crisis requires governments develop and implement plans to ensure cities are environmentally, economically, and socially prepared to adapt in conjunction with technological advances to mitigate impending climate impacts. It is not surprising that many local governments across the world have policies in place that attempt to reduce their environmental footprint and assure quality of life for their residents [1,2,3]. With the adoption of Agenda 2030 by the United Nations’ (UN) member states in September 2015, a new global agenda emerged centered on sustainability. The introduction of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) bridged early conceptualizations of sustainable development with the urgency of necessary climate action. SDG 11 calls for sustainable cities and communities

Methods

Results

Conclusion