Municipal Environmental Management A Guideline for Decision-Makers in Municipalities

 Guideline (pdf, 430.93 KB)

Introduction

The thought of sustainability is reluctant to an imagination of growth in the sense of growth for growth’s sake, as it has been dominating our way of doing business for way over 100 years. Sustainability aims at another way of treating earthly resources. Three criteria are at the centre of the thought: Efficiency, sufficiency and consistency. So when we reflect on sustainability today, we look for strategies that are oriented to these criteria. One such strategy is the Local Agenda 21, with whose help a sustainable development should be implemented in the municipalities in three areas: Environment, social affairs and economy.

The Local Agenda 21 is based on cooperation of local actors from administrations, the economic sector and from civil society. Interaction of these three groups should promote the municipalities’ development towards sustainability and a higher level of economicalness in the future. In our European project „Sustainable Development, Local Agenda 21. Public Participation, Economic Perspectives and Environmental Management“ we have put at the centre of our discussions civil society participation, economic development and concrete implementation strategies for administrations, amongst others the strategy for environmental management.

 You find the whole introduction here.