Long-Term Sustainability Strategy
The final element in the Green Impact Zone® one-year game plan is the development of a long-term sustainability strategy.
The zone is taking advantage of a "federal moment" when a considerable amount of resources are available to jump start the transformation process. But to be truly transformative, the process must lead to a long-term strategy for sustaining and building on what occurs in years one and two or the community will fall back into old conditions. No matter how many resources are available, a truly transformed community must have a long-term strategy and the capacity to carry that strategy forward to sustain the community.
Sustainability means not only environmental sustainability -- clean water, clean air, low energy use -- but also economic sustainability and social sustainability; access to good paying jobs, quality neighborhood amenities such as schools and parks, good quality housing, and a generally vibrant, active neighborhood, including actively engaged residents.
The zone, in year one, will engage the community in a conversation about what the elements should be in such a sustainability strategy. This discussion will be based on the collection of a wealth of information about the community aided by such institutions as the University of Missouri at Kansas City and the University of Kansas. However, the most critical element of this process is the engagement of the community in a discussion of the kind of neighborhood residents want and what needs to be done to create and sustain that neighborhood.
