Mike:

In many cities, fire protection is the second highest cost in general budgets, police protection being the highest. I have written about how cities can maintain adequate levels of fire protection while reducing fire department salaries and pension burdens. Please see my post titled "Sustainable fire protection" at www.fdexcellence.com.

The June edition of PM will be focused on Sustainability. It will contain a number of feature articles, as well as other supporting columns and stories. You can help.

I am writing a feature article with a working title: "Refreshing the Concept of Sustainability as a Core Concept of Local Government Management", and it will take a bigger picture look at the issue.

In February 2007, the ICMA board decided to make sustainability a priority. It directed staff to launch efforts to position ICMA as a leader on the issue.

Five years on, a lot has happened. I'd be interested in your thoughts on sustainability, or any others you may have on the matter:

•What progress have we made as a profession?

•Is it still the issue of our age, or has life passed it by?

•What do you think needs to be done to ensure that it remains at the forefront of what we do a professional local government managers?

Look forward to hearing from you!

I am interested in hearing more examples of how sustainable practices like recycling lead to economic development and job creation. I see the ones is our industry but would love to see other examples.

Steve, the City of Dallas went through this by implementing an ISO14001 like program (EMS - Environmental Management System). They are very open to sharing what worked and what didn't. I highly recommend that you contact them.

Steve, you might check out a website I write, www.greenworksgov.org for info and examples. Happy to collaborate! Also, I'm just learning about the Natural Step which has a toolkit for educating employees about what we mean by sustainability and how our daily efforts impact our goals. This takes you to the toolkits link on their site: http://www.thenaturalstep.org/en/toolkits-around-world

I am a member of the City of Las Vegas Sustainability Comittee. We are a grass roots effort to bring Sustainability Awareness to the City Employees and show the role that they play in the City's Sustainability efforts. I would love to swap sucesses and failures with anyone.

Two very interesting articles from today's WSJ. The firs has to do with building a greener city, while the second examines a burgeoning development trend in agriburbia:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904009304576535113877346554.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_Top

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903392904576510492421141056.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_Top#project%3DSLIDESHOW08%26s%3DSB10001424053111904583204576546592454082476%26articleTabs%3Dcomments

Here to learn more about Sustainability, network with professionals in this field and see how to package solutions for Caricom Countries.

I’m interested in the opportunity to interact with other professionals and learn how sustainability can take many different aspects across the country. My expertise is in the recycling field, but my interests also include energy efficiency and food production.

My area of interest is helping local governments reduce the costs of fire protection without reducing fire department effectiveness.