While large urban areas frequently receive attention for their sustainability programs, small cities managed by ICMA members are prominently featured in a recent blog in the Huffington Post. Highlighting “terrific examples of green initiatives” in small communities, Bringing Sustainability to Small-Town America, by F. Kaid Benfield, cites ICMA’s 2010 sustainability survey and other resources drawn from the survey results.

The blog post features initiatives by six cities with populations ranging from less than 1,000 to about 12,000.

Columbus, Wisconsin (Patrick Vander Sanden, city administrator), gave its economic development goals a boost by making physical improvements that supported its promotion of the city to businesses as a sustainable, green community. And South Daytona, Florida (Joseph Yarbrough, city manager), focused efforts on energy efficiency with a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in municipal operations and the community as a whole.

Columbus and South Daytona were prominently featured in Defying the Odds: Sustainability in Small and Rural Places, a briefing paper from the ICMA Center for Sustainable Communities, written by George Homsy and Mildred Warner.

Benfield also describes how Greensburg, Kansas (Eddy Truelove, city administrator), embarked on a sustainable comprehensive plan to rebuild after a tornado devastated its infrastructure. And he offers the Main Street revival in Corning, New York (Mark Ryckman, city manager), as a model for other communities.

Finally, the adjoining West Virginia cities of Ranson (Andrew Blake, city manager) and Charles Town (Paul Mills, city manager) are cited as “the gold standard for a concerted, multifaceted, small-town land use planning effort” that encompassed zoning changes, transportation corridor redesign, a regional commuter center, and new downtown master planning.

Since their release, the results from ICMA’s 2010 survey have served as a resource for researchers, authors, and others exploring sustainable practices at the local level. In addition to Defying the Odds, mentioned above, the survey findings have inspired articles, ICMA conference sessions, and other ICMA publications listed in the Center for Sustainable Communities blog on the ICMA website.

Later in 2015, ICMA will gather new data with another sustainability survey. Local government managers are encouraged to watch for the survey and respond to it so that ICMA can continue to document the state of the art in sustainability programs and identify cutting-edge practices to share.

A Note about the Survey and Briefing Paper

ICMA’s sustainability survey was developed with the input of ICMA’s Center for Sustainable Communities, the Center for Urban Innovation, Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability (ASU GIOS), the Alliance for Innovation, and others.

Research on the case studies presented in Defying the Odds was made possible in part with funding from the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture. The publication was researched and written through a subcontract agreement with NADO Research Foundation, which provided overall project direction. The work that provided the basis for the publication was supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.