From my office at the Fairfield Municipal Building, I have a clear view of our community in motion. I can see residents heading to work, trucks making deliveries to local businesses, and families enjoying our town center. It is a daily reminder of what local government is all about: creating and maintaining a place where people can build a life, run a business, and feel a genuine sense of belonging.

In my role as city manager, my days are filled with the practical, often unglamorous, realities of making that happen. The phone rings with concerns about everything from a delayed trash pickup to the complex logistics of a major road improvement project. My calendar is a mosaic of budget meetings, infrastructure planning sessions, and staff check-ins. Just last year, an unexpected delay of a major road improvement project generated hundreds of negative comments on everyone’s favorite medium, social media. These challenges—aging infrastructure, volatile energy markets, and the increasing frequency of extreme weather—are not theoretical or political. They are operational hurdles that demand pragmatic, forward-thinking solutions.

It is through this lens of on-the-ground, practical governance that we in Fairfield have come to fully embrace sustainability. For us, this is not about conforming to a partisan ideology or chasing a trend. It is about a disciplined and strategic approach to ensuring our community can thrive not just today, but for generations to come. It is about deep-seated fiscal responsibility, aggressive economic competitiveness, and a fundamental commitment to the health and safety of our residents. We have codified this common-sense approach in our recently developed Fairfield Sustains Sustainability Action Plan, a document that is less a political statement and more an operational manual for a resilient future.

I want to share our story in detail because I am convinced that our journey in Fairfield offers a powerful model for other local governments. It is a story of how sustainability, when stripped of its often-charged rhetoric, reveals itself to be the next logical evolution of effective public administration. It provides a framework for managing resources efficiently, mitigating risks intelligently, and enhancing the quality of life for the people we serve—the very core of our responsibilities as public servants.

The Common-Sense Case: Four Pillars of a Sustainable Community

For too long, the concept of sustainability has been misconstrued in some circles as a luxury or a niche environmental concern that is somehow separate from the core business of a city. We see it in precisely the opposite way. A well-crafted sustainability plan is one of the most powerful and versatile tools a municipality can wield to achieve its most fundamental objectives. We have come to explain it to our community through four pillars of value.

1. Fiscal Responsibility and Efficiency

First and foremost, for me, this entire endeavor starts with the bottom line. As a former finance director and a steward of taxpayer and ratepayer dollars, my primary goal is operational efficiency. At its heart, sustainability is the art and science of eliminating waste, and waste, in all its forms, costs money. When we systematically pursue energy efficiency in our public buildings, we lower our utility bills. When we reduce the volume of solid waste we send to the landfill, we cut our tipping fees. These are not abstract environmental wins; they are tangible savings that can be redirected to other essential services.

A prime example we are advancing in Fairfield is the development of a solar array to help power our wastewater treatment plant. Anyone in municipal operations knows that these facilities are among a city’s largest energy consumers, particularly the massive aeration blowers required for the treatment process. By harnessing solar power, we can significantly reduce our exposure to volatile energy prices. This is not a symbolic gesture; it is a capital project with a clear, calculable return on investment. With an estimated return-on-investment of 9–12 years on a 30-year system, this project is projected to deliver $2.9 million in savings.

Furthermore, this solar array is proudly city-owned—a strategic decision that offers greater long-term control and financial benefit compared to typical power purchase agreement. Likewise, our plan to systematically convert all city streetlights to high-efficiency LEDs will cut our energy consumption and maintenance costs for years to come, while concurrently improving nighttime visibility and safety. This is the definition of a win-win.

2. A Climate for Economic Competitiveness and Vibrancy

In today’s economy, cities are in a constant state of competition. We are competing with our neighbors, both near and far, for new businesses, private investment, and skilled talent. In this search for our future resident, a commitment to sustainability has become a distinct competitive advantage. I have sat in meetings with site selectors who ask pointed questions about our commitment to renewable energy, the quality of our green spaces, and our plans for multi-modal transportation. They know that the next generation of skilled workers are “voting with their feet,” choosing to live in communities that offer a high quality of life.

Investing in sustainability sends a clear signal that Fairfield is a forward-thinking, well-managed city. Furthermore, these investments directly strengthen our local economy. Expanding our trail networks and enhancing our parks not only improves public health but also increases property values, strengthening our tax base. A reputation for innovative leadership is an invaluable economic development tool.

3. Enhancing Public Health and Quality of Life

The connection between a healthy environment and a healthy population is direct and undeniable. As a city government, we are the primary stewards of critical public health assets. In Fairfield, none is more important than the Great Miami River Buried Valley Aquifer, a sole-source aquifer designated by the U.S. EPA that provides all our pristine drinking water. Protecting this resource from contamination is not just an environmental goal; it is a public health obligation.

Our sustainability plan formalizes our commitment to protecting our air and water, which directly impacts the well-being of our residents and can help reduce long-term community healthcare costs. But it goes further. When we invest in expanding our city’s trail network and building out safe, protected routes for bicycles and pedestrians, we are directly combating sedentary lifestyles and improving cardiovascular health. When we implement a strategic tree-planting initiative to expand our urban canopy, we are not only beautifying the city but also actively improving air quality and reducing the urban heat island effect, which disproportionately affects our most vulnerable residents. These are not fringe benefits; they are core investments in the long-term health of our community.

4. Building Community Resilience and Proactive Risk Management

As a city manager, I have to plan not just for the best of times, but for the worst of times. We are witnessing a tangible shift in weather patterns, with more intense rain events, prolonged heatwaves, and sudden, violent storms. Building resilience to these shocks and stresses is perhaps the most critical, if least understood, benefit of sustainability. Diversifying our energy sources with renewables and exploring microgrids for critical facilities can reduce our vulnerability to regional power outages.

A key focus of our plan is a strategic shift toward green infrastructure for stormwater management. For decades, the standard approach was “gray infrastructure”—a costly and ever-expanding network of pipes to move rainwater away as quickly as possible. Fairfield historically struggled with urban flooding issues and utilized significant gray infrastructure solutions to address these problems. While these solutions have been successful in mitigating flood damage for the past few decades, the intensity of recent storms is now pushing the limits of this existing infrastructure.

Moving forward, we are embracing green infrastructure, such as permeable pavements, rain gardens, and bioswales. This approach mimics natural hydrology by absorbing and filtering rainwater where it falls. Paired with our existing systems, this is a more cost-effective, proactive way to manage stormwater, reduce the strain on our pipe systems, and minimize the risk of costly urban flooding. This is not about politics; it is practical, forward-looking risk management to protect lives, property, and municipal finances.

A Playbook for Pragmatic Progress

Knowing the why is one thing; navigating the how in today’s polarized climate is the real challenge. The success of the Fairfield Sustains plan was not accidental. It was the result of a deliberate, comprehensive, and consciously nonpartisan strategy. We began by forming an internal task force composed of leaders from all key city departments—public works, parks and recreation, development services, and public utilities. This ensured that the plan was not an isolated silo but was integrated into the core operational DNA of the city from day one.

Additionally, we engaged the city’s environmental commission as vested stakeholders, garnering their participation in the planning and development aspects of our strategy. But a plan is only as good as the structure in place to execute it. To ensure Fairfield Sustains was not just a document that would sit on a shelf, we made a foundational commitment to its success through a strategic reorganization of our city government in 2024.

We established a new assistant city manager position with direct oversight of our core infrastructure departments: public works, public utilities, and parks and recreation. Crucially, we formally placed sustainability under this new leadership role, structurally embedding it within the very departments responsible for maintaining our city. This move ensures that a sustainability mindset is not an add-on, but a central component of all infrastructure planning and operations. To drive the day-to-day progress, we also hired our city’s first-ever sustainability program manager, a dedicated professional tasked with implementing the plan’s initiatives, tracking our metrics, and coordinating efforts across departments. This ensures accountability is built directly into our organizational chart. To engage our community further, the city established the sustainability commission, a group made of community volunteers, to help guide our decision making and prioritization moving forward.

With this leadership structure in place, we made a very conscious choice about the language we used. We knew that certain words have become lightning rods for political division. So, we intentionally shifted the lexicon. Instead of “climate action,” we talked about “emergency preparedness” and “disaster resilience.” Instead of “environmental protection,” we emphasized “public health” and “natural resource stewardship.” We framed every proposal in terms of its co-benefits: fiscal responsibility, operational efficiency, and common-sense improvements.

Our public engagement was designed as a conversation, not a top-down directive. We heard skepticism, and we addressed it not with rhetoric, but with data and a focus on tangible, local results. By listening and incorporating feedback, we built a sense of shared ownership. When residents could see how the plan would lower their utility bills, improve their park, or make their street safer, they became its most effective advocates.

Finally, our entire approach is grounded in data and measurable outcomes. In public administration, results speak louder than anything else. We started by benchmarking our current performance—our city’s overall energy consumption, our community-wide waste diversion rate, the number of miles in our trail network. The Fairfield Sustains plan is not a collection of vague aspirations; it is a strategic document with clear goals, timelines, and key performance indicators to track our progress. This evidence-based approach builds credibility and moves the conversation from the realm of opinion to the realm of objective fact.

The Fairfield Sustains Plan: A Framework for Action

The plan itself is structured around five clear and interconnected frameworks, each with specific, actionable goals:

Mobility and Transportation

To create a connected and accessible city with diverse transportation options. This includes everything from expanding our bike and pedestrian network to developing a city-wide plan for electric vehicle charging infrastructure and ensuring safe routes to all our schools.

Buildings and Energy

To enhance the efficiency of our public and private building stock. This involves conducting energy audits of all city facilities, exploring renewable energy installations like the solar array at our wastewater treatment plant, and providing resources for residents and businesses to improve their own energy efficiency.

Resource Conservation

To responsibly manage our material resources and protect our water supply. Key actions include enhancing our curbside recycling program, launching a pilot program for organic waste and composting, and implementing water conservation education initiatives.

Nature and Green Community

To protect and enhance our natural ecosystems and green spaces. This framework focuses on our commitment to protecting the Great Miami River Buried Valley Aquifer, strategically increasing our urban tree canopy, and ensuring every resident has safe and easy access to a high-quality park.

Business and Community Resilience

To foster a vibrant local economy and a community prepared for future challenges. This includes supporting local businesses in adopting sustainable practices, updating our emergency management plans to account for new weather realities, and fostering local food systems through community gardens and farmers’ markets.’

A Blueprint for Modern Governance

I am incredibly proud of the Fairfield Sustains plan, not just for its ambitious content, but for the pragmatic, collaborative, and unifying process that created it. It is a testament to what our community can achieve when we set aside divisive labels and focus on our shared values and a collective vision for a better future.

For my colleagues—the dedicated city and county managers across the country who are on the front lines of public service—the lesson from Fairfield is clear: we can and must lead on this issue. By framing sustainability in the language of fiscal prudence, economic vitality, public health, and community resilience, we can build the broad, nonpartisan coalitions needed to make meaningful progress. The journey requires a conscious effort to use language that unites, a steadfast commitment to a comprehensive and data-driven process, and an unwavering focus on the tangible, on-the-ground benefits that matter to every single resident we serve.

This is more than just a plan in a binder; it represents a change in mindset. It is a blueprint for modern public administration—one that is proactive, efficient, and above all, deeply committed to its role as a steward of the public trust for generations to come. It is how we build a Fairfield that is not just sustainable, but also stronger, more vibrant, and truly ready for the future.

SCOTT TIMMER is city manager of Fairfield, Ohio, USA.