By Mike Crowley, Senior Program Officer at the Institute for Sustainable Communities with Steve Adams, Senior Advisor for Climate Adaptation, ISC

The idea for this blog originated at a recent ICMA CityLinks Project meeting in which a participant posed the question:  “what insights on urban sustainability from U.S. cities are applicable to those in the developing world?”  This line of thinking is similar to one we posed ourselves early in the development of the ISC Urban Sustainability Leadership Academy model through which we’ve now provided leadership training to 134 practitioners across the U.S.  What makes certain individuals successful?  Can we identify specific leadership attributes within these individuals?  And can these insights be broadly shared with other practitioners to make them more successful in their own cities? 

Urban areas across the U.S. and Canada have been stepping up their sustainability efforts by implementing a range of programs, including building energy efficiency, local food, low-carbon transportation, and “green” economic development. These programs are gaining popularity because they carry significant and tangible benefits. Cities are enjoying more efficient use of resources, smarter economic growth, and the creation of more livable places that are attractive to companies, and citizens. And as more cities experience extreme weather events, many are adding climate change adaptation to this agenda.

To support this work, many cities have developed a new government position: the local government sustainability director/manager. Five years ago there were just a few people with this position; now there are hundreds across the county.

But the job of the sustainability director can be especially hard. People in this position are asked to develop unconventional partnerships, navigate complex political environments, and advocate for long-term thinking beyond election cycles. To make matters worse, they are often given severely limited resources or formal authority.

In the process of developing our Urban Sustainability Leadership Academy track within ISC's Sustainable Communities Leadership Academy, we interviewed dozens of leading urban sustainability experts and practitioners, and drew upon our own experience in the field (ISC's staff includes a number of highly skilled former climate and sustainability practitioners). We found that successful sustainability directors have advanced leadership skills in four core areas: Building solid, personal relationships and trust among key stakeholders; integrating sustainability across previously siloed disciplines; making a strong business case for sustainability; and securing stable financing for their programs.

One the most successful and long-standing sustainability programs in the U.S. is Portland, Oregon’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS). By taking an entrepreneurial approach, the program built broad city-wide coalitions, and attracted millions in private investments and grants for programs such as home energy retrofits and green job training. BPS’ Director, Susan Anderson credits her department's success to translating the value of sustainability across disciplines. “I talk about the things that people really care about, depending on who they are. So if it’s business people, I might talk about how Portland needs to be a leader in sustainable technologies. Or it might be kids’ health or helping low-income families save money.”

As CityLinks continues to build connections between the U.S. and cities around the world, lessons from sustainability directors can be crucial to leading change toward sustainability and climate adaptation.  Urban sustainability directors are  tasked with leading local adaptation initiatives to assess climate-related vulnerabilities across municipal services and infrastructure, develop appropriate adaptation strategies, and shepherd individual departments through implementation. The most successful examples of local adaptation within North America share able leadership at the senior staff level practicing what University of Colorado at Boulder Emeritus Professor Ron Brunner calls “the politics of finding common ground.”

Our experience working with dozens of sustainability directors across the U.S. has demonstrated that essential leadership characteristics can be fostered by peer-learning and targeted skill building. CityLinks provides a remarkable opportunity for sustainability practitioners in North America and abroad to build relationships, enhance the collective pool of expertise and experience from which we can all learn, and become more effective in linking the "common ground" of urban sustainability and resilience internationally.