Rossland Measures its Progress towards Sustainability
By Contributor
The Rossland Sustainability Commission is gathering public input on how to measure the City’s progress towards our community vision of sustainability. The Sustainability Commission wants to know what questions Rosslanders think should be answered in order to produce a Sustainability Report Card for Rossland. For example, how much energy do we use in Rossland? How much waste do we produce compared to other communities? Is our per capita water consumption increasing or decreasing on an annual basis?
Consultants have been working to develop a draft set of indicators over the summer and now it is time for residents to provide their thoughts. Please attend the public event on Thursday, September 24, 2009 in the Rossland Miners’ Hall from 6:30 to 9:30 pm. Speakers will provide the public with information on indicators and sustainability monitoring in other communities. Attendees will then have the opportunity to give written or verbal input regarding the draft set of indicators. The draft indicators will also be available for comment on-line at www.visionstoaction.ca following the event.
The Columbia Basin Trust has provided funding for this project as part of their State of the Basin Initiative. Once the indicators have been chosen, data will be collected for each of them and a Sustainability Report Card will be produced for Rossland outlining our progress towards sustainability and the implementation of Rossland’s Strategic Sustainability Plan (SSP). The Report Card will be completed by early 2010.
“The project is a great opportunity for Rossland to take stock of where we are relative to other communities, where we want to be and whether we are trending towards or away from our Sustainability Vision for 2030,” said Kelvin Saldern, Chair of the Sustainability Commission. “The event will provide an opportunity for Rosslanders to tell us what they think needs to be measured in order to make that assessment.”
Once indicators are selected and a Rossland Report Card is prepared, Rossland will be able to engage in ongoing monitoring of its progress towards economic, social and environmental sustainability.
For more information on the project, check out the State of Rossland section of the Visions to Action website at www.visionstoaction.ca.
