Helping Community Leaders Craft Shared Visions For:

» Efficient Resource Use
» Environmental Quality
» Alternative Energy
» Economic Opportunities
» Effective Public Policy
» Healthy, Vibrant Cities
» Food-Based Coalitions

Civic Leaders: Designers of Our Future

Our community leaders are the chief designers of our communities and their component parts — central business districts, subdivisions, schools, industries and highways — and hold significant influence over current and future public policies. Civic leaders hold enormous sway over whether or not a new development is a good fit that brings long-term economic benefits without harming the ecological or cultural fabric of the community.

The Nebraska Sustainability Leadership Workshop (NSLW) is part of a new partnership program that is preparing Nebraska’s communities for today’s and tomorrow’s complex ecological challenges.

An uncertain energy future, growing shortages of water and other natural resources, and the unfolding consequences of climate change represent daunting challenges for Nebraska’s community leaders. Whether they live and work in sprawling cities or depopulating towns, all are struggling with myriad problems as natural resources become increasingly scarcer while demands on those resources continue to rise.

Managed by the Joslyn Institute for Sustainable Communities (JISC), the NSLW is a unique opportunity for community leaders from across the state to share their challenges and successes and to discover new ways to address the critical environmental, social-cultural, technological, economic and public policy challenges facing their communities.

This three-year program consists of an annual series of 20 statewide sessions in which mayors, city managers, members of county boards, city councils, school boards and other community leaders engage planning, design and leadership experts. Organized around case-study problems, these small-group workshops are tailored to address issues unique to each participating community while also exploring shared solutions to statewide and regional challenges including:

Efficient Resource Use: Future prosperity, economic or otherwise, will not occur unless Nebraska’s community leaders find consensus on identifying and efficiently managing our most fragile natural resources.

Environmental Quality: Degradation of water quality and supply, loss of habitat and food production to poor land use practices, and toxins in our water, soil and air threaten the very survival of plant, animal and human communities. Species failure is a loss not only for our environment, but a dire warning of our own fragile ecological condition.

Alternative Energy: Communities need to act quickly to address future energy challenges, working on a regional and statewide scale to increase the use of clean, alternative energy and to make energy efficiency and the efficient use of resources (materials reuse and recycling) a priority through building code improvements and incentive programs.

Economic Opportunities: Valuable natural resources — water, wind, soils, and our four-season solar climate — are underutilized or misallocated in many communities large and small. Regional cooperation, coupled with long-term planning are keys to economic sustainability and substantial improvements to quality of life.

Effective Public Policy: No single jurisdiction can afford to foot the bill for the future, yet competitive tensions within and between jurisdictions often lead to inefficiencies in natural resource allocation and infrastructure investment. Policies designed to address 19th century conditions are not suited to the global and environmental challenges of the 21st century. Community leaders must work together to develop policies and incentives based on a shared vision of preferred growth patterns, land use policies, and economic goals.

Healthy, Vibrant Cities: Policies and incentives are needed to encourage healthy, walkable, and culturally rich communities that offer transportation and housing choices in mixed-use developments that concurrently protect habitat, water supplies and local culture/history.

Food-Based Coalitions: Rural/urban interests are in conflict as farmland and fragile natural environments are lost to sprawl, acreage-style development and other non-food crop uses. Leaders need to explore ways to renew ties between populations and local food communities.

How NSLW Works

The NSLW is directed at state, regional and local political leaders and decision makers, encouraging jurisdictions to work together on behalf of greater regional or statewide planning goals and initiatives. The Joslyn Institute will manage and produce the NSLW sessions on a schedule of repetitive sessions every other week (no sessions will be conducted during the months of August and December). Prior to each session JISC will select and invite fifteen civic leaders from the above categories of community audiences that are no more than 60 miles from each session’s chosen venue. Sessions will be programmed for a two-day duration and will not require overnight stays by participants.

Each session will be organized around case-study problems that will be identified during on-site, pre-session interviews conducted by NSLW facilitators. Each two-day session will feature at least five consultants consisting of community design and development professionals, natural resources specialists, and leadership experts. Community leaders will be asked to make presentations on local challenges and then work with other community leaders and consultants on identifying important issues and potential solutions. NSLW personnel will also present examples of sustainable solutions and best practices found in other communities.

The sessions are designed to spark lively debate and generate creative solutions. Facilitators encourage participants to put every idea on the table and choose the very best. Education is key to the sessions, which include a mix of established and emerging leaders. Each session also includes a public component for presenting issues and solutions during an open house. Participants and facilitators will also visit with media, student groups and others.