Environmental Sustainability in Practice

Conclusion

In this module, we have learned that there are multiple types of planning, and that these types - land use, transportation and economic development - have different areas of focus and strategies but all ultimately have an influence on, and can contribute to, environmental sustainability. There is increasing evidence that communities are incorporating considerations of environmental sustainability into their planning processes. Admittedly, this has often been a contentious process in many places, because many approaches to planning and environmental management that are more conducive to achieving environmental sustainability conflict dramatically with long-standing and primarily economic motivations for doing things the way they have been done for many decades.

The connection between planning and environmental management is close and a bit fuzzy, with some overlap. Environmental management is specifically focused on the environment, what is desirable, and how we get there. In practice, this occurs as a process within organizations and also among stakeholders that represent multiple perspectives. Environmental management is continuing to evolve over time, as our understanding of social-ecological systems and their complexity changes.

We return now to the town of Lincoln, where efforts are being made to address the complex challenges they face. As you watch the video, think about these complex challenges and how the Town has used (or could have used) some of the principles in this module to address them.



As we can see, environmental planning and management require consideration of people, their well-being, and their strong relationships to the environment to support environmental sustainability.
 

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