John Stephens is a School of Government faculty member.
The following is taken from James Svara’s introduction to an International City/County Management Association (ICMA) survey regarding local government efforts to promote sustainability.
The 2010 survey, the first of its kind, undertaken by ICMA in cooperation with the Alliance for Innovation and supported by the Global Institute on Sustainability at Arizona State University, measures how and to what extent local governments are acting to promote sustainability. Over 2,100 local governments indicated whether they had adopted each of 109 specific actions. These can be grouped into 12 major activity areas. These areas and the percent of actions being implemented by local governments in each are listed here:
| Major Activity Areas |
Average Percent of Activities Used |
| 1. Greenhouse gas reduction and air quality | 11.8 |
| 2. Water quality | 28.1 |
| 3. Recycling | 33.3 |
| 4. Energy use in transportation and exterior lighting | 22.3 |
| 5. Reducing building energy use | 19.2 |
| 6. Alternative energy generation | 6.8 |
| 7. Workplace alternatives to reduce commuting | 7.7 |
| 8. Transportation improvements | 22.4 |
| 9. Building and land use regulations | 11.9 |
| 10. Land conservation and development rights | 14.8 |
| 11. Social inclusion | 20.8 |
| 12. Local production and green purchasing | 17.6 |
| Average utilization rate across all activity areas | 18.1 |
For the full article, see: http://icma.org/en/Article/101112/Local_Government_Action_to_Promote_Sustainability__A_Preliminary_Examination?pub=2&issue=&utc_source=Academic+Matters&utc_medium=email&utc_campaign
For ICMA’s Municipal Year Book 2011, see: http://bookstore.icma.org/Municipal_Year_Book_2011_P2129C19.cfm