Sustainability Plan

Sustainability Planning Process

The City of St. Louis spent nearly two years collaboratively developing the City's first sustainability plan. The process started in early 2011 with the creation of a City greenhouse gas emissions inventory for the baseline year of 2005, and update for the year 2010. In addition to analyzing precedent sustainability plans and working with City departments to gather information relating to their sustainability initiatives and priorities, the City invited public participation in the sustainability planning process starting in the fall of 2011.  The City conducted a community sustainability survey and held several public outreach events during the course of the sustainability planning process. On December 6-7, 2011, the City hosted the inaugural Mayor's Sustainability Summit. The Sustainability Summit Launch was held at the Missouri Botanical Garden, with award-winning community activist, Majora Carter, joining Mayor Slay as the keynote presenter. A facilitated Technical Worksession with invited sustainability practitioners and City representatives was held at the Palladium the next day, as well as a luncheon keynote by John Norquist of the Congress for a New Urbanism. A Community Workshop was held at the Missouri History Museum where Majora Carter gave some remarks and there was a facilitated discussion. 

From the information and many ideas gathered during the sustainability planning process, the City conducted further research and analysis, and attempted to organize goals and objectives in a more focused manner. A Mayor's Sustainability Summit II :: innovate was held in May 2012. In addition to another Technical Worksession with sustainability practitioners, the City invited the public to three Community Workshops in order to help prioritize sustainability initiatives.

After the May workshops, the City began the process of writing a comprehensive triple bottom line Sustainability Plan that reflected the input it received from the City departments, sustainability stakeholders, and community at large. The Draft Sustainability Plan for Public Review was available online and at City libraries during the Fall of 2012. To raise awareness of the existence of the Draft Sustainability Plan, the City conducted an outreach campaign in the Fall of 2012, entitled Sustainability Plan :: inform. The City of St. Louis Sustainability Plan was adopted by the City's Planning Commission on January 9, 2013.  Mayor Slay released his Sustainability Action Agenda for implementation of priority aspects of the Sustainability Plan in February 2013. The City held a Mayor's Sustainability Summit III :: implement on November 7-9, 2013, to convene citizens and stakeholders and encourage them to partner with the City in implementing both the Sustainability Plan and Mayor's Sustainability Action Agenda. The first and third days were held on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, and the Technical Worksession was held at Third Degree Glass Factory. The Keynote address was given by Andrew Howard of the Better Block initiative.