This series of blog posts shares the reasoning and major elements of Sustainable Hudson Valley's draft 2012 strategic plan. We hope interested folks will comment and help us improve it!

Sustainability 2.0

Climate, energy, economy and security - these interconnected problems have eluded national solutions.  States, including New York, are setting goals and establishing incentives.  But bringing a new, low-carbon, innovative economy to life and securing a livable region requires the creative engagement of the people and their institutions including businesses, governments, education and civil society -- direct positive action in the cities, towns and villages where we live, activating networks of innovators who also provide leadership for larger-scale policy solutions.  

New York’s Hudson Valley, with its network of small cities and its culture of citizen leadership, is a place of opportunity for experiments in the scaling-up of sustainable development practices.    Sustainable Hudson Valley has been educating decision makers and conducting demonstration programs to advance this vision since 2004.  Today, responding to rapidly changing conditions, we are creating a new strategic plan for implementation beginning in 2012.  This plan outlines detailed operations for the first year of our work; it is framed so that, over time, we establish an influential, autonomous, connected and effective  planning and development organization that is rooted in an understanding of sustainability and social justice.  

This plan is rooted in recognition of “the new normal” – the context of sharpened challenges and opportunities that include:
high unemployment and under-employment, providing a pool of potential entrepreneurs and/or skilled volunteers, including trained technical professionals in green industries who are underemployed due to the construction industry collapse;
severe resource constraints on local governments, creating a new willingness to collaborate;
observable impacts of climate change and expanded public awareness of sustainability concepts through the media, building political support for more concerted action in many communities (though by no means all);
widespread availability of communication and visualization tools to inspire and guide change strategies, including maps, info-graphics, and social media;
widespread exposure to human potential resources covering mindfulness, holistic health and accelerated learning, supported by a wealth of educational institutions in the region.  

In the language of asset-based community development -- which helps places to define themselves and build on assets rather than seeking one-size-fits-all solutions -- the Hudson Valley is awash in restorable assets:  deteriorated buildings that could give rise to a deconstruction and salvage industry, vacant properties that could be restored to host new industry and mixed-use development, historic buildings in disrepair that could employ people in restoration, a water infrastructure system from the last century that is ripe for replacement with environmentally advanced technologies... and under-employed people in abundance.  This human resource includes talented professionals with second homes in the Valley; under-employed engineers and architects who have sought training in greener methods of building, only to find the opportunities vanishing due to the collapse of the construction industry.  This reservoir of talent also includes energetic young people returning from military service, and of course, curious citizens.   While financial capital is not easy to access, there has never been a better supply of people-power or a greater need to mobilize it.