The City of Grand Rapids has completed the Progress Report for its second year under the FY2011-FY2015 Sustainability Plan, which illustrates the 2012 significant successes in the citywide initiative towards an economic, social and environmental sustainability future.

This year’s Progress Report shows that 100% of the Triple Bottom Line Sustainability Targets have been completed or are in progress, up from 92% last year, and progress towards meeting all targets has been steady across each plan area.

The Report highlights how the City has been successful in meeting many of these targets, in part due to effective partnerships in the community and the region. Additional information also shows the progress that can be attributed to the intensive work undertaken in support of the Transformation Investment Plan initiatives.

The various awards, acknowledgements, and recognition the City has received in 2012 are also included in the Report.  For more information about this report contact Haris Alibasic or Nancy Meyer.

The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) identifies “building sustainable communities as a core responsibility of local government.” Likewise, ICMA asserts that local governments should use performance data for establishing goals and outcomes in budget decisions, setting targets of performance, learning from other jurisdictions, and making improvements to government finances. Many local governments take small and large steps towards building a more sustainable community through the use of performance management, but the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan took performance management and sustainability a few steps further. Not only has the city used performance data to track and manage progress made on  sustainability efforts, but the city institutionalized both sustainability and performance management through the help of businesses and residents of the community and by budgeting for sustainability outcomes.​ Read full article here.​