ICLEI and the City of New York Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability are developing a Sustainability Planning Toolkit to assist local governments in sustainability planning, using New York's PlaNYC as a model. The framework of the toolkit is the Five Milestones for Sustainability, which provides a step-by-step process for developing and implementing a sustainability plan. To ensure the Five Milestones for Sustainability are replicable for communities with varying needs and sizes, ICLEI and the Mayor’s Office are working with three local governments to pilot the draft guidelines in the toolkit from March through May 15, 2009.

ICLEI held a competitive application process for the pilot program and received 25 applications for the three slots. The three pilot communities include:

• Miami-Dade County, FL
• Newark, NJ
• New Rochelle, NY

The pilot communities were selected based on number of criteria including commitment, readiness to begin planning, replicability, ICLEI membership, size, and geography. ICLEI is committed to sharing the lessons learned from the pilot process with its members and to tracking the progress of the three pilot communities as they progress through the planning process. The pilot process is intended to help the pilot local governments launch their planning process and to pilot the guidelines in the Sustainability Planning Toolkit. Stay tuned for updates and lessons learned from the pilot.

Pilot Process Description

ICLEI and the Mayor’s Office will provide training and advice to the pilot local governments in the early stages of developing a Sustainability Plan, in exchange for feedback and input on the toolkit. The pilot process will include:

• Training on the Five Milestone Methodology for developing a sustainability plan
• In-depth briefing on NYC’s internal and external process for developing PlaNYC
• Strategic guidance on developing a planning process
• Templates to facilitate the planning process
• Training on outreach and public participation strategies