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In reviewing the progress made since the 1994 adoption of the program, the Task Force on the
Environment recognized the need to update and expand the Sustainable City goals and indicators to
provide a more complete picture of community sustainability, and to develop new indicator targets
for 2010. The Task Force felt that a comprehensive update would allow Santa Monica to build on
its initial success and to better address the challenges to sustainability that remain.
The update process began in July 2001 with the formation of the Sustainable City Working
Group - a large group of community stakeholders that included elected and appointed officials,
City staff, and representatives of neighborhood organizations, schools, the business community
and other community groups. The Working Group met numerous times over the course of 15 months
to discuss the myriad issues related to the sustainability of the community. They evaluated the
long-term sustainability of Santa Monica using a framework comprised of three forms of community
capital that need to be managed with care in order to ensure that the community does not
deteriorate. These include natural capital – the natural environment and natural resources of
the community; human and social capital – the connectedness among people in the community and the
education, skills and health of the population; and financial and built capital – manufactured
goods, buildings, infrastructure, information resources, credit and debt.
The group proposed significant changes to the initial Sustainable City goals and indicators,
and assisted with the creation of new indicator targets. Early drafts of the proposed update
were revised based on a large amount of public input received during the summer of 2002.
The result of this process is this updated
Santa Monica Sustainable City Plan
which represents the
community’s vision of Santa Monica as a sustainable city. The change in name from Sustainable
City Program to Sustainable City Plan was made to better reflect the long-term comprehensive
nature of Santa Monica’s vision and the community’s efforts to become a sustainable city.
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