Back to Sustainable Indicators: A Review of National Methods and Suggestions for Long Island

DEVELOPING A VISIONING PROCESS Indicators are a means to an end - developing a more sustainable society. Indicators are crucial to sustainable development, but they only measure the state of the community, they do not directly change the community. Their abstractness can kill community participation and local excitement for indicators. Therefore, you may not want to begin with an indicators project. It is quite possible that your community first needs a wake up call! The first place to begin is with a visioning process, where you can develop a consensus on community values, goals, and directions. You must develop a vision of where you want your community to go before you begin the process of deciding how to quantify your local quality of life through indicators. It is important for community members to get a feel for the tangible things they want to see maintained, enhanced, or eradicated in their community. Then they can use indicators to help them clarify their concerns, goals, and objectives. The Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colorado developed a "community visioning process" that we suggest using as a template. The Rocky Mountain Instituteís Economic Renewal manual explains this visioning process in detail.18 A community visioning process brings the community together for a brief period of time and allows everyone to begin charting the communityís (or region's)"preferred future." This process also begins the necessary process of building trust among community members. Through specific exercises citizens develop a sense of rapport and common purpose that is essential for working towards community sustainable development. Also, the visioning process should be fun! It should generate local publicity and excitement, creating momentum that will carry through to later stages of your project.