By Daily Press staff
Santa Monica Councilwoman Pam O’Connor joined mayors and local officials from more than 200 jurisdictions across Canada, Mexico and the U.S. in Chicago last week for a four-day congress to develop local strategies for achieving sustainability and strengthening regional cooperation.
“The ICLEI North American Congress, Thriving Communities: Moving from Planning to Action” is the first regional congress of ICLEI’s North American membership, which currently number 300 local governments from the three countries.
The city of Santa Monica has been a member of ICLEI since 1994 and an original member of ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection Campaign. The 770 local governments around the world that are participating in the campaign are driving worldwide action on climate protection while improving air quality, protecting public health and benefiting financially.
As greenhouse gas emissions, air pollutants and other issues that impact community sustainability do not respect national boundaries, trans-boundary issues of concerns were discussed at the 2006 ICLEI North American Congress, and a strategy for collaborative improvement explored. Participants developed ideas for local strategies for achieving sustainability and approaches, as well as tools that can be integrated effectively into local government operations.
The city of Santa Monica, represented by O’Connor and Shannon Parry from the city’s Sustainable City Program, showcased Santa Monica’s Community Energy Independence Initiative at the event. New initiatives were explored by cities and as O’Connor notes,“Santa Monica has been a leader in fostering green buildings in the past decade. Now its time to join with other cities in the Architecture 2030 Challenge that aims for all new buildings to be carbon neutral by 2030.”
ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability is an international association of local governments, and national and regional local government organizations that have made a commitment to sustainable development. For more information, go to www.iclei.org.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 17, 2006. Read the original PDF.