ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability
Background and Seattle Perspective
ICLEI was formed in 1991 in preparation for the Rio Summit on Sustainability. ICLEI founders saw the need for city governments to have a voice in the international dialogue on environmental protection. ICLEI’s acronym stands for “International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.” The organization promotes best environmental practices by municipalities around the globe through municipal case studies, technical manuals, software programs for measurement and accountability, capacity-building and networking among city officials, city twinning and staff exchanges, and advocacy in international forums. ICLEI’s website is
ICLEI’s members are some 500 cities and local jurisdictions worldwide, who participate in a variety of environmental initiatives. Because the various programs include measurable targets, ICLEI can aggregate and report the results (e.g., ICLEI cities in Australia saved xxx water, or ICLEI cities in Japan recycled xxx tons of solid waste), sending a powerful message to enviro-skeptics.
Some ICLEI Campaigns
Cities for Climate Protection is ICLEI’s largest campaign, with over 500 participant jurisdictions in India, Japan, South Africa, Mexico, the Philippines, Brazil as well as Europe, Australia, Canada and the US. Funded in part by EPA and USAID and by other donor nations, the program helps cities identify and reduce their primary sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Using ICLEI’s measurement and monitoring software, Seattle can demonstrate that our environmental management programs since 1990 have reduced greenhouse gases to meet and exceed Kyoto targets.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels launched his Kyoto initiative in spring 2005 to coincide with the effective date of the Kyoto Protocol internationally. Mayor Nickels’ initiative has secured the commitment of more than 170 US mayors to the Kyoto targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ICLEI will be supporting those commitments with technical assistance, including best-practices and measurement software.
Local Agenda 21 is the ICLEI campaign for citizen-based environmental planning and was the first ICLEI program emerging from the Rio Summit. Hundreds of cities on every continent have participated in ICLEI Local Agenda 21 activities and developed their own sustainability targets. Seattle’s Comprehensive Planning process under the Growth Management Act parallels ICLEI’s local agenda-setting campaign.
European ICLEI cities provide environmental leadership on many fronts. Procura is a current campaign which creates a municipal purchasing consortium for sustainable products. The European Municipal Green Fleets Project, for example, seeks to strengthen the market for more-efficient, less-polluting vehicles through government purchasing policies. Seattle can point to analogous achievements.
Australian cities have pioneered ICLEI’s Water Campaign, combining water conservation, river basin planning, protection of water quality, and preservation/restoration of aquatic ecosystems. The ICLEI water campaign has not yet been launched in America, but Seattle has much to brag about:
Reducing regional water consumption by 30%
Protecting water sources
“Natural drainage” solutions
Pesticide reduction
Coordinated interjurisdictional river-basin planning to protect salmon
ICLEI’s Organization
ICLEI is a member organization with municipal member dues funding about 10% of the total budget. International headquarters are in Toronto; a training institute is at the European office in Freiburg, Germany; and the Climate Protection campaign is run out of the US office in Oakland, California. There are regional ICLEI offices in Tokyo, Seoul, Rio, Johannesburg, Delhi, Jakarta, Melbourne and Manila.
A 21-member executive committee (“Ex Com”) is elected every three years. There is a formula to ensure regional balance, and North America is entitled to three Ex Com members. I was elected to the Ex Com in October 2003 and have been the sole representative from the US during my term.
Creating a corporate entity for ICLEI in the United States, rather than relying on a Canadian legal entity, has been one of our organizational tasks, with all the attended details of bylaws, budget, tax status, personnel, website upgrade and the rest.
ICLEI and Seattle
Seattle sets the standard for sustainable municipal practices on many fronts. As participants in Cities for Climate Protection we have used ICLEI software to measure our greenhouse gas reductions. City Light and Fleets & Facilities have worked most closely on ICLEI initiatives. Solid waste, green purchasing and green building programs also have strong ICLEI links.
ICLEI’s emphasis on setting performance targets parallels the benchmarking launched here 15 years ago by Sustainable Seattle. Our growth management planning is similar to ICLEI’s Local Agenda 21. Our water and river-basin management systems are achieving many of the goals of ICLEI’s water campaign. Seattle’s ICLEI membership provides opportunities for city staff and elected officials to share best practices in an international context.
MargaretPageler – 2005