Sustainable Action Map ~ SAM

Our Vision: "A sustainable community is one that persists over generations and is far-seeing enough, flexible enough and wise enough to maintain its natural, economic, social and political support systems."

The Creation of SAM:

In the early 1990's, a taskforce of community members developed a sustainability vision for the City of Olympia. This vision drove a number of City initiatives, including adopting a resolution to reduce harmful emissions that lead to global warming, experimenting with alternative fuel vehicles; and pursuing compact, high density development. As these and other initiatives have made gradual progress over time, the City Council in 2005 enacted a new goal of "putting sustainability to action." This goal was intended to reinvigorate the City's sustainability efforts with a focus that is more on tangible actions.

Developing a Sustainable Strategy:

A group of Department Directors gathered to develop a sustainability strategy to achieve the Council's goals. The group called themselves the Sustainability Super Team (SST), and presented the sustainability strategy to the City Council for approval on March 14, 2006. The key element of the strategy is focusing on decision-making. The team felt that sustainable action starts with sustainable decision making. The team identified that a successful decision model is one that:

• Will help identify balanced solutions.
• Will help decision-makers see the trade-offs and opportunities, not just the pros and cons.
• Will be simple and user friendly.
• Will tell a story, be visual, and easy for the average person to understand and see the connections between seemingly unrelated things.
• Can be replicated in any City Department.

To assist the development of this decision model, the City teamed up with the Evergreen State College. A team of six undergraduate students designed a sustainable decision model as part of a class project. The students named themselves STARS, or Students Toward Achieving Realistic Sustainability. After ten weeks of work, what emerged was the Sustainable Action Map (SAM) that achieved the principles set out early by the Sustainability Super Team.

Contacting Public Works:

• Physical Address: 924 7th Ave. SE, Suite A
• Mailing Address: PO Box 1967, Olympia, WA 98507
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