Embracing sustainability: the incorporation of sustainability principles in municipal planning and policy in four mid-sized municipalities in Ontario, Canada

Figures & data

Table 1. Municipal policy documents analysed.

Municipality	Document Type	Pages	Last Year Modified
Kingston	Official Plan	262	2011
	ICSP	68	2010
	Strategic Plan	23	2011
	Infrastructure Master Plan	123	2010
	Water Supply Master Plan	161	2007
Markham	Official Plan	225	2005
	ICSP	190	2011
	Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Master Plan	142	2009
London	Official Plan	442	1989
	Strategic Plan	24	2011
	Infrastructure Master Plan	68	1996
Burlington	Official Plan	257	2011
	Strategic Plan	18	2011
	Infrastructure Master Plan	37	2011

Table 2. Document analysis codebook based on Gibson's (2006a) sustainability principles.

Node	Parent code	Child codes
Socio-ecological system integrity	Places	Natural heritage; ecosystem; and environmentally sensitive areas
	Principles	Conservation biology; ecosystem approach
	Assessment	Environmental assessment; environmental impact statement
Livelihood sufficiency and opportunity	Access	Culture; employment; food; housing; space; transportation; and design
	Social Services	Child care services; educational services; health services; and social programs
	Vulnerability	Vulnerable populations
Equity	Intra-generational equity	Equality; inclusion; and justice
	Inter-generational equity	Sustainability; future generations; and long-term
Resource maintenance and efficiency	Efficiency	Optimisation; efficiency; and outputs
	Conservation	Conservation; consumption
Socio-ecological civility	Decision-making	Decision-making; expert; advisory committee; Collaborate; stakeholder; public participation; and public input
	Civil Society	Community capacity; involvement; community ownership; and engagement
	Management	Accountability; transparency; and governance framework
Precaution and adaptation	Flexibility	Flexibility; reversibility
	Precaution	Precaution; risk
	Uncertainty	Uncertainty; monitoring policy; monitoring for humans and environment
Immediate and long-term integration	Integration	Collaboration; coordination
	Gain	Triple bottom line

Table 3. Percentage distribution of coded passages in ICSPs and other municipal documents, by municipality.

	ICSP Sites					Non-ICSP Sites			ICSP + Non-ICSP Sites
	Kingston ICSP (N = 228)	Kingston Others (N = 682)	Markham ICSP (N = 559)	Markham Others (N = 554)	Total (N = 2023)	Burlington Others (N = 442)	London Others (N = 643)	Total (N = 1085)	Total (N = 3108)
Livelihood sufficiency and opportunity	21	20	31	8	20	22	33	28	23
Equity	40	21	25	30	27	17	17	17	23
Socio-ecological civility	30	14	22	21	20	22	12	16	18
Precaution and adaptation	3	7	4	15	8	9	8	8	8
Resource maintenance and efficiency	2	9	6	6	6	4	8	6	6
Socio-ecological integrity	1	27	7	14	15	19	22	21	17
Immediate and long-term integration	3	2	6	6	4	7	1	3	4
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100

Table 4. Summary of similarities and differences between Kingston and Markham's ICSPs in terms of uptake of Gibson's sustainability principles.

		Differences between ICSPs
Principles	Similarities between ICSPS	Markham	Kingston
Livelihood, sufficiency, and opportunity	• Community development	• Economic stabilisation	• Community resiliency
	• Reduction of reliance on social services	• Business incubators	• Neighbourhood engagement
	• Food security	• Microfinancing options
Equity	• Coordinated, long-term planning	• Hierarchical list of sustainability goals (short, medium, and long)	• Adaptive approach
	• Social equality	• Link between local and global inequalities	• Community ownership
	• Inclusionary planning practices	• Attraction of businesses and economic investment
Socio-ecological civility	• Flexible framework	• Policy document alignment	• Community-owned framework
	• On-going policy process	• Joint decision-making	• Shared-territory
	• Collaborative process
	• Access, social inclusion in all facets of urban living
Precaution and adaptation	• Monitoring responsibilities	• Baseline data for indicators	• Self-sufficiency and resilience
	• Indicator monitoring
Resource maintenance and efficiency	• Conservation (natural and cultural)	• Ecosystem resiliency	• Cultural heritage conservation
	• Holistic planning practices	• Biodiversity protection	• Protection of non-tangible heritage assets
	• Value of intangible cultural assets
Socio-ecological systems integrity	• None	• Ecosystem management	• Ecosystem resiliency
		• Networked ecosystems
		• Ecosystem integrity
Immediate and long-term integration	• Holistic approach	• Systems approach	• Community and citizen partners
	• Integration of sustainability pillars	• Mutually supportive actions
	• Community partnerships

Gibson, R.B., 2006a. Sustainability assessment: basic components of a practical approach. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 24 (3), 170–182. doi: 10.3152/147154606781765147

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