ECO-301: Developing an Agency Sustainability Program using Policy and Strategic Planning

This course simplifies the seemingly insurmountable task of developing and implementing a fire agency sustainability program by first freeing leadership to determine what their agency’s sustainability program will include and then putting the program into terms we understand and work with every day – policy and strategic planning.

The course specifically addresses:
Fire agency sustainability program defined
Sustainability program choices and components, which may include but are not limited to:

• Societal Initiatives:
o Employee Risk and Safety
o Community awareness
o Ethics

• Environmental Initiatives
o Water
o Energy, including apparatus power choices
o Materials
o Waste

• Service Delivery Initiatives
o Continuous Improvement
o Supplier/vendor standards
o Customer service / Reputation
o Contribution to community growth

Once a sustainability program is defined, the course guides participants through the process of identifying policies applicable to sustainability program goals that encourage behaviors and reinforce sustainability practices. When we implement and train on good policy, the resulting behavior influences fire department culture. Viewed from this perspective, building sustainability into the department’s daily practice and culture is not such a long leap in terms of both cost and effort.

We then turn to how the sustainability program weaves into an agency’s strategic plan to further support program goals. Further, using the assessment tools in the agency strategic plan serves the dual purpose of measuring success of the sustainability program.

Students leave the class feeling confident in their ability to develop and execute a sustainability program aligned with agency policies and strategic goals.