For a more resilient and equitable community

Resiliency is the ability of individuals and systems to prevent, prepare for, and recover from adverse vulnerabilities while adapting to long-term changes.

An Equitable Community is welcoming, fair, and just with the opportunity for people to have the realistic hope of achieving their goals.

50% Reduction in Greenhouse Gas by 2030

Sustainable Dubuque Vision

ENGAGE

Community Engagement is occurring across a broad spectrum. The Sustainable Dubuque framework has become the prism through which city operations are developed and analyzed. Much of Dubuque’s story can be attributed to a motto of People, Planning & Partnerships. And when it comes to partnerships, individuals and organizations prescribe to the concept of collective impact, the idea that broad-based, cross-sector collaboration is imperative to affect community change, rather than the siloed efforts of individual organizations.

PREPARE

The Resilient Community Advisory Commission was created in 2016. Through a robust community engagement process, residents provided input to define resiliency as “the ability of individuals and systems to prevent, prepare for, and recover from adverse vulnerabilities while adapting to long-term changes.” The Commission reviews research and data, engages the public, and provides recommendations to the City Council in order to create a more resilient community that is able to prevent, prepare for, and recover from potential economic, environmental, and social/cultural vulnerabilities.

TEACH

The Green Vision Education program, organized by the Dubuque Metropolitan Area Solid Waste Agency, recognizes and encourages area schools for their sustainability efforts. Staff, students and parents assess Energy Efficiency, Resource Management, Pollution Prevention, Sustainable Purchasing, and Eco-Literacy in their built environment and collaborate to incorporate these areas into their curriculum. Community partners meet regularly with school green teams to identify opportunities for sustainability improvements. Prekindergarten through high school students compost the food scraps from their lunches, create walking school buses, enforce no-idling policies, plant school gardens during their school day, learn about the culture of their communities, and serve as educators for the larger Dubuque community.

PLAN

The 50% by 2030 Community Climate Action and Resiliency Plan is a grassroots-created target to achieve community-wide greenhouse gas reduction 50% below 2003 levels by the year 2030, adopted by the City Council in 2011. The target was brought to them by the Dubuque Community Greenhouse Gas Reduction Task Force, a partnership of local environmental nonprofits, faith based organizations, private sector green business, and individual activists, with strong input from local business partners.

GROW

Opportunity Dubuque is a collaborative job-training effort developed in response to local employers’ identification of the greatest barrier to future growth: a skilled workforce. Through this initiative, individuals are able to complete a short-term certification program to upgrade their skills with 100% of their costs paid. This program creates non-credit to credit career pathways and ultimately fills employers’ demand for talent in high-wage, high-demand careers. This program eliminates financial barriers to participants, including the unemployed and underemployed, high school students, those interested in hands on learning, and dislocated workers, by providing scholarships. Local employers’ are engaged in designing the training, curriculum, support, orientation, and interview.