DUBUQUE, IOWA is one of the oldest cities on the Mississippi River and the oldest community in Iowa. The people of the Midwest are descendants of individuals who valued rich farmland and abundant water, and who left a legacy of sustainability for us to build upon.
D U B U Q U E ’ S S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y V I S I O N
Is grassroots and community-driven. Beginning in the 1980s, when Dubuque led the country in unemployment and had lost its connection to the Mississippi River, residents and business owners found a way to transform Dubuque by embracing sustainability, making it a new kind of national leader for the 21st century.
The Beginning
After serving 10 years on the City Council, Roy D. Buol ran for the office of Mayor in 2005. His platform was based upon “engaging citizens as partners,” and what he heard from thousands of citizens was a consistent theme surrounding water quality, recycling, green space, public transit, cultural vitality, accessibility and downtown revitalization. During the 2006 City Council goal-setting process, Mayor Buol proposed and received full support from his council colleagues to focus on sustainability as a City top priority, stating “cities that get out in front on sustainability will have competitive economic advantages in the future.” What soon became known as Sustainable Dubuque is a City Council adopted, community- created, and citizen-led initiative whose story officially began in 2006. Sustainability has been a City Council priority each year since and we are continually working to expand awareness, create partnerships, and encourage initiatives involving all sectors of our community.
“We’re developing processes where people can make good decisions that will save them money and that will be sustainable beyond this generation. We call it making sustainability sustainable.””
Building a replicable model for sustainable communities
In 2006, Mayor Roy D. Buol signed on to the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement in support of the Kyoto Protocol.
Since then, Dubuque has strived to create a replicable sustainability model for all communities, particularly those with populations under 200,000 where over 40% of the United States lives. Ours is a model that includes building on existing assets, community visioning, setting aggressive targets, strong partnerships, and performance management.
Present Day
We are creating that model with citizen and business leadership and in collaboration with regional partners. Setting Dubuque apart from many other communities, ours is a model that is embraced by the business community as we use sustainability as a tool to retain and support existing employers, attract new opportunities, and support workforce development. It is a model that is based on data collection so that we can track our progress as a community and set informed targets using those indicators. And finally, it is a model that includes our regional partners, as we realize that so many of the issues that are part of our sustainability model, like water quality and strong transportation systems, are not issues that stop at political boundaries.