Local sustainability management is not a project but a process. Just as the local budget is set up and controlled every year, targets for the environmental, social and economic development of the city have to be monitored and adjusted in a cyclical manner. The Sustainability Cycle leads local governments through 5 steps which, repeated periodically, help cities to gradually advance their level of sustainability, while at the same time making sure sustainability stays on the local agenda.

Different from planning processes, cyclical sustainability management enables local governments to respond to changing framework conditions such as technology or societal consensus by simply updating the targets and action plans once the next management cycle starts. Targets that appear to be much too ambitious to find an agreement today may turn out to be common sense in 3-5 years!

The Aalborg Commitments Implementation Guide explains how to establish a cyclical sustainability management process step by step. By clicking on the Sustainability Cycle above you can also get a short introduction to each of the steps, and further advice on which tools assist you in implementing these steps.