Whistler2020, Whistler BC

Whistler2020 is an award-winning vision and plan and implementation program for a successful and sustainable Whistler - and it is much more than this. It is a living, ongoing process that mobilizes citizen and organizational commitment and passion into action, moving Whistler ever closer to making the community-created vision a reality.

Developed in 2004-05 and with annual community task force engagement, action planning and monitoring each year since, Whistler2020 has helped lay the foundation of a transferable community sustainability planning framework and process that is exportable to other communities.

Visit the Whistler2020 site

Williams Lake,
British Columbia

Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP) and OCP Alignment. The Whistler Centre for Sustainability, in partnership with Smart Growth BC and The Natural Step Canada, is working with the City of Williams Lake to develop an ICSP and to review and align their Official Community Plan with this ICSP framework. Using innovative participatory video, community feasts and other engagement techniques, the WCS will facilitate the co-creation of a sustainability vision, priorities and strategy areas, and the actions required to make Williams Lake's vision a reality.

Project Profile

Through a series of hands-on workshops supported by the Islands Trust, the WCS is inspiring a grassroots steering committee in Gabriola to engage the wider community in the creation of an ICSP framework. This framework draws from the lessons learned through Whistler's own 2020 process and plan, and is intended to guide local decision-making and investment, align resources in the community, and deepen the Islands Trust's capacity to support meaningful community-engaged implementation of high-level policy.

The Whistler Centre for Sustainability is working with the Ministry of Community Development (Resort Municipal Initiative) to host a second workshop for the communities in BC that are designated resort municipalities and assist them with development of sustainability indicators and monitoring systems, as well as moving toward a shared vision of success as a resort community.

Whistler Centre staff provided case study workshops along with the Natural Step Canada on strategic approaches towards sustainability at the 2005 President's Summit on Community Sustainability in Edmonton, AB. Whistler's approach to integrated sustainability was the basis for the AUMA Municipal Sustainability Planning toolkit (http://msp.auma.ca/) , and staff provided specific content to the Task Force Vision to Action Implementation approach.