As we have been pursuing our practice, we have sought to share our experience with others. To accomplish this, we have been developing a framework for a "tool kit" focused on helping communities move towards a process of "smart growth" in their development patterns.

These materials were conceived as a beginning platform for a formal process or practice of sustainable development that connects with existing state and county protocols. It is also a way of sharing our work with other organizations and individuals committed to this rapidly evolving practice field. The development of these materials was done with support from the MacArthur Foundationís Sustainable Everglades Initiative, the Elizabeth Ordway Dunn Foundation, and the Department of Energy.

Currently, this tool kit is focused on those areas where we have practical experience ñ primarily community planning and real estate development. However, we have tried to structure the tool kit in a modular way so that it can grow "organically" and include practices and tools of other organizations and communities.

The tool kit includes two main parts - one focused on practice, and one on theory.

Tools to Support Sustainable Development and Smart Growth Practices:

Present State Scan: This tool describes a process for assessing the current state of a communities natural, built, economic and social systems; identifying the assets the community has to work with; and identifying potential areas for initial project focus.

Sustainable Future Search Conference: This tool describes a multi-day planning process for involving large numbers of community members in the development of a shared vision of a "future that works" for the community.

Sustainable Community Indicators: This tool describes the process a community can use to develop a set of graphic indicators to assess its continuous improvement towards sustainable practices in its natural, built, economic and social systems.

Civic Learning/Community Design Centers: This tool describes the design of the "new town hall" -- a physical place that can demonstrate the principles of sustainable development, convene the process, and provide institutional memory. These centers support the sustainable development process by providing a meeting place, a source for information and technical assistance and access to design and decision support tools like geographic information systems and planning simulation and indicators software.

Designing and Building Demonstration Buildings: This tool describes a process for designing and constructing buildings that act as economic incubators and demonstrate the principles of sustainable design. These structures can be residential, commercial or civic.

Sustainable Real Estate Development: This tool provides a practitioner introduction to the broad subject of "green" development ñ the practice of planning, designing, building and managing real estate development projects in ways that contribute to the continuous improvement of a communityís natural, built, economic and social systems.

Discovery Charrettes for Real Estate Development -- The discovery charrette is a large group planning process for exploring the optimum development potential of a real estate project as it might contribute to a communities long-range plan. The discovery charrette process can also be used on a wide variety of other projects that require broad stakeholder input.

Sustainable Design Elements for Residential Real Estate: This tool suggests some of the many design features that can be incorporated into sustainable residential housing development projects. It provides a basic "menu" of ideas for sustainable design in all four system layers.

Urban Agriculture: This tool describes an economic development strategy for strengthening urban / rural enterprise. An urban agriculture project can be used to create economic "back pressure " to counter sprawl; build markets for urban waste; reduce the need for food imports; recycle water; convert abandoned land; demonstrate organic production techniques; and create micro-enterprise opportunities for community residents.

Each tool has a common format, and includes the following elements:

What is it? (A definition of the practice described in the tool.)
What is the end result? (A description of what you tend to have when you are done.)
When is it most useful? (A description of the circumstances where communities tend to find this practice adds the most value.)
Connections to other tools and strategies. (How this tool relates to others, and which ones it is most often used in conjunction with.)
How do you do it? (A list of the most common steps in the implementation process.)
Ingredients for success. (Lessons learned about what make this practice successful.)
Other resources. (People, books, publications, web sites and organizations that can give you more depth on the topic.)

The tool kit also includes a number of sections that provide a theoretical framework and context within which to understand the tools and how they were developed. These include:

About the Florida House Institute. A brief description of the mission, beliefs, and systems approach of the Florida House Institute for Sustainable Development.

The Florida House Framework for Sustainable Development. Our definition of sustainable development; a description of the "four system layers" ñ natural, built, economic, and social; and an introduction to FREDI ñ how practitioners can use Facilitation, Research, Education, Demonstration, and Implementation to support sustainable development.

Creating an "Operating System" for Sustainable Development. This is our call for deeper collaboration and investment in a professional "practice field" of sustainable community development. We believe we need to invest in a more rigorous body of shared information and knowledge; information products and tools; and more sustained practitioner networks to evolve this knowledge base.

Overheads. For user convenience, we have included our most commonly used overheads for presentation purposes.

The tool kit we have assembled to date is only a very modest beginning. There are many existing tools being used by other organizations that need to be included.

The tool kit in its current form will soon be posted on our web site at FICUS so it is easily accessible by others.

We welcome your reactions, ideas and contributions. We believe that this field would benefit from more sustained interaction between practitioners, and the development of more disciplined tools and strategies to support our work. Most of us are grossly undercapitalized, given the level of transformation to which we are committed. None of us alone can afford the level of R&D investment required to "get to scale" in this work. We believe we can accomplish more by seeking to integrate our strategies, tactics and tools, than we can by trying to differentiate ourselves to compete for scarce funding resources.

We look forward to hearing from you if you share a similar set of passions. Together, we can make our communities: "Home to a future that works."

John Lambie, Director
The Florida House Institute for Sustainable Development
4600 Beneva Road
Sarasota, FL 34233
(941) 927-2020
(941) 316-1203 (Fax)
jlambie@gte.net