How Cities and Villages Become Eco-Municipalities

Every city, village and town in the Fox Valley makes hundreds of decisions a year that shape its future: which streetlights to buy, how to salt roads, where to extend sewer lines, how to handle stormwater flowing toward the Fox River and Lake Winnebago. Most are made one at a time, by different departments, under different budgets. The eco-municipality approach asks: what if one shared set of principles guided all of them?

This guide explains what an eco-municipality is, how the idea traveled from northern Sweden to northern Wisconsin, where Fox Valley communities stand today, and a practical step-by-step path that elected officials, staff and residents can follow. It draws on the same framework the original Sustainable Fox Valley initiative promoted: The Natural Step.

What an eco-municipality actually is

An eco-municipality is a local government whose elected body has formally adopted a set of sustainability principles as official policy, and committed to using them in planning and daily operations. In practice, most eco-municipalities have adopted the four system conditions of The Natural Step, often restated in plain language as four objectives: reduce dependence on fossil fuels and mined materials, reduce dependence on persistent synthetic chemicals, reduce encroachment on nature, and meet human needs fairly and efficiently.

Two features distinguish an eco-municipality from a community that simply runs some green projects. The commitment is systemwide, covering public works, parks, planning, purchasing, public safety and utilities, not just a “green team.” And it is participatory: residents, businesses and staff learn the same framework and help set priorities, so the effort survives elections and staff turnover.

Origins in Sweden

The concept was first introduced by the Finnish municipality of Suomussalmi, and in 1983 Övertorneå, a small and economically struggling town in far northern Sweden, became the first community to adopt it. Övertorneå organized study circles in its villages, which grew into action groups on energy, farming, local business and public transit. Other Swedish municipalities followed, and in 1995 they formed a national association, SEKOM (Sveriges Ekokommuner). Today the network counts more than 100 member municipalities, roughly a third of all municipalities in Sweden. Membership requires a council resolution and a strategic sustainability plan aligned with The Natural Step principles.

How the idea came to Wisconsin

Planner Sarah James and Swedish project leader Torbjörn Lahti brought the approach to North America with their 2004 book The Natural Step for Communities. Wisconsin’s Chequamegon Bay region on Lake Superior, where local governments and tribes had formed a regional Alliance for Sustainability in the 1990s, was ready for it. In 2005, Washburn passed what is generally described as the first eco-municipality resolution in the United States, and Ashland followed the same year. Bayfield, Madison, Marshfield, Manitowoc, La Crosse, and others adopted resolutions within a few years. The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters lists Neenah as adopting one in 2007, and by some counts around 30 Wisconsin communities have made eco-municipality commitments, though how active each one remains varies a great deal.

The four system conditions as a municipal lens

The power of The Natural Step for a local government is that it turns a vague goal (“be more sustainable”) into four questions any department can ask about any decision. The table below shows how each condition translates into everyday municipal choices in a northeast Wisconsin community.

None of these actions is exotic, and many Fox Valley departments already do some of them. The framework’s value is consistency, and spotting the decisions that quietly push the other way.

Where Fox Valley communities stand today

The Fox Cities do not start from zero. Several local governments already have commitments to build on.

Green Tier Legacy Communities, a Wisconsin DNR charter network established in 2010, is not the same thing as an eco-municipality resolution, but the two fit together well. The charter offers peer-to-peer learning, technical support and a DNR liaison; The Natural Step offers the shared principles and planning method. A community that has one already has a head start on the other.

Step by step: how a community becomes an eco-municipality

Communities in Sweden, Wisconsin and elsewhere have followed a broadly similar path. The sequence below adapts it for a typical Fox Valley city or village, where staff are lean and the budget calendar drives everything.

1. Build a small core group. Three to eight people is enough: an elected official, a department head or administrator, and a few residents or business owners who will do the legwork. Many groups start as a study circle.
2. Learn the framework together. Hold an introductory session on The Natural Step for elected officials and department heads. The goal is a shared vocabulary, with examples from public works and parks rather than theory.
3. Draft a short resolution. One or two pages is typical. It should adopt the four objectives as guiding principles, commit to staff and elected-official training, name who will coordinate the work (a committee, a staff lead, or both), and require an annual progress report to the council or board.
4. Adopt it in public. Bring the resolution through the normal committee process and invite public comment. A broad, bipartisan vote signals a durable commitment.
5. Establish a baseline. Gather a year of data on municipal energy use, fleet fuel, waste, water use, road salt, and purchasing. Utility bills and fuel cards cover most of it. A municipal greenhouse gas inventory is useful but not required to start.
6. Use backcasting to set direction. The Natural Step’s planning method asks participants to describe a sustainable future community, then work backward to identify steps that move toward it. Choose priorities that are flexible platforms for later progress and that offer a good return on investment.
7. Pick a short action list and budget it. Five to ten actions for the first two years is plenty. Tie each to a department, a budget line, and a measurable result. Fold capital items into the existing capital improvement plan rather than creating a separate wish list.
8. Report every year, honestly. Publish what was done, what it cost, what it saved, and what stalled. A plain one-page summary at a public meeting does more to sustain support than a glossy report nobody reads.

Making it stick after the vote

Plenty of communities adopted eco-municipality resolutions with enthusiasm and then drifted. The ones that kept going tended to embed the principles in the machinery of local government, rather than relying on a few champions.

Put the principles in the comprehensive plan

Wisconsin’s comprehensive planning law requires communities that regulate land use to keep a plan covering housing, transportation, natural resources, land use and more, updated at least every ten years. Writing the four objectives into those elements gives them legal weight in zoning and subdivision decisions long after the people who passed the resolution have moved on.

Tie actions to the budget calendar

In most Fox Valley communities, budgets are built in late summer and fall. A committee that arrives in early fall with a cost-benefit analysis for LED retrofits will get further than one that arrives in March with a list of ideas. Include maintenance savings, which are often larger than people expect for lighting and controls.

Use the networks and programs that already exist

Focus on Energy works with local governments on facility upgrades, and the DNR’s Green Tier program, UW–Madison Extension and regional planning commissions all offer technical help. None require eco-municipality status, but a resolution makes it easier to show that a project fits a coherent plan. Build a short orientation on the framework into onboarding for new officials and department heads, too, because elections and retirements never stop.

Common pitfalls to avoid

• Making it one department’s job. If sustainability lives only in parks or only in planning, other departments will treat it as someone else’s priority. The coordinator’s role is to help every department apply the framework, not to do the work for them.
• Starting with the hardest project. A controversial first project can sink the whole effort. Begin with visible, money-saving wins such as lighting, building controls or fleet right-sizing, then take on harder land use questions with credibility in hand.
• Ignoring fairness. The fourth objective is easy to skip. Ask who pays for a new fee, who benefits from a new trail, and whether public meetings are held at times and places working parents and renters can attend.
• Overpromising numbers. Avoid announcing big percentage targets before you have a baseline. Set targets after year one, when you know where you stand.
• Going it alone. Fox Cities communities share a river, a lake, a transit system and a recycling program. Many of the best opportunities are regional.

How residents can move their community forward

The original eco-municipalities were rarely started by city hall. They began with residents who organized, learned, and then brought a well-prepared proposal to their elected officials. That path is still open in every Fox Valley community.

Start with a study circle

A study circle of eight to twelve neighbors meeting over four to six sessions is an ideal way to learn the framework, identify local priorities and recruit the people who will carry a proposal. Everyday Democracy, a national nonprofit, publishes free guides on organizing community dialogue to action, and our own study circle materials are built around The Natural Step.

Learn how your local government works

Attend a few council or board meetings, read the agenda packets, and find out which committee handles sustainability, parks or public works. Learn the budget calendar. Officials are far more receptive to residents who understand their constraints.

Bring a draft, not a demand

Come with a sample resolution, a short list of money-saving first-year actions, and residents willing to serve on a committee. Then keep showing up: the annual report meeting is where a commitment is renewed or quietly abandoned.

Next steps

If you want to bring the eco-municipality approach to your city, village or town, start with the framework, then gather a few neighbors.

• Read our overview of The Natural Step’s four system conditions and visit our resources for municipalities.
• Organize a learning group with the Study Circle Starter Kit, which includes a facilitator guide and participant workbooks.
• For staff and elected officials ready to plan, see our Municipal Sustainability Planning Consultation, or explore The Natural Step’s own materials at thenaturalstep.org.

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