Book excerpt: Sustainability is a journey, and this book provides the guidelines and resources for any local government to develop a sustainability plan and begin this journey. To assist local governments, the toolkit provides: Step-by-step guidelines for how to achieve each milestone in sustainability planning Tips on what to include in a sustainability plan Best-practice examples Guidelines for organizing a team of experts to develop the plan The toolkit can be used to create a sustainability plan for local governments large and small, including cities, towns, and counties.Recognizing that local governments around the United States are vastly different, this toolkit presents a straightforward yet flexible process for developing a sustainability plan. It can be used by any local government regardless of its structure, geography, size, and available resources. The foundation of the toolkit is the Five Milestones for Sustainability process, which outlines the major steps a local government should follow to improve its sustainability. The Five Milestones for Sustainability are an evolution of ICLEI's Five Milestones for Climate Mitigation and includes the following five major steps: Milestone One: Conduct a sustainability assessment Milestone Two: Establish sustainability goals Milestone Three: Develop a local sustainability plan Milestone Four: Implement policies and measures Milestone Five: Evaluate progress and report results Readers will find guidance on both how to structure their planning process and what types of strategies and measures to include in their sustainability plan. This toolkit places particular emphasis on the approach to the planning process, because having a high-quality plan isn't enough. A well-executed planning process is essential because it builds broad support from local stakeholders which leads to a smoother implementation process.Local governments are encouraged to use the framework of the Five Milestones for Sustainability as a starting point to understand the key steps involved in developing a sustainability plan. The toolkit can be used by local governments at the very early stages of the planning process or by local governments that already have a plan and are preparing to update it.