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Critical Thinking for Sustainable Community Decision Making
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This Community Leadership Tool encourages community leaders to make informed decisions about sustainable development issues. Community leaders faced with an important decision can use it to discover many aspects of a proposed action that might otherwise be missed. It will help them think about aspects that are often left out of decision making (for instance those that influence quality of life) in addition to the financial and technical information normally considered in community decisions. This tool can be used to identify the best of several alternative actions and to decide for or against a proposed action. Discussions that take place during its use might lead to creative changes to a proposed action that make it more compatible with the community, its economy, and the environment. The objective of using this tool is to involve participants in a comprehensive and meaningful discussion about an important decision. Though this tool does not guarantee that resulting actions will be sustainable, it will help evaluate options in a more systematic manner.
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