ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the movement toward sustainability in cities and reviews the international sustainability framework emergent from United Nations' conferences and activities within the last three decades. The next major milestone for the creation of an international sustainability framework came with the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. Attended by leaders of 178 countries, the event had an extremely high profile that signified the growing international attention given to sustainable development. According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), an indicator "quantifies and simplifies phenomena and helps us understand complex realities. The development of sustainability indicators in two cities Seattle and Minneapolis will be reviewed and evaluated in order to consider the realities of putting sustainability into practice. In contrast to the community-based Sustainable Seattle Initiative and its Indicators Commons Project, the Minneapolis Sustainability Program has been visibly government-led.
