Re-Imagining our Neighbourhoods Slides

© 2011 The Natural Step

John Purkis & Karen MillerOttawa, OntarioMay 18-19, 2010

Re-imagining our neighbourhoods

John Purkis, Senior Advisor Senior Manager, Sustainable Communities

AREF Thought Leaders Series, Wednesday October 19th, 2011


Agenda

1. Introduction 2. The Natural Step3. Sustainability4. Characteristics of sustainable neighbourhoods5. Lunch and table discussions6. Table summaries


The Natural Step: who are we?

• Accelerating change in organizations and communities– Define sustainability– Embed and integrate sustainability – Collaborate to get there

• Supporting individual leadership– Courses and workshops– Toolkits, resources and best practices– Peer to peer learning exchange

• Supporting emerging leaders


Williams Lake: Imagine Our Future

Who have we worked with?

http://www.interfaceinc.com/us/Company/

http://nikebiz.com/environ/index.shtml

http://www.fcm.ca/

http://www.canmore.ca/


What makes us different?

We’re working with organizations behind the scenes to help build leadership capacity and success stories. We help organizations in three main ways:

1. We help organizations DEFINE sustainability.2. we help organizations EMBED and INTEGRATE

sustainability into their strategy, operations, products, services, governance, culture and stakeholder engagement.

3. we help teams, groups, departments and stakeholders collaborate.


Exceeding the capacity of one earth


Unsustainability


Why Sustainable Neighbourhoods?


Why Sustainable Neighbourhoods?

As the population continues to expand, consumption of land grows exponentially—currently, three times the rate of population growth. At this breathtaking pace, two-thirds of the development on the ground in 2050 will be built between now and then. The way we grow—especially how and where we grow—will have a profound effect on our planet and on us. Source: US Green Building Council LEED ND


Challenges: Current and Future


Current challenges survey quotes

• lack of community spaces and events

• crumbling infrastructure with a significant replacement cost

• traffic going through neighbourhoods makes safety an issue when it comes to increased walking and biking.

• incentives encourage that kind of development, including cookie cutter houses, uniform streets, and often single-use functions, not mixed use.


Current Reality


Water Use

• Canadians– Use an average of

390L/day of water in buildings

– Largest per-capital users of water in the world

• Buildings– Use only 3% of clean,

treated water for drinking!


Impact of Buildings on the Environment

Buildings are responsible for:• 33 percent of all secondary energy used• 35 percent of greenhouse gases emitted• 50 percent of natural resources consumed• 12 percent of non-industrial water used• 25 percent of landfill waste generated• 10 percent of airborne particulates produced


Construction Waste

•Construction waste makes up about 25% of solid waste in our landfills. More waste means more landfills means more taxes for you and me.

•The average home built in Canada generates 8,000 lb of waste.


Tax Revenue


Job Creation by Transportation Mode


LEED for Neighbourhood Development


Characteristics of Sustainable Neighbourhoods


What makes a neighbourhood vibrant and livable? What are the key characteristics that you think are

important?


1. Social well being – creating a feeling of belonging

According to Paul Born from the Tamarack Institute there are three principles for what makesfor a successful community in neighbourhoods:

• The first is know each other. We need to know our neighbours as a very first pre-condition to creating great places to live. Too often we don’t know or trust our neighbours.

• The second principle is that we need to take care of each other. There are many ways of doing that, such as Neighbourhood Watch, block parents, babysitting programs, car pooling, etc.

• And the third thing is working together to do something for the public good. This gives a shared sense of purpose and a strong feeling of belonging.


How happy are you?

“If you look at what makes people happy income is important, but human relationships are much more important and we’ve increasingly allowed our human relationships to deteriorate in the interest of having more income.” Lord Richard Layard, London School of Economics.


2. Governance – effective and inclusive participation, representation and leadership

• residents need to interact and be involved in the co-creation of their neighbourhood.

• Neighbourhoodassociations are key success factor to facilitate citizen engagement


3. Active Convenient and Green Transportation

• walkability• public transport

services linking residents to their work places and services

• transportation system powered by 100% renewable energy

• Bicycle network


4. Nature - Thriving Ecosystem Parks and Green Spaces

• should not be built on sensitive natural ecosystems (Habitat exchange)

• places with ample green spaces: parks, community gardens

• habitat exchange • no relative impact on natural

systems


5. Economy: a flourishing and lively local economy

• encourage and foster local businesses and local entrepreneurship whose activities contribute to the well-being of social and ecological systems, as well as encourage local food.

• All residents of working age have access to employment at a living wage. All community members—including youth and elders, in particular—have access to meaningful work in their neighbourhood or community.


6. Density: compact, beautiful spaces

• compact, beautiful spaces that allow for social interaction and privacy, and minimise resource consumption, while providing access to various shops and services.

• designed around people, not cars• balanced with appropriate green

spaces


6. Density: compact, beautiful spaces

“density is a tool—arguably the most powerful one controlled by a municipality—to create a more sustainable city while at the same time helping to preserve agricultural land and the open space beyond its

borders.” Brent Toderian and Mark Holland


7. Services: diverse and local• a diversity of public, private, community,

and voluntary services accessible to all residents

• local shops, community and recreational centers for all ages, entertainment, cultural opportunities, places to work, places for recreation, and medical services

• volunteer services to help take care of each other are important

• live work play


8. Diversity • Experts feel strongly that diverse

neighbourhoods are much healthier than those with one income bracket, family type, or ethnic group.

• socially cohesive and diverse communities


Tools and Resources

Really Good Outstanding


CMHC - Equilibrium Communities 6 Themes

1. Energy: balances energy supply and use to minimize greenhouse gas emissions.

2. Land Use and Housing: a balanced mix of activities, housing choices, and commercial, institutional, recreational and industrial land uses.

3. Transportation: reduces fossil fuel use from personal vehicle travel and provides opportunities for energy-efficient and healthy alternatives to personal vehicle use.

4. Water, Wastewater and Stormwater: minimizes the use and disposal of water and the negative impacts on watersheds.

5. Natural Environment: protects and enhances/restores the natural environment.

6. Financial Viability: a marketable community that, through its design, operation, integration and financing, is economically viable over the long term.


The Living Building Challenge


Living Building Challenge for Neighbourhoods

1. Restoring a healthy coexistence with nature (site)

• limits to growth, habitat exchange, car free living

2. Creating water independent sites, buildings and communities

• net-zero water, ecological water flow3. Relying on current solar income

• net-zero energy4. Maximizing physical and

psychological health and well being• civilized environment, healthy Air, biophilia


Living Building Challenge for Neighbourhoods

2. Endorsing products and processes that are save for all species through time

• red list, embodied carbon footprint, responsible industry, appropriate sourcing, conservation and reuse

3. Supporting a just, equitable world• human scale and human places, democracy

and social justice, rights to nature,4. Celebrating design that creates

transformative change (beauty)• beauty and spirit, inspiration and education


Table Discussions

“The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.”– Linus Pauling, world-renown scientist and humanitarian

At your tables please discuss the following question:

• What are your recommended ideas to move us to more sustainable neighbourhoods? What are your top three priorities ?

• Please write your tables top 3 ideas on the paper provided.


John PurkisThe Natural Step Canada

http://www.naturalstep.org/en/[email protected]

Thank you


The Landmark Group of Builders

• 5 construction companies

• Edmonton, Red Deerand Calgary, Alberta, Canada

• ~ 200 employees• Residential housing and

small developments• Getting into high-rise


Key Sustainability Challenges

• We are highly dependent on the degradation of ecologically and agriculturally productive land through development.

• We are highly dependent on the dispersive use of hydrocarbons as fuel and raw material.

• We are dependent on an economic and physical system that systematically converts virgin material into unusable waste in both the short and long term.

• We are dependent on materials that have toxic effects in the ecosystem and organisms.

• We support and are dependent on an unsustainable supply chain.


Landmark Group of Builders• Empower People . Enable a sustainable society through research, innovation, charity, advocacy,

education and affordability that provide people with better, more sustainable lives.• Sustainable Land Use. Develop the built environment to maximize the ecological, agricultural,

economic and social potential of the land.• Carbon Neutral. The net lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of our products and processes are

zero or negative.• Non-Toxic. Eliminate all toxic and potentially toxic materials from our products and processes.• Zero Waste. Eliminate all waste in all its forms. Waste occurs when our use of time, material,

energy, space and capital exceeds that which is necessary to generate value and well being for our customers, ourselves and our society.

• Closing the Loop. The materials in our communities are recovered and recoverable, recycled and recyclable or borrowed from nature in such a way that they can be returned to nature without doing harm.

• Revolutionize Industry. Our business model and supply chain relationships reinforce and support the drive towards sustainability.


Public Awakening…


Policy Innovations - How do we raise the bar?


9 human needs

Subsistence Protection Participation

Idleness –Leisure Affection Understanding

Creation Identity Freedom

Re-Imagining our Neighbourhoods Slides

Education

Transcript of Re-Imagining our Neighbourhoods Slides