Sustainability: requires dance between people and authorities

Posted August 12, 2006 in News

Two articles hit the internet in the last day that remind us that sustainability involves both people and the authorities. Marjorie Willison recently returned from the third World Urban Forum held last June in Vancouver. She reflects on how well Canadians are meeting the challenge of sustainability and what more could be done. In Colarado, they have launched "The Larimer County Environmental Stewardship Awards" to encourage people to be stewards for the environment.

A quick search of the BBC news found three articles to encourage further thinking in this area. In the UK only 10% of landfill is domestic waste, food need not become landfill and city planners can now play with software (Metroquest) to help design more robust cities.

Willison comments that half the world's populations now live in cities, in countries such as Canada that is up now 80%, and this trend is expected to continue. She comments that urban planning and management will require "smart growth" principles, for example taking into account potential land-use conflicts, transportation dependencies, loss of farmland. The idea is to build cities "to be socially, economically, culturally and environmentally sustainable." One opportunity Willison identifies is assessing landscapes for their renewable energy potential early in the development process.

Apparently the World Urban Forum "also emphasized social inclusion and cohesion as key pillars of sustainability. Weakening of the public realm is contributing to urban safety issues, crime and conflict, but in some places, citizens in partnership with their governments are taking back the city’s spaces. The public realm includes those places where people can share in public life – trails, parks, community centres, concert spaces, libraries, recreation facilities, drop-in centres, and public art spaces, to give examples. New York City is giving high-risk youth a lead role in bringing peers and adults together to reclaim their community recreation spaces."

Willison's article is also useful as she cites practical examples of how some cities/countries are taking on these issues. Which is also why the Colaradean article is useful, as it is something that most local authorities could pick up easily as a low cost, high profile "feel good"; which in turn can be used by schools, faith communities, volunteer associations as an inspiration and/or educational aid for embedding more environmentally sustainable practices and paradigms within our youth and others. As the article comments "The awards offer a reminder that even simple, cooperative approaches, such as organizing recycling campaigns or changing the type of light bulbs in a building, can make a significant difference for the future of the environment."

Which then leads us onto initiatives on a bigger scale where UK's FareShare is finding alternative uses for food waste from supermarkets, manufacturers and sandwich chains. That includes diverting some to feed the poor, referring the excess or unsuitable to composting, and they are now exploring the possibility of generating power from food waste (who remembers the car from "Back to the Future"? Maybe that future is closer than we think!

With software such such as MetroQuest, maybe some of these schemes won't seem so unattainable? In a recent paper, Richard Dawkins commented that creating new paradigms for a new future can be facilitated by people playing with software that encourages development in that area.

MetroQuest is one example of such software, which maybe UK's urban planners would like to devote to scheming how to stop 36 million tonnes of construction waste ending up in UK landfill sites each year (which is triple the amount of household waste generated).

Sources: The Chronicla  Herald.ca; coloradoan.com; BBC "Forgotten front in war on waste" and "Food for thought" and "The Real Sim City"

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