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Building a Sustainable Community

Building a Sustainable Community. Bruce Snead Engineering Extension at Kansas State University. Building a Sustainable Community.

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Building a Sustainable Community

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  1. Building a Sustainable Community Bruce Snead Engineering Extension at Kansas State University

  2. Building a Sustainable Community • Building a sustainable community through local leadership means effecting change in the best long-term interests of your community. Learn about the opportunities and techniques (policies, programs, planning and participation) which you can use to build a strong future-oriented community.

  3. Topics • Borrowing from the Future • What is Sustainability? • Sustainable Development • Opportunities and Resources

  4. How many of you believe your children will have a better “quality of life” than you have? What is it that makes where you live a special place? What will it take to sustain that quality of life and preserve those special things for your children? Are You an Optimist or Pessimist?

  5. Borrowing from the Future • “We’ve gotta do it for the kids.” - Sam Brownback on the budget and debt. • I think there are a lot of similarities in the economics of natural systems. • A baby born today will by age 75 have • produced 52 tons of garbage • consumed 43 million gallons of water • used 3375 barrels of oil -Philadelphia Inquirer

  6. Bringing Up Baby A US born baby will, over a lifetime, cost the world: Water - 41,289,000 gals Eggs - 18,046 Wood - 5,777 CF Vegetables - 13,652 Coffee - 688 lbs Coal - 290 tons Potatoes - 3,728 Fish - 1,123 lbs Petroleum - 80,598 gals Pesticides - 280 lbs Data from US Census and World Resources Institute

  7. Borrowing from the Future? • Our 4.5% of world population consumes 30% of planet’s natural resources, burns 25% of the fossil fuels. • The US is the 3rd most populous country with the highest birthrate among developed countries.

  8. Warning Signs? • Shrinking forests • Eroding soils • Falling water tables • Collapsing fisheries • Rising temperatures • Dying coral reefs • Melting glaciers • Disappearing plant and animal species

  9. “Our resources are not passed to us by our ancestors but loaned to us by our children.”Kenyan Proverb “I’m spending my kid’s inheritance.” Bumper Sticker Different Attitudesabout the Future

  10. Quotes about the Future • “we are treating the Earth as if it were a business in liquidation.” Herman Daly • ““Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.” Winston Churchill • The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason to hope.” Teilhard de Chardin

  11. What is Sustainability? • “Then I say the earth belongs to each.... generation during its course, fully and in its own right, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence.” Thomas Jefferson -6/9/1789

  12. “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” UN Brundtland Commission What is Sustainability?

  13. What is Sustainability? • ...living on the Earth's income rather than eroding its capital.British Government White Paper, 'This Common Inheritance', 1990

  14. Sustainability? • Sustainability requires managing all households -- individual, community,national, and global -- in ways that ensure that our economy and society can continue to exist without crippling or destroying the natural environment on which we all depend.

  15. Sustainability Society Economy Environment Sustainability?

  16. Sustainable Development • That level of human activity that can be continued indefinitely without diminishing the capacity of the biosphere to support life or assimilate waste

  17. Growth? • Sustainable development is not a “no-growth” movement. • Rather, it asks the question what should grow and how should it grow. • Perhaps the question should be “Is this sustainable?”

  18. Sustainable Development • "Sustainable development involves the simultaneous pursuit of economic prosperity, environmental quality and social equity. Companies aiming for sustainability need to perform not against a single, financial bottom line but against the triple bottom line.”

  19. Transitions • From short-term to long-term thinking • From a linear flow of resources to a cyclic flow of resources • From an economy outside of nature to an economy integrated into nature • From keeping score with gross cash flow to keeping score with a whole-system balance sheet (many indicators)

  20. Transitions • From seeing environmental, social and economic issues as separate and competing, to seeing them as an interconnected whole • From hoping growth will eliminate poverty to addressing poverty and its causes directly • From fossil fuels to renewable energy • From a focus on growth (size) to a focus on development (quality)

  21. The Real Challenge - Quality of Life • Quality of life is improved by a shift in public planning from simply accommodating growth to planning for sustainable human activity.

  22. Our Choice • The longer we wait, the greater the risk of having to impose rigid regulations in time of crisis. • The sooner we change, the more options we will have to create mechanisms of adjustment that are socially acceptable and economically feasible.

  23. Growth is everything No energy problem Design cities to move cars Better costs more We know how to measure progress Density = Congestion Economy vs. environment Questioning Myths and Assumptions

  24. PCSD Seattle Milwaukee San Jose Austin Santa Monica Racine Chattanooga Routt County,CO Boise/Ada County Valmeyer,IL New Jersey Manhattan Springfield NACO, USCM DOE, EPA Who’s Doing It

  25. How Do Communities Start? • Crisis and Reaction • Citizen Initiatives • Mayoral Initiatives • City Council Initiatives • Legislative Initiatives • Gubernatorial Initiatives

  26. Current Trends • Sustainability applied to: • Building and Real Estate Dev’t • Economic Development • Land-Use Planning • Industrial Development • Transportation Systems • Disaster Recovery

  27. Technology • GIS • New Tools for Decision Making • Software • Indicators Projects

  28. Sustainable Economic Development Strategies • Use resources efficiently • Meet local needs using local resources • Invest in an efficient sustainable infrastructure. • Protect and enhance community quality of life. • Create new businesses that provide services or products that protect or restore the environment.

  29. Sustainable Economic Development • Pollution Prevention/Waste Minimization • Recycling Based Manufacturing • Energy Efficiency • Renewable Energy • Green Business and Environmental Technologies

  30. Implementing Sustainability • Personal choices • Local decision making and policy implemented by tools and process • Examples and Education • Scope of Services • Planning/Development Guidelines • Capital Budgets

  31. Web Resources • www.usmayors.org/USCM/sustainable • www.sustainable.org • www.iclei.org/la21/onestop • www.sustainable.doe.gov • solstice.crest.org

  32. Web Resources • http://odin.bi.no/sbc • http://www.iccwbo.org/home/environment/charter.asp • http://sbn.envirolink.org/ • http://www.naturalstep.org/

  33. Web Resources • http://iisd.ca/ • www.sustainabledevelopment.org/ • www.sustainablebusiness.com • www.naturalcapitalism.org/

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