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“In October 2008, the Cowichan Valley Regional District hosted a Water Balance Model Forum that was conducted as a hybrid-training workshop to inform, educate and enable those who wish to apply the Water Balance Model to support a Design with Nature approach to land development,” stated Jay Bradley. “This was part of the implementation program for ‘Beyond the Guidebook: The New Business As Usual’. This initiative adds depth to  Living Water Smart, the provincial government’s vision and plan to keep British Columbia’s water healthy and secure for the future.”

”Integration with nature and minimal interference with the natural environment are at the core of The Natural City,” writes Vic Derman. “The urban area must exist harmoniously with the surrounding environment. Key systems should mimic natural processes and integrate with them to the highest degree possible.”

“The vision is that the Showcasing Innovation Series can play an integrating role to cut across disciplines and ultimately serve as a catalyst to create Ministry of community development – dale wall, deputy minister neighbourhoods that integrate both good planning and innovative engineering designs, for overall greater sustainability….environmental, social and economic,” stated Dale Wall.

“Sustainable water management in BC is an important priority. The purpose of the workshops was to share information and explore opportunities for advancing water governance,” stated Lynn Kriwoken. ““Productive dialogue on challenges and solutions were the central focus of the workshops.”

“The roundtable discussion was a direct request from the provincial sponsor – Green Buildings BC – as they wanted to get a better understanding of costs and capacity around green buildings: from residential to commercial, institutional and government. The intent of this discussion was to get a cross-dialogue going on between builders, designers and the Province,” stated Vivian Dean.

“We organized the roundtable event to engage the major Vancouver Island developers in a conversation about the factors that facilitate or hinder their efforts to design, plan for and implement development incorporating Green Value Strategies on Vancouver Island,” said Jack Hall, REFBC Chair.

“We took ourselves up and down the island. We asked the same question: What will Vancouver Island look like in 50 years? There was a sense of urgency. We wanted to talk about and establish some way of collaborating on Vancouver Island. We found that the north is not talking to the south, and the east is not talking to the west. So, we said why don’t we pull these people together,” stated Eric Bonham.

“A decade ago, we thought that if we could hold the line for 20 years, we believed that we might be able to improve conditions over 50 years. Early success has given us confidence that this is attainable much sooner,” stated Kim Stephens.

“Embracing a guiding framework will help ensure a flexible and adaptable approach to regional sewage treatment that strives for continuous improvement over time,” stated Simon Poole.

“In promoting infrastructure practices that achieve design with nature outcomes, the Green Infrastructure Partnership has borrowed from the title of the 1969 book by Ian McHarg”, explained Paul Ham. “We are consistent with what McHarg intended in terms of ecological planning and letting the landscape inform development. Four decades later, McHarg”s book continues to be one of the most widely celebrated books on landscape architecture and land-use planning.”