Susan Rutherford provides Green Infrastructure Partnership perspective at “Showcasing Green Infrastructure Innovation in the Comox Valley”
Connecting to Sustainability
In October 2007, the Comox-Strathcona Regional District and City of Courtenay co-hosted Showcasing Green Infrastructure Innovation in the Comox Valley.
Susan Rutherford, a lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law and a member of the Green Infrastructure Partnership Steering Committee, described how the Green Infrastructure Partnership has supported CAVI in undertaking Showcasing Green Infrastructure Innovation on Vancouver Island: The 2007 Series.
According to Susan, “The philosophical underpinning of the green infrastructure 
approach is a design with nature way-of-thinking and acting. This is very intuitive. It is about ensuring that when we plan our communities, we keep the ecological systems that we rely upon in the forefront of our thinking.”
“When we organized a consultation workshop for local governments in the Greater Vancouver region in 2005, people in local government told us that they wanted a venue where they could share successes and tribulations,” she continued, “They told us that they didn’t want another document that would go on the shelf. They wanted to hear the stories from those who are overcoming hurdles to make green infrastructure happen on the ground.”
“The Showcasing Innovation Series gets people excited,” reported Susan, “It is amazing. It works. People want to tell their stories and they want to learn from their neighbours.
To learn more about what Susan talked about, please click here to read a story about how the Green Infrastructure Partnership has evolved the Showcasing Innovation Series. To download a copy of Susan’s PowerPoint presentation, please click on this link to Convening for Action to Change the Way We Develop Land: Design with Nature.
About the Showcasing Innovation Series
To read the complete story about the Comox Valley program, click on Local Governments in the Comox Valley Showcase Green Infrastructure Innovation —Third of three events focuses on role of communication, collaboration and cost-sharing in progressing to sustainability
Posted October 2007