Steve Winkleman (120p)
Center for Clean Air Policy
Communities can benefit from increased resilience to climate impacts, while reaping multiple co-benefits through improvements in land-value, quality of life, public health, and hazard mitigation.
“The WBM allows the user to quickly establish the existing, or the predevelopment, base line that will become the standard used to measure the performance of future development scenarios during the planning and design of a project. This allows the user to test various methods to establish the easiest and best ways to achieve the most desirable vision of the future for the Site, the Development, or the Watershed,” stated Jim Dumont.
Although the energy-intensive nature of providing water services is often unrecognized, these activities consume enormous amounts of power and fuel. The good news is that water conservation and efficiency opportunities are abundant.
Coined by Edward T. McMahon, the phrase was trumpeted in a May 1999 report of the US President’s Council on Sustainable Development.
A recently completed study, Greenhouse Gas and Energy Co-benefits of Water Conservation, the first of its kind in Canada, suggests a significant untapped opportunity exists for water conservation to reduce energy, save municipal dollars and mitigate Greenhouse Gas emissions.
The Green Bylaws Toolkit explains how to use a myriad of tools—from planning to regulatory bylaws—to protect wetlands, grasslands and other important ecosystems in British Columbia.
The Green Infrastructure Wiki is an open source website that promotes the concept of a TABLE OF ELEMENTS to categorize the various dimensions of green infrastructure. The rationale is that green infrastructure needs a conceptual framework that can accommodate the range of scales and functions described by the term. Green Infrastructure Wiki invites user contributions to a green infrastructure framework made up of 5 interconnected systems: habitat, community, water, mobility, and energy & materials.
The Urban Development Institute is a national non-profit association (with international affiliations) of the development industry and its related professions. The 400 corporate members of UDI Pacific represent thousands of individuals involved in all facets of land development and planning, including: developers, property managers, financial lenders, lawyers, engineers, planners, architects, appraisers, real estate professionals, local governments and government agencies.
Smart Growth on the Ground is an innovative program to change the way that development is done in BC, by creating real, built examples of smart growth. This unique program helps BC communities to prepare more sustainable neighbourhood plans – including land use, transportation, urban design, and building design plans. Extensive follow-up ensures that the plans become reality. SGOG is a partnership of the Design Centre for Sustainability at UBC, the Real Estate Institute of BC, and Smart Growth BC. Together, these three organizations work with a select group of communities in BC.
By 2025, Greater Vancouver’s current population of 2 million will increase by 50%, to 3 million. It will double to almost 4 million people by 2050. How will the region accommodate that growth? How will housing, land use, jobs and transport be designed, delivered and distributed? How do we ensure continued livability in the region? The Design Centre for Sustainability is leading a collaborative effort to produce a compelling visual representation of what Greater Vancouver region might look like in 2050, at neighbourhood, district and region-wide scales. We call this project Sustainability by Design (SxD). It is one of UBC's World Urban Forum activities.
