Green Design and Smart Growth Strategies Lead to Sustainability

Green Design and Smart Growth Strategies Lead to Sustainability

B.C. communities are constantly faced with issues concerning population growth, ever-increasing development, environmental impacts, water supply problems, and wastewater treatment and disposal concerns to name just a few. Current construction and development practices do not produce sustainable communities and inflict great harm on the environment. Clearly, if sustainability is our ultimate goal, we must alter our present development paradigm. Is it possible to produce a sustainable community and simultaneously satisfy the needs and desires of its residents? Many communities are finding that it is possible, indeed, even desirable to do so.

Smart growth strategies involve development methods and land-use practices that protect the environment, improve a community’s livability, increase property values, and decrease construction and operating costs. Green designs use techniques that offer low impact approaches that lessen environmental stresses. These environmentally friendly designs and practices are gaining increasing popularity in B.C. A recent survey determined that 12 percent of B.C. communities that responded incorporated green design and smart growth strategies into their development plans. An additional 19 percent are considering their use.

A central component of a green design project is the implementation of a stormwater management plan that attempts to mimic natural hydrological processes. Rather than using traditional storm sewers that remove stormwater from an area, systems are designed to allow water to be retained on site where it can infiltrate naturally into the ground, thereby recharging aquifers and keeping contaminated water from flowing into streams. Many systems can be built to accomplish this including bioretention cells, open swales, green roofs, and permeable pavements. Simon Fraser University’s “UniverCity” development is an example of green designs and smart growth strategies that can be used to create an attractive, functional, and sustainable community.

In addition to larger scale developments, green designs can be used in individual buildings as well. The Vancouver Island Technology Park built near Victoria is one example. As a result of the utilization of green design techniques, the building’s tenants use significantly less water and energy. As Joe Van Belleghem, the park’s development manager, noted, “We worked hard to demonstrate that being a green building makes economic sense. The original budget did not contemplate a green building. This project was built on budget, on-time and uses about $55,000 less energy and water.” This demonstrates that these developments can be environmentally friendly, as well as less costly to build and operate.Many projects have proven that communities and developments designed and built utilizing smart growth strategies and green designs lessen environmental impacts, and are also desirable places to live and work. “Communities can be designed that reduce infrastructure costs per dwelling unit by at least 40 percent, reduce the amount of time we spend in the car by up to 50 percent, and reduce the impact of urban development on streams by over 90 percent when compared to conventional practices,” says Patrick Condon, Professor of Landscape Architecture, UBC. Our goal should be to produce sustainable communities, therefore green designs and smart growth strategies must be considered for all B.C. communities.