A joint project between the Royal Roads University Canada Research Chair on Sustainable Community Development (CRC) and Sustainable Solutions Group (SSG), this policy agenda for the implementation of sustainable development at the municipal level is the latest outcome from the CRC’s research continuum.This municipal action agenda is derived from a sustainable cities strategic review, including case studies of international best practices, with an analysis of these cases towards their potential applicability and adaptation to Canadian contexts. Six cities were reviewed in the case studies: Copenhagen, Sydney, Portland, Växjö, Malmö and London. Research and analysis for the international case studies included extensive interviews with key officials from each of these cities. This project brought together an advisory group of municipal decision-makers, practitioners, planners and researchers from 20 Canadian municipalities and organizations. Through a series of e-Dialogues (...
SSG is a co-operative and we are curious as to the potential of the co-operative model to address critical societal issues. The international worker co-operative association, CICOPA released the results of a survey of workers cooperatives:
"Overall, we observe a better situation in term of economic performance, employment and enterprise survival rate for worker and social cooperatives compared to conventional enterprises as well as stronger signs of recovery mostly in countries with a stronger cooperative implantation and experience (Italy, France, Spain), whereas members from Central and Eastern European countries report that cooperatives face a similar situation to conventional enterprises."
The UK Government has published a fascinating piece that breaks down the population by transportation behaviour. This segmentation of the population enables the development of targeted strategies to reduce car use. This research draws on a the new National Travel Survey 2010 which itself had interesting findings:
From our data set:
The architecture firm Perkins and Will has developed a precautionary list of materials and chemicals to avoid in building projects. The list includes alternative products and is available here.
Yale University and George Mason University have indicated that there is much common ground across the political and belief spectrum on climate change. Check out their 2010 Six Americas report and also the presentation Climate Change in the Public Mind.
Google has developed a tool that allows for the comparison of public data in real time. Here is a chart that illustrates per capita Canadian GHG emissions relative to a few other select countries.
Over 60 cities and states from around the world at the have Climate Leaders Summit pledged to lower their carbon emissions no matter what the outcome of the Cancun summit is. Bolivia has emerged as the voice of the poor in the talks. President Evo Morales's passionate speech talked about families already being deprived of water because of warming and drought, and islanders facing the loss of homes from seas rising from global warming. He said that if governments move away from strong, mandatory emissions reductions, "then we will be responsible for 'ecocide,' which is equivalent to genocide because this would be an affront to mankind as a whole," he said. The Canadian Government has played an...
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) launched a CDP Cities program, which will provide a system for cities worldwide to report on their greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related strategies. CDP Cities, in partnership with the C40 and the Clinton Climate initiative (CCI)*, has asked the largest cities in the world committed to tackling climate change – the 40 member cities and 19 affiliate member cities of the C40 – to voluntarily measure and report to CDP so the cities can proactively manage risks, reduce carbon and further adopt strategies that safeguard the future of cities. London, Toronto and New York have already agreed to report their carbon emissions data to CDP.
The Mexico City Pact calls for cities to develop and implement climate action plans that promote local laws and initiatives to reduce GHG reductions. To establish and follow up on cities' commitments, the signers will establish their climate actions in the Carbon Cities Climate Registry (CCCR) at the Bonn Centre for Local Climate Action and Reporting (carbonn).
“We have built our country as we have built it,” writes Owen, “and we’re obviously not going to tear it down and start over.” True enough. What we can do, though, is expand the notion of what it means to be an environmentalist. Tree huggers, organic farmers, and green builders will always play necessary roles in raising environmental awareness. But if Owen is right—if our only real hope is to live smaller, live closer, and drive less—future environmentalists will include inner city pioneers who make the urban core a more desirable place to live. Police officers, school teachers, pastry shop owners, landscape architects, urban planners, coffee freaks and policy geeks—these people will be the real heroes of twenty-first century environmentalism. Read the rest of the article here.
Canada’s Coolest Cities examines what Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver are doing to encourage low-carbon transportation choices, such as walking, cycling, taking public transit and travelling shorter distances. The report indicates that all of the cities are tracking GHG emissions and setting targets. However, between 2001 and 2006, population grew much faster in the larger metropolitan area than in any of the core cities. People are moving to the suburbs. The data showed that these metropolitan areas also had lower fractions of commuters using transit, biking or walking than the core cities.
Neptis Foundation published a report called Growing Cities that compares three Canadian metropolitan areas: Calgary, Toronto, and Vancouver. The project is an innovative collaboration between the fields of remote sensing (the use of satellite imagery), spatial analysis and statistics, and policy analysis. The approach represents a new way to evaluate the results of planning policies and governance structures across different jurisdictions. The study found that there is a high degree of correspondence between long-term planning goals and urban development patterns in each metropolitan area.