Module 17: Sustainable Communities

MODULE 17: SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

INTRODUCTION

The kind of change required by sustainability implicates each community, each household, each individual. Successful solutions to problems at this level of society will need to be rooted in the cultural specificity of the town or region if the people are to be supportive of and involved in such change.

Source: UNESCO (1997) Educating for a Sustainable Future: A Transdisciplinary Vision for Concerted Action, paragraph 114.

In the end, sustainable development will be made at the local community level. All the other changes in favour of sustainability – by business, by national governments and by international agencies – help create the conditions that facilitate action for sustainable development at the local level by individuals, families, schools, hospitals, workplaces and neighbourhoods.

As a result, all over the world people are working together to build a sustainable future at the local level. The focus of this module is on the actions being taken by citizens, local communities and governments to create towns and communities that are more sustainable. The sustainable communities movement has diversified since Local Agenda 21 initiatives were being promoted after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. These ‘new’ approaches to local community sustainability include Transition Towns, Eco-villages, Neighbourhood Renewal programmes, Low (or Zero) Carbon Towns, One Planet communities, local currency initiatives and many others.

The urban focus of this module complements the focus on rural communities in other modules, e.g. Module 8 on local village health projects and Module 15 on sustainable agriculture.

The module provides examples of ways in which communities around the world are addressing local problems such as poverty and loneliness, unemployment and economic decline, pollution and traffic congestion. This focus on solutions helps establish several principles for sustainable community building that can be integrated into educational programmes.

OBJECTIVES

· To appreciate the scale of urbanisation around the world and the opportunities and problems that this brings;

· To identify characteristics of a sustainable community and principles of sustainable community development;

· To use these characteristics and principles to analyse case studies of sustainable community development around the world; and

· To recognise the different approaches in sustainable community movement and their contribution to sustainable community development and local citizenship.

ACTIVITIES

The urban transformation
What is a sustainable community?
Local solutions to global problems
Approaches to sustainable communities
Reflection

REFERENCES

Barton, H. (2000) Sustainable Communities: The Potential for Eco-neighbourhoods, Earthscan, London.

Condon, P. (2010) Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities: Design Strategies for the Post Carbon World, Island Press.

Desai, P. (2009) One Planet Communities: A Real Life Guide to Sustainable Living, John Wiley & Sons.

Girardet, H. (2006) Creating Sustainable Cities (Schumacher Briefings), Green Books.

Hopkins, R. (2008) The Transition Handbook: from oil dependence to local resilience, Green Books.

McCamant, K. and Durrett, C. (2011) Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island BC.

O’Meara Sheehan, M. (2001) City Limits: Putting the Brakes on Sprawl, Worldwatch Paper No.156, Worldwatch Institute.

Roseland, M. (2005) Toward Sustainable Communities: Resources for Citizens and Their Governments (3rd Edition), New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island BC.

UNCHS State of the World’s Cities Reports (2010/11, 2008/9, 2006/7), UNCHS, Nairobi.

UNEP (2000) Urban environmental management, Industry and Environment, 23(1-2).

UNESCO (2000) Cities of Today: Cities of Tomorrow, United Nations CyberSchoolBus, New York.

United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (2001) Cities in a Globalising World: Global Report on Human Settlements 2001, Earthscan, London.

INTERNET SITES

Green Communities Guide

International Council for Local Environment Initiatives

Sustainable Cities

United Nations International Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat)

United Nations International Conference on Human Settlements (Istanbul+5)

We the Peoples: 50 Communities

Transition Network

Sustainable Communities Network

Sustainable City Visualisation Tool

Global Ecovillage Network

One Planet Communities

CREDITS

This module was written for UNESCO by John Fien and Clayton White, in part, utilises resources of the International Council for Local Environment Initiatives and a teaching module on Sustainable Communities prepared by World Resources Institute.

ACTIVITY 1: THE URBAN TRANSFORMATION

COMMUNITY SURVEY

What is your community like?

Is it located in the middle of a large city, or is in it a remote rural area? What is the quality of environmental health? Is it well serviced with public transport, schools, hospitals and parks? Do people have satisfying and enjoyable work? Is there religious and ethnic harmony? Do people feel that their voice is heard by key decision makers?

Questions such as these are a guide to monitoring how sustainable your community is.

Assess the progress your community is making to a sustainable future.

URBAN GROWTH

While the human population will double over the next 50 years, our consumption of energy and other resources is growing even faster. The amount of land required to produce the food, fuel and fibre to sustain the average person in the North with their present lifestyles – their Ecological Footprint – is nearly three times their share of the productive land available on Earth.

This is especially the case in cities. For example, the ecological footprint of London is 120 times the area of the city itself. This has grave consequences:

Since most of us spend our lives in cities and consume goods imported from all over the world, we tend to experience nature merely as a collection of commodities or a place for recreation, rather than the very source of our lives and well-being.

Source: Wackernagel, M. and Rees, W. (1996) Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, Canada, p. 7.

Cities have grown remarkably in recent years. See for example a table which shows the population of the world’s mega cities, their projected populations, and change in ranking by 2025.

Tracking the social, economic and ecological problems that arise from urban growth, the World Resources Report for 1996-97 stated that:

The world is in the midst of a massive urban transition unlike that of any other time in history. Within the next decade, more than half of the world’s population, an estimated 3.3 billion, will be living in urban areas – a change with vast implications both for human well-being and for the environment As recently as 1975, just over one third of the world’s people lived in urban areas. By 2025, the proportion will have risen to almost two thirds.

The most rapid change is occurring in the developing world, where urban populations are growing at 3.5% per year, as opposed to less than 1% in the more developed regions. Cities are also reaching unprecedented sizes – Tokyo, 27 million; Sao Paulo, Brazil, 16.4 million; Bombay [Mumbai] , India, 15 million – placing enormous strains on the institutional and natural resources that support them.

Historically, cities have been driving forces in economic and social development. Urbanisation is associated with higher incomes, improved health, higher literacy, and improved quality of life. Other benefits of urban life are less tangible but no less real: access to information, diversity, creativity, and innovation.

Yet along with the benefits of urbanisation come environmental and social ills, some of staggering proportions. These include a diversity of problems, from lack of access to clean drinking water, to urban air pollution, to greenhouse gas emissions. Although urban environmental problems defy easy categorization, they can be grouped into two broad classes: those associated with poverty and those associated with economic growth or affluence. The two often coexist within the same city.

Source: World Resources Report, 1996-97: The Urban Environment.

Read a summary of the State of the World’s Cities 2001 which provides an overview of urban growth in Africa, the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the world’s industrialised countries.

Read a national report on cities in your country provided to a Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly in June 2001.

Investigate the problems in several of the world’s largest cities:

· Abidjan – Cote d’Ivoire

· Jakarta – Indonesia

· Detroit – USA

· Bangkok – Thailand

· Mexico City – Mexico

Compare the impacts of urban growth in cities in the South and the North.

ACTIVITY 2: WHAT IS A SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY?

Begin by opening your learning journal for this activity.

A sustainable community is far-seeing enough, flexible enough, and wise enough to maintain its natural, economic, social, and political support systems.

This is how the city of Olympia in the USA defines a sustainable community. The people of neighbouring Thurston County define it this way:

A sustainable community continues to thrive from generation to generation because it has:

· A healthy and diverse ecological system that continually performs life sustaining functions and provides other resources for humans and other species

· A social foundation that provides for the health of all community members, respects cultural diversity, is equitable in its actions, and considers the needs of future generations

· A healthy and diverse economy that adapts to change, provides long-term security to residents, and recognizes social and ecological limits.

Source: Sustainable Community Roundtable.

STATE OF THE COMMUNITY REPORTING

Olympia and Thurston County are members of the Sustainable Community Roundtable in South Puget Sound in Washington, USA. Each year, the Roundtable produces a State of the Community report based on thirteen indicators of a sustainable community.

Natural Environment

In a sustainable community, people acknowledge the interconnectedness of all life, put the needs of the ecosystems and the human spirit above special interests, and accept responsibility for creating a healthy, sustainable environment.

Population

In a sustainable community, the population is stable and within the ‘carrying capacity’ of the land, water, and air.

Water Consumption

In a sustainable community people use water no faster than it can be naturally replenished. This means that consumption can be no greater than the maximum sustainable yield of the water supply.

Food Production

In a sustainable community, farmland is preserved for local food production, farmers and workers earn a living wage, non-toxic and humane practices are utilized, and soil and water are protected for future generations.

Use of Raw Materials

In a sustainable community, people use materials efficiently, producing little or no waste that cannot be reused, reprocessed, or reabsorbed by the Earth.

Transportation

In a sustainable community, most daily needs can be met by foot, bicycle or public transportation. Public and private vehicles are powered by clean, renewable fuels.

Housing

In a sustainable community, structures are designed and built in ways that meet human needs and support social and environmental health. Housing is safe, affordable, energy and resource efficient, and available to all.

Economy

In a sustainable community, a diverse local economy supports the basic needs of everyone through satisfying, productive work, while making efficient use of materials and energy.

Social Equity and Justice

In a sustainable community, human culture holds a high standard of equity and justice in the relationships among people and in their relationship with the natural world. People honor and uphold the well-being of the whole community.

Governance and Participation

In a sustainable community, everyone is involved in community affairs and there is a high level of co-operation, collaboration, and consensus at all levels of governance: neighborhood, city and region.

Education

In a sustainable community, everyone is engaged in lifelong learning – developing the self-esteem, knowledge, skills, and wisdom to live in ways that support personal, social, and environmental health.

Health

In a sustainable community, people take responsibility for their individual well being and co-operate to nurture social and environmental health.

Spirituality

In a sustainable community, people appreciate their unique potential for growth, invention becomes a daily event and random acts of kindness become the norm. It means showing by your actions what your true beliefs and values are. A safe, caring community comes about with work, interaction, communication, and planning.

Read the 2006 State of the Community report for South Puget Sound.

The 2006 Report is the most recent in a series of updates of a original survey (baseline) published in 1995.

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY INDICATORS

State of the Community reports such as these are based upon indicators of sustainability.

Indicators are criteria that can be monitored regularly in order to identify trends in a community. Monitoring progress on different indicators can help a community prioritise their needs and define objectives for community planning and action.

Indicators are of value to all the stakeholders in a community, including:

· Residents

· Business, industry and trade unions

· Community organisations

· National and provincial governments

· Mayors, councillors and city planners

The 1996 United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) identified seven categories of indicators for community sustainability:

· Background data

· Environmental management

· Socioeconomic development

· Local government

· Infrastructure

· Housing

· Transport

These indicators are currently being used in many cities around the world to prepare reports on local community sustainability.

Review other indicators of local sustainability.

Prepare a State of the Community report for your community using the thirteen indicators used by the South Puget Sound Roundtable.

Q1: What six aspects of a sustainable community are most important to you? Why?

Q2: How did you rate your community on these six aspects? Explain your rating by identifying the relative strengths and limitations of your community on each of these factors.

Q3: Identify the policies and actions being undertaken by your local government to address these six aspects.

Note: A search of your local council’s Internet site will be useful for answering Question 3. If it does not have an Internet site, print the page of your learning journal and use it as a guide in library research.

ACTIVITY 3: LOCAL SOLUTIONS TO GLOBAL PROBLEMS

Begin by opening your learning journal for this activity.

Four communities that are making plans and moving towards local sustainability are explored in this activity. The four case studies are located in North, Central and South America and were prepared by the Environmental Education Project of the World Resources Institute.