The Way We Green
Earlier today I helped launch the City’s next big planning exercise, namely the new environmental strategic plan dubbed ‘The Way We Green‘. It’s picking up after the 2006 Environmental Strategic Plan, which was good but more internally focused on the city and not very high-profile.
The project is building on the widespread consultations in 2008 that led to the city’s 30 year vision and 10 year overall strategic plan, The Way Ahead. That same consultation work fed into the creation of the first three specific strategic plans: The Way We Move (our transportation plan, approved in the fall of 2009); The Way We Grow (our development plan, which should be finalised next month); and The Way We Live (our ‘people plan’ which will to council next month).
But now it’s time to drill down and focus specifically on the environment – the services we get from it, the impacts we have on it, and the value we place on it.
The City is inviting Edmontonians to learn more and participate by visiting the project website at www.edmonton.ca/thewaywegreen. The city commissioned the Edmonton Sustainability Papers, a provocative set of 21 essays that cover virtually every imaginable topic from the how price signals can shift behaviours affecting our environment to the concept of an ecological footprint. It’s going to take me a while to get through them all but the ones I’ve read are just what we had in mind. There are also videos covering topics from peak oil/peak energy to ecological economics.
There are a few things I’m really proud to see as part of this project that I specifically pushed for:
- understanding that we need to come to a common and meaningful definition of sustainability, and recapture that word (or, alternately finding other language – see the inspiring paper on ‘resiliency‘);
- a big focus on energy, particularly in respect of depleting fossil fuels, transitions and alternatives;
- a honest look at what adapting to climate change may entail, since it’s looking pretty likely
- closely involving the city’s Next Gen Committee and Youth Council in this work;
- using social media to engage the public.
This is critical work. Indeed, I think it’s one of the most significant conversations our community will ever have.