Through past generations we have seen exemplifications of considerable innovation among city and municipal authorities in Canada regarding sustainable development. Due to Canada’s population density and the number of cities apart of it- I chose to study the sustainability of the city closest to my heart, my home, the City of Pickering. Sustainable development “is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”(Brundtland, 1987) The city of pickering is in the midst of a transformation from a suburban community to a sustainable city. “By 2031, the Region of Durham is expected to grow by 430,00 people and 160,000 jobs.” (Bodgan, 2007) It is estimated that Pickering …show more content…
will become home to nearly 170,000 residents, almost double what it is today. The province of Ontario has also designated the anticipated creation of Downtown Pickering as one of only two urban growth centres in Durham Region.”(The City’s “Sustainable Pickering, 2017) “With knowledge of long term projected growth that comes form economic prosperity and the responsibility to plan for growth so that it occurs in a manner that balances economy, environment, and social considerations.”(Bodgan, 2007) City council is the established governing body of the City of Pickering, they have implemented numerous sustainability programs that has continued to grow and evolve, but has remained grounded in 5 broad sustainability objectives such as Healthy Environment, Healthy Society, Responsible Development, and Responsible Consumption. In respect to the three pillars of sustainability (environmental, economic, and social), the city of Pickering has the potential to become on of the most sustainable cities in Canada through their commitment to sustainability and their state-of-the-art infrastructure, diverse economy and future growth plans, and their social equity and participation make it one of the best places to work, live, and frolic. When first analyzing the three pillars of society, environmental sustainability is recognized to be the main concern of sustainable development. “Environmental sustainability is the responsible interaction with the environment to avoid depletion or degradation of natural resources and allow for long-term environmental quality.” (Thorn, 2017) The City has emphasized how determined they are to making Pickering one of the most sustainable cities in Canada. The city’s award winning sustainability program called the Measuring Sustainability Report established a baseline for key indicators of sustainability in Pickering. This report has and will continue to expand, but has remained grounded in the 5 broad sustainability objectives previously mentioned. Three levels of contributors have each year generously donated money and their support to help make Pickering a healthy, prosperous, and welcoming place for the future. For example, level 1-$2,500 or more from Veridian, level 2-$1,000 from Meridian, and level 3- $500 from Canadian Tire. The city constantly has plans to improve their air quality by developing a Community Energy Plan in collaboration with Region of Durham, utilities, and all eight municipalities within the region, greening the city’s public spaces, waste by installing battery collection bins and recycling programs, etc. Going forward investigating the three pillars of sustainability, the second pillar that must be considered is economic growth. “Economic Sustainability is economic growth that does not reduce social and environmental sustainability and does not reduce the potential economic growth for future generations.”(Thorn, 2017) Due to the programs that have been established Pickering is becoming one of the premier municipalities in the GTA. As early as 2006, there have been proposed documents from the Council of Pickering planning to improve and expand Downtown Pickering. The Downtown Pickering Vision and Redevelopment Framework provides intensification, investment, and growth management to 2032 through the generations to come. Today, Downtown Pickering is the civic heart of the City, containing many services (Pickering GO Station) and hosting major events (Ribfest), as well as local and regional transportation. In the future, “Downtown Pickering will be a vibrant, sustainable, accessible and distinct city centre for all people and all seasons. It will be a place to inspire, a place to gather, a place to work, and a place to live, all in compact and walkable environment.” Developing a walkable environment in the urbanized community decreases the reliance on automobiles which proves the City’s broader commitment to sustainability.(Urban Strategies Inc, 2013) As previously mentioned, the City of Pickering is ran by city council. Each year city council approves an annual budget for all of the City’s operational areas and is also responsible for spending and the management of city services. “In 2017, the current budget of Pickering is $3,998,400.”(City of Pickering Current Budget, 2017) This budget will be contributed in all the future plans to make Pickering sustainable. The final pillar of sustainability that must be analyzed is social sustainability.
“Social sustainability is the degree to which social (between individuals) relationships in a community contribute to the long term health of that community.”(Thorn, 2017) Social sustainability does not rely on conventional planning, it capitalizes on existing factors and assets of the present and for future generations. Social sustainability is composed of two key aspects, social equity and participation. When it comes to social equity, the focus is on fairness in accessibility in resources. For example, disability doorway and durham region transit services. Participation is associated with who has a say in decision-making in the city. In the city of Pickering, although the Mayor and city council maintain the highest authority, collaboration is encouraged at all levels. Partners may include members of local organizations or community groups, those working in community institutions, builders, developers, landowners, and business owners and almost always the demands of residence. Community engagement plays a significant role in the journey to achieving Sustainable Pickering, various activities and events have been held including: Sustainable Pickering Day held at the Pickering Town Centre, at which the mall launched its award winning “Be Seen-Be Green” campaign, launch by Durham Sustain Ability of “We Have The Power”, an energy conservation program for households in Pickering and most recently for businesses in Pickering and Ajax. In addition, their is also a number of ways the city advertises to take action and participate within the community. For instance, the Adopt A Park program encourages families, businesses, or schools to own a park and focus on keeping it clean. Essentially, the City provides citizens many opportunities to be apart of the City’s prosperity and encourages them to get involved. This ultimately results in a sustainable community both environmentally and
socially. In conclusion, in regards to the three pillars of sustainability, Pickering is plausible to achieve the goal of becoming on go the most sustainably consistent cities in Canada through their determination to maintain sustainability and their unique framework, varying economy and future expansion, and their social equality and participation make it one of the finest communities to work, reside, and spree. First, Pickering is environmentally sustainable through the programs implemented to ensure the quality of the environment remains safe. The five broad sustainability objectives such as Healthy Environment, Healthy Society, Responsible Development, and Responsible Consumption from the award wining sustainability program called the Measuring Sustainability Report. Second, the City of Pickering is economically sustainable through the developing framework of Downtown Pickering while still staying true to environmental sustainability. This redevelopment will be taken into action within planning policies at the regional, provincial, and city level. Finally, Pickering is socially sustainable through financing on existing factors and planning for future generations. Pickering provides a fair accessibility to resources and encourages participation through volunteer work, attending community events, and collaboration. Although Pickering is not where it thrives to be right now, the city’s dedication and determination will in fact, make it the place where citizens will be proud to call home.
Finally in 1991, the federal government initiated a ‘Better Cities Program’ which aimed to make Australian cities sustainable and more liveable. It encoura...
The following case study critiques Upton’s vision to establish a sustainable community through implementing comprehensive sustainable strategy. The urban periphery development is thought to demonstrate superior execution of sustainable principles in development (Jackson 2007). As a parallel, the report focuses on the development of Upton’s design code and demonstrates how large -scale mix-use developments can incorporate sustainable practice and principles of urban growth.
Canada; known for peacekeeping, multiculturalism and having one the largest ecological footprints in the world. What is an ecological footprint? The ecological footprint is a measurement of the amount of greenhouse gases produced by the activities in a person's daily life. One main source of greenhouse gas is burning fossil fuels. That includes the gas in a person's car and the coal burned at the power plant. Scientists have concluded that humans are producing more greenhouse gases than ever before. These gases trap heat in our atmosphere, causing our planet to warm up and changing our climate. The ecological footprint, therefore, measures the amount of potential impact a person's daily life has on the environment. By reducing the amount of greenhouse gases produced by people's lifestyle, they can reduce the footprint and help slow climate change on Earth. Canadian's are starting to get accustomed to using a surplus amount of energy when it is never needed and throwing garbage on the ground because the trash can is too far away for them reach. Canadian's are also using up the little natural resources left on this planet for sustainability. Crops, oil, trees are being used so much, that there might not be enough for the future generations. Canada must realize that this is a situation that must be taken seriously and that must be executed properly by meeting the social, environmental and economical standpoints. To reduce the ecological footprint and to regain sustainability, there are many things Canadian's can do to change the current situation. Ecological footprints can be reduced by using alternative energy sources, reducing energy consumption and by using cleaner transport to reach destinations.
We firmly believe that our local efforts to promote the Live Green campaign will be extremely successful, as it will reach a wide audience who already believes in a cause that we are endorsing. The use of Live Green Park will significantly benefit the local community because of the many amenities the park offers and the fact that it is versatile in its use, from soccer games and concerts to city-sponsored events. Most importantly, we believe that through our actions, Life Time Fitness is setting a precedent; this will force other the industry to become more interactive within their communities and promote environmental conservatism.
Issue: Implications for sustainability, social justice and equality associated with the urban consolidation in Pyrmont (i.e. How economically and environmentally sustainable are the impacts of the issue and who are the winners and losers)
Along with a thorough enough discussion of anything comes the inevitable unearthing of its strengths and weaknesses. The Portland Plan has a number of strengths: it is comprehensive, well thought out, inclusive, and should ultimately lead to a well-planned and sustainable city. How in-depth the Portland Plan is, is a testament to its preparedness to face any challenges to lead the Portland of today into becoming the Portland of tomorrow, as any potential question that may arise is likely addressed within the text of the plan. The mercurial nature of the plan is to its advantage, as anything not addressed within the text of the plan does not render the plan obsolete, but rather may be simply found by finding the popular opinion of the citizens of Portland, as the plan is simply an extension of the will of the people of Portland, and inasmuch the plan ever-changing just as their needs and goals are changing. Furthermore, this plan will have succeeded where others have failed in that measures of success within the Portland Plan are on the whole quantifiable, and so citizens and civil servants alike may actively track the cities progress in accordance with the plan. Finally, the biggest strength within this plan lies within its most unique aspect: its underlying theme of citizen participation. It is therein that the effectiveness lies, as it becomes a plan not simply forcing the people to be sustainable, as so many have attempted to do in the past, but rather a plan which gives the people of Portland a support structure by which to educate the people of Portland on these issues, and provides them an outlet encouraging the development of long term sustainable behaviors and lifestyles. These strengths will allow the Portland, Ore...
In Canada there are numerous environmental problems the country faces, from climate change to urban sustainability. These environmental problems result in political action being taken in order to
It needs to improve its areas of “walkability” and encourage health and environmental factors by adding bike lanes to the heavily biked Church Street. Its roads are not overburdened and its public transit systems are frequent, and highly accessible. One factor to be drawn from this conclusion is that Church and Wellesley’s overall transportation success is not indicative of the GTA as a whole. In fact, its success is the result of government policies that have abetted a focus on highly trafficked, highly populated, highly profitable areas such as the Downtown Core (Keil, Roger, Young, 2008). In the article, Urban Form and Travel Behavior as Tools to Assess Sustainable Transportation in the Greater Toronto Area, the authors conclude that the GTA is headed in a negative direction, and that the goal of sustainable transportation will not be met or improved in the future under the current policies and trends. Overall, the symptoms of Church and Wellesley, although beneficial to the BIA locals, could be seen as a symptom of an greater problem with the city’s transit system that needs to be addressed through political, bureaucratic, and organizational reform ((Zaidan, Esmat, Abdelgadir, Abulibdeh,
Sometimes, progress is not always obvious, even when a society is meeting its needs. Noosa, Australia, for example, has established a population cap of 60,000 residents to maintain its biodiversity and village-like atmosphere. While some believe this cap limits the city’s growth, Noosa is progressive because it has accomplished its residents’ desires of conserving the unique biodiversity. Noosa’s population cap also ensures that the city will not become overcrowded; by meeting both present and future needs, the city creates a manageable future for its citizens.
What makes this individual or organization politically significant? - refer to the criteria for significance on page 8 of the textbook.
The Plan takes form in needing strong government and community leadership; additionally, it focuses on the continuous civic participation and ongoing progress assessment of the plan. The responsibility for the implementation would be up to The Bureau of Planning & Sustainability. The Bureau would take the responsibility of developing community partnerships and opportunities for implementing community goals and will convene quarterly to discuss their progress, identify funding opportunities, address any challenges, and to outline objectives for the coming
Determining the location, and the value of the mineral deposits, is done via the on-site investigation (surveys, field studies, and boreholes) of local geology [2].
Turner, C. (2012). The Leap: How to Survive and Thrive in the Sustainable Economy. Toronto: Vintage Canada.
Frequently however, issues arise amongst a community that need attention. In this essay I will outline and discuss some of these issues and the interventions, projects or programmes designed and used to tackle and combat them. The three models of intervention or, ‘Community Development’, I will discuss in this essay, "Social Planning", "Community Development", and "Social/Community Action", all have the same aim regardless of how it is accomplished and this is to improve and maintain the conditions which affect the lives of the community.
As previously implied, cities are currently the antithesis of even the barest sense of sustainability. To succinctly define the term “sustainability” would be to say that it represents living within one’s needs. When it comes to the city, with almost zero local sources of food or goods, one’s means is pushed and twisted to include resources originating far beyond the boundaries of the urban landscape. Those within cities paradoxically have both minimal and vast options when it comes to continuing their existence, yet this blurred reality is entirely reliant on the resources that a city can pull in with its constantly active economy.