Sustainable Communities

Sustainable Communities as a concept is becoming a global phenomenon.  The task at hand is to keep Sustainable Communities focused and flexible, not to jargonise and confuse, and to recognise that it will be expressed in very many ways within different environments and communities.  It is described in this document as an outline framework within which the proposed Learning Facilitators should operate and be guided. 

We can trace the inception of sustainable communities from a number of sources over many years, but it might be appropriate to go back only a few years to see how it appeared on the world stage.

The term "sustainability" was offered in 1987 by the United Nation's World Commission on Environment and Development in its report ‘Our Common Future’. According to that document, "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

And then later on..

"Agenda 21, as adopted by the Plenary in Rio de Janeiro, 1992 is a blueprint on how to make development socially, economically and environmentally sustainable in the 21st century. Governments, non-governmental organisations, industry and the general public are all encouraged to become involved in tackling today’s social and environmental problems, including air pollution, deforestation, biodiversity loss, health, overpopulation, poverty, energy consumption, waste production and transport issues.”

And in the UK it was the result of a number of Government reports culminating with the Egan Review.

Sustainable Communities meet the diverse needs of existing and future residents, their children and other users, contribute to a high quality of life and provide opportunity and choice.  They achieve this in ways that make effective use of natural resources, enhance the environment, promote social cohesion and inclusion and strengthen economic prosperity.”        The Egan Review – 2004

The Centre for Sustainable Community Development in Canada has recently produced a book entitled:

Toward Sustainable Communities
Resources for Citizens and Their Governments

By Mark Roseland
Local governments increasingly are caught between rising expectations that development initiatives be sustainable and the fact that more and more services are being downloaded to the municipal level. The third edition of this classic text offers practical suggestions and innovative solutions to a range of community problems – including energy efficiency, transportation, land use, housing, waste reduction, recycling, air quality, and governance. In clear language, with updated tools, initiatives and resources, a new preface and foreword, this sustainable practices resource is for both citizens and governments.

This book is one of the most recent publications discussing sustainable communities and in this short paper we have used some of the terms and descriptions from Towards Sustainable Communities.

In the UK the most recent definition from the Government Ministry responsible for this type of development states:

"Sustainable communities are places where people want to live and work, now and in the future."  ODPM - 2006

The sustainable communities’ conceptual framework is supported by sets of practical actions that enhance peoples’ worth, skills, experience and values through doing things together for both tangible and non tangible individual and community benefits.  The practical actions are valued in terms of their zero waste emissions and their ability to preserve the natural and human environment.

Sustainable communities do not describe a single type of region, city, town or neighbourhood, but any combination of activities that can be sustained and which residents, and other stakeholders, want.  Like any community, a sustainable community will be different in relation to its social, economic and natural environments and will be continually adjusting to meet new needs and challenges.

The focus of sustainable communities is quality of life through the recognition and application of social, economic and natural elements being interdependent.  It is a place in which all people can engage in their community and have a say over how it is run and organised: where there is a strong civic life and citizens can draw individual strength from each other and the community as a whole.

The pattern of development will now have to move from the traditional one dimensional focus on economic growth to a broader multidimensional concept of sustainable growth. This is about joining up the building of new houses with integrated energy conservation and production; planning schools, shops, workspaces and recreational spaces that can be walked and cycled between; recycling and using waste for the building blocks for the new production;  devolving decision making to those who will be affected by the decision; trading locally and building local economies; creating sustainable employment around resource management and maintenance; and interact with the wider world through effective transport and communication systems.  Learning for sustainable communities will reflect this.  The six components that comprise the global view to what constitutes Sustainable Communities are described in terms of CAPITAL and below them the Egan components are listed to provide more practical focus. 

 

Level 1. Global
Natural Capital   Evolution and the future of the planet.	Physical Capital   Infrastructure, built to last.	Economic Capital   Having ownership and equity.	Human Capital   Being able, involved, safe and confident.	Social Capital   Democracy and political involvement.	Cultural Capital   Philosophy, mythology and theology.
Level 2. Country: this example is England
Environmentally sensitive.  Use, re-use and recycling of natural resources.   .	Well designed and built housing and other facilities.  Transport, connectivity and communication.	Thriving local economy and sensitive import/export fair trade.	Family, learning and skills.  Well served with facilities and able to build capacity.	Governance, well run, equity and social values.  Fair for everyone.	Active, inclusive and safe.  Art, leisure, design and architecture.
Level 3. Town/County/District
Sustainable management of the natural environment and the reservation of non-renewable resources, such as minerals and fossil fuels.	The stock of material resources available for use by a community, and the integrated and sustainable planning of their construction, maintenance and final recycling.	A broader base of decision making about the allocation an use of resources; and a new definition of the value system, taking into account the other sustainable community components.	The knowledge, skills and competencies embodied in individuals that facilitate the creation of well being.	The relationships, partnerships and networks that facilitate collective action.  The communication that holds communities together.	The result of experiences that produce tradition, custom, values, heritage, history and legacy.
Level 4. Neighbourhood/Village/Hamlet/Street
To be filled in by local groups.	To be filled in by local groups.	To be filled in by local groups.	To be filled in by local groups.	To be filled in by local groups.	To be filled in by local groups.

Below we have combined a number of other definitions from various sources and put together a list of what might constitute a sustainable community and how such a notion can be measured.  This is all very tentative and we are trying to contribute to a wider debate on the understanding of sustainable communities.  If anyone has particular comments/suggestions to make about this description please let us know by emailing us at info@locallivelihoods.com.

 

Natural Capital

Sustainable management of the natural environment and the preservation of non-renewable resources, such as minerals and fossil fuels.

Environmental

Providing places for people to live in an environmentally friendly way

• Use of land

• Cultivation

• Recycling

• Renewal energy supply

• Zero waste

Checklist of good practice:

 

• Contain or reduce our water or land pollution to levels which do not damage the natural systems.

• Take into account the possible impacts of climate change.

• Manage demand for energy and water and contribute to their efficient use. 

• Create opportunities for use of renewable energy.

• Minimise the need for raw materials and minerals.

• Conserve land and soil resources.

• Protect and enhance the unique biodiversity of the South West’s lands or marine environments, for example by planting native species and providing other habitats for wildlife.

• Minimise the use of chemicals which are harmful to living things in the environment.

• Conserve or enhance the region’s characteristic landscapes and features.

• Minimise the region’s production of waste, reuse or recycle waste materials and use recycled products.

• Help to minimise the regions production of waste.

• Reuse or recycle waste materials.

• Involve the use of recycled products.

 

 

Physical Capital

The stock of material resources available for use by a community, and the integrated and sustainable planning of their construction, maintenance and final recycling.

 

Housing and the Built Environment

A quality built environment.

 

Transport and Connectivity

Good transport services and communication linking people to jobs, school, health and other services

 

Infrastructure  ...refers to the physical and tangible structures of providing the basis for shelter, economic transactions, movement of goods and people, clean and safe buildings and transport systems, natural environment and forms of accessible world wide communication.

• Housing

• Planning

• Transport

• Renewal Energy

• Recycling

• Work environments

• ITC

Checklist of good practice:

 

Economic Capital

A broader base of decision making about the allocation and use of resources; and a new definition of the value system, taking into account the other sustainable community components.

 

Economy

A flourishing and diverse local economy

 

Common Ownership   …refers to resources being owned by the community and its residents in a collective way, the great use of shared resources and the minimisation of waste associated with the manufacture, transportation and selling of goods to individuals.

• Community Enterprise

• Local trading

• Common pool funding

• Joint bidding

• Raising funds

• Sharing physical resources and facilities

• Entrepreneurship

Checklist of good practice:

 

• Incorporate environmental management to increase business competitiveness and look at business opportunities in environmental services and goods. 

• Work should be well paid and satisfying. 

• Emphasis should be placed on using local goods and services wherever possible, and therefore continuous quality improvements should be incorporated into all learning.

• Provide employment and training opportunities that support the needs of the regions local workforce.

• Provide any business opportunities which support environmental goods and services.

• Provide satisfying and fairly paid work.

• Offer new opportunities for voluntary and unpaid work.

• Help to provide all year round employment rather than just seasonal.

• Use local goods and services wherever possible.

 

 

Human Capital

The knowledge, skills and competencies embodied in individuals that facilitate the creation of well being.

 

Skills, services and capacity

A full range of appropriate, accessible, public, private, community and voluntary services supported by skills and capacity.

• Learning

• Skills development

• Joint working

• People knowing each other

• Peer activities

• Open information sharing

• Mutual aid

• Organisational systems

Regeneration programme and project management …refers to having in place standard, professional, stable and participative methods managed by community residents for carrying out and managing regeneration and community changes.

• Programme and Project Cycle Management

• Strategic Planning

• Project Design

• Problem and Objective Analysis

• Community and Stakeholder Engagement

• Monitoring, Evaluating and Mainstreaming

• Financial Management

Checklist of good practice:

 

• Continuously offering new training and learning opportunities for all people, both for work and non-work subjects.

• Safeguard and take opportunities to promote people’s physical and mental well-being. 

• Support preventative health strategies by encouraging healthy physical exercise and diets and deterring unhealthy activities and diets.

• Offer new opportunities for learning or training.

• Increase awareness and understanding of sustainable development in the region.

 

 

Social Capital

The relationships, partnerships, and networks that facilitate collective action.  The communication that holds communities together.

 

Governance

Effective and inclusive participation, representation and leadership

 

Communication …refers to open, stable and accessible systems of recording information, sharing the information and being able to question the information.

• Negotiating

• Partnerships

• Networking

• Promotion lobbying

• Working together and Conflict resolution

Social Wealth ...refers to the benefit gained through groups of people being able to network, share information, organise themselves for specific tasks and experience the thrill of doing things together than cannot be done by a single person.

 

Civil society and good governance …refers to all people within a community experiencing a sense of being part of and benefiting from an open society in which they can express their feeling and have their feeling taken note of.

• Democracy in the society

• Decision making

• Good Governance

• Strategic Planning

• Being a member of a governance body

Checklist of good practice:

 

• Help to meet people’s basic needs for healthy food, clean water, affordable housing and efficient energy.

• Make sure that all services and facilities are equally accessible by all sectors of the community, including those with disabilities.

• Maximise opportunities for access to services by residents and visitors by encouraging public transport use, cycling, walking, etc.

• Enable all people in the region to live without fear of crime or persecution.

• Allow everyone to become informed and involved in decision-making.

• Take into account local views in local regional decision-making.

• Allow everyone to become informed and involved in decision-making.

• Above all, will your community strategy…take long-term perspective, taking into account the needs of future generations as well as our own.

 

 

Cultural Capital

The result of shared experiences that produce tradition, custom, values, heritage, history and legacy.  This is about learning and being proud of one’s locality and the history to which a person belongs.

 

Social and Cultural

• Vibrant, harmonious and inclusive communities

• Leisure

• Sport

• Theatre

• Fairs – village fetes, agricultural shows

• History events

Sharing experiences …refers to mutual respect and interest in different cultural and historical experiences and recognising that interdependence is the new cultural life style.

 

Checklist of good practice:

• Enhance local diversity and distinctiveness by respecting local character and using local skills, materials, products and creativity.

• Promote opportunities for recreation, art, culture and heritage in those parts of the region that are underprovided.

 

Sources:

 

Towards Sustainable Communities

the Centre for Sustainable Development, Canada.

 

ODPM Sustainable Communities

web page : http://www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1139865

 

Sustainability South West

Community Strategies and Sustainability.

 

Local Livelihoods

info@locallivelihoods.com