SCHEDULED WEB EVENTS

Four-day web-based course with leading practitioner and author Gwen Hallsmith

DATE: MARCH 14, 21 AND 28, APRIL 4 (ALL WEDNESDAYS)

TIME: 3:30pm - 4:45pm EST

TO REGISTER PLEASE EMAIL SBLOEDORN(AT)ICSC.CA

Learn how you can build more sustainable systems and practices in your community. We’ll use the LASER Guide (Local Action for Sustainable Economic Renewal) to chart a course for your community that you’ll be able to put into action at the end of the course.

The LASER Guide is co-authored by Hunter Lovins and Christopher Juniper of Natural Capitalism, Bernard Lietaer from the Access Foundation, Gwendolyn Hallsmith of Global Community Initiatives, Wayne Fawbush, who now works for the Ford Foundation, and Michael Miller of America’s Development Foundation. It’s a step by step workbook with a web based set of management support tools with best practices from around the world, and resources that give you practical stories and advice from people who have successfully used the strategies.

SUSTAINABLE CITIES NETWORK MEMBERS: $150 CAD

NON MEMBERS: $250 CAD

"Local Economic Development"

DATE: THURSDAY DECEMBER 8, 2011

TIME: 8:00 - 9:00AM PST; 9:00 - 10:00AM PST; 11:00 - 12:00PM EST

TO REGISTER PLEASE EMAIL SBLOEDORN (AT) ICSC.CA

Local economic development can be a key tool for municipalities in strengthening their economies and achieving their sustainability goals. On December 8th, Sustainable Cities is pleased to host Gwendolyn Hallsmith and David Clutton, presenting on their experiences with local economic development. Pat Gordon, the Director of the Sustainable Cities Network, will facilitate discussion with the webinar participants.

Gwendolyn Hallsmith, the director of planning and community development for the City of Montpelier, Vermont, is also the founder and board co-chair of Global Community Initiatives and author of The Key to Sustainable Cities and, most recently, Creating Wealth: Building Local Economies with Local Currencies. She has over 20 years of experience working with municipal, regional, and state government in the United States and internationally.

David Clutton has over 20 years of experience which includes transportation planning, public policy, and multi-media projects. David is currently a Long Ranger Planner with the City of Burnaby. In this capacity David served as project manager for updating the City’s economic development strategy. The resulting award-winning Burnaby EDS 2020 will be the subject of David’s presentation on December 8. Located within Metro Vancouver, Burnaby is the third largest city in the province of British Columbia, Canada and has an estimated 2010 population of about 227,000.

PAST WEBINARS

“Local Government Infrastructure: Towards a Sustainable Future”

DATE: WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 12, 2011

“Promoting Local Economic Development in African Cities”

DATE: THURSDAY OCTOBER 6, 2011

“Municipal Leadership, Innovation and Sustainability”

DATE: TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

Municipalities are at the forefront of providing enabling systems to move us to a more sustainable future. However, their internal management systems are designed to provide stability and therefore can be resistant to change. What changes in thinking and leadership approaches can help municipal staff address the huge challenges ahead?

“Leveraging infrastructure costs to achieve smarter growth – exploring a practical example from a Canadian city”

DATE: TUESDAY MAY 17, 2011

Growing ‘smart ‘is not a new idea for cities - it has been at the forefront of growth policy in Canadian cities for many years. But change is not easy and there is constant pressure to maintain the status quo. Powerful vested interests in the business community, civil society and even in municipalities themselves can present formidable obstacles to achieving the objectives of smart growth.

To build the case for smart growth practitioners need to provide current and local research on the benefits including: improved human health and safety; environmental protection, social cohesiveness; GHG reduction; energy efficiency and opportunities for renewable energy; and last but not least – infrastructure costs.

The City of Calgary has recently completed an integrated, sustainable land use and transportation plan through a project called Plan It Calgary. The project team commissioned and developed several pieces of research including a study on the costs of infrastructure. This city-wide study provided a strong point of leverage for the argument for greater intensification supported by high orders of public transit service.

Eric MacNaughton, Transportation Engineer and Planner and Dick Ebersohn, Land Use Planner and Sustainability Strategist from The City of Calgary will present the background to the study, how it was designed and developed as well as how it was deployed in the project and afterwards.

The dialogue that follows the presentation will explore how this type of study could be undertaken by cities and how it could be improved upon (e.g. the addition of the costs of energy infrastructure).

Past Dialogue Topics

Listed below are topics of past dialogues. Please click on the titles below for Dialogue reports, summaries and related documents:

Emerging Trends in Regional Governance

Key issues considered included transportation infrastructure and lack of co-ordination amongst different levels of administrative entities. Ideas for addressing the issues included centralized planning, 50-100-year vision frames, collaborative process, integrated solutions and leadership.

Governance Dialogue Summary (81 kB)

Governance Dialogue Panel (198 kB)

Integrated Community Sustainability Planning

Key developments and best practices in integrated community sustainability planning (ICSP)were discussed including public engagement process in two cities, the idea of transition teams, a community planning working group, a strategic reference model, a bioblitz, and many more.

ICSP Dialogue Summary (102.5 kB)

ICSP Dialogue Summary (252.32 kB)

ICSP Dialogue Audience (169.79 kB)

Youth Engagement in City Planning

The dialogue focused on innovations for engaging youth in city planning, for example: GPS positioning of mobile phones, use of Facebook to stimulate discussion, peace tiles project and Green Maps.

Youth Engagement Dialogue Summary (99.5 kB)

Sustainability Indicators

The dialogue included a review of indicators used in practice, such as the Genuine Progress Indicator (Atlanatic) and the Ecological Footprint, and of recommended templates including the Bellagio Principles and the UN Sustainable Development Indicators.

Sustainability Indicators Dialogue Summary (71 kB)

Sustainability Indicators Dialogue Panel (309.74 kB)

Other dialogue documents

Resiliency

Urban Agriculture and Food Security

Climate Change and Long-term Planning

Housing, Green Buildings and Social Needs

Sustainable Urban Transportation and Land Use

Stakeholder and Public Participation

Work Plans and the Future of the Network