15, April 2007 BEE 299 Lesson 11, Assignment #1 I determined each communitys strengths and weaknesses based on the projects practicality, overall effectiveness, financial implications, and the impacts of the environment and surrounding population. I felt these criteria were the most important for assessing the quality of the projects since these are the issues that would most likely come up when deciding the implementation of these projects in the communities. Seattle, WA The non-profit group in Seattle called Sustainable Seattle was founded in 1991 and since has been committed to maintaining and improving sustainable communities in the Seattle area. Their three mission components are Awareness, Assessment, and Action. Awareness focuses on increasing the publics awareness about sustainable living and the issues that come along with it. Assessment covers their efforts to monitor the surrounding communities progress toward sustainable lifestyles and mentalities. Finally, Action pertains to their direct involvement in increasing sustainable development within Seattle. Sustainable Seattle implements four programs to actualize their mission statement. These are Region Indicators, Neighborhood Indicators, Sustainability Awards, and Sustainability Education. The region/neighborhood indicators programs aim to encourage community identity and sustainability efforts within individual communities. The Sustainability Awards encourages people, businesses, and all types of organizations to contribute to sustainable development and awards those that do for their efforts. Finally, the Education program serves to teach the youth (and also adults) about sustainability through various school programs and projects. In the past, they have awarded mini-grants to students who undertook sustainability projects in their schools. Strengths - Strong mission statement and 3 As principles which set a strong foundation for focused initiatives - The division of their four programs does a good job of focusing their energy in the correct spaces -Their Sustainability Award program shows business and companies that there are rewards for adopting sustainable business methods -The education system that they have employed seems to be rather extensive as they go as far as reaching elementary students, giving grants, and working with Washington University -The project pays special attention to the mentality and educational needs of the surrounding population and caters to their need for increased knowledge of sustainability practices Weaknesses -Seems like they have not placed great emphasis on the efficient use of resources
-May want to consider solidifying actual plans of action that the community can take. Encouraging people can only go so far because they need to give them a way of implementing the sustainable lifestyle they have been taught. Southeast False Creek The Southeast Fall Creek project is made up of approximately 36 hectares of downtown Vancouvers formerly industrialized area. Though the project is owned by the city many of the neighborhood organizations, businesses, and interest groups have significant influence in the direction of the project. The purpose of the project is to develop a sustainable urban neighborhood that will flourish in an urban setting while improving the social, economic, and ecological development of the community: Southeast False Creek. The goal of the project is to create a community in which people live, work, play and learn in a neighborhood that has been designed to maintain and balance the highest possible levels of social equity, livability, ecological health and economic prosperity, so as to support their choices to live in a sustainable manner. Some of the principles that the project follows include stewardship of ecosystem health, achieving economic viability and vitality, and social/community health. In order to assist the effectiveness of the project, a layout plan full of concepts and possible ideas is created for the entire whole downtown study area. Some of the aims of the project include implementing sustainability, reducing energy usage waste and production, solidifying economic viability and vitality, and strengthening the social and community health through networking, transportation projects, and various other programs. Strengths - Strong, ambitious mission and goals in terms of fixing up the citys industrial area - A good amount of research and planning has been conducted to get the project started - The development of sustainable agriculture will benefit the surrounding community greatly - Transportation initiatives will have a strong positive effect on the civilians (i.e. bike paths, park walkways, etc.) Weaknesses - It is still in its early stages, and so not much progress has been made to actualize mission goals - The objectives of the project may be too broad or too big to effectively implement within the community -Strong incentives have not been offered to the industrial companies/corporations that have strong interests in the downtown Eco-Village The Eco-Village in Ithaca is made up of an intentional community and a nonprofit organization. The village is comprised of cohousing neighborhoods, an education center, organic agriculture farms, and natural areas which have been preserved. The village also aims to restore over 80% of the surrounding land as green space in hopes of attaining ecological and social sustainability. The homes in the community employ solar designs and use recycled newspaper to insulate the houses. The Eco-Village serves as a
large-scale learning experience for the rest of the world for the fact that it is a real life example of how sustainable life can work. There exist two communities named Frog and Song, however the Eco-Village hopes to expand to 3 or 4 communities in the future. Strengths - The Eco-Village is an excellent real world example of the positive effect a sustainable lifestyle can have on a whole community - The project provides efficient use of resources and land space - The practicality of the project is evident since the first neighborhood has been running effectively since 1997 - The environmental effects on the community are impressive since there is very little use of automobiles and most of what is needed by the population is grown or produced in the village Weaknesses - Despite its few attempts to throw collaborative educational programs, it doesnt seem that the Eco-Village does good job of incorporating the outside community - Like the financial incentives for outside companies and organizations seems small, so the benefits of the community are strictly enjoyed by to those within it Similarities and Differences The primary similarity between these projects is their goal, they all aim to increase public awareness and involvement in sustainability within the community. Each project has laid down a mission statement or objective that they hope to achieve through their work in the community. The Southeast Fall Creek and the Sustainable Seattle projects provide a direct means of improving the sustainability of the community through their various programs and educational workshops. All three communities fully understand that sustainability includes maintaining a health economic environment as well as doing a good job of incorporating businesses, interest organizations, and farms into their plans. The most apparent difference between the three community projects is that Ithacas Eco-Village is a real-life community that employs the principles of sustainability on a daily basis whereas SEFC is a means for the status quo community to incorporate sustainability principles and ideals into their community, while the Eco-Village is the real deal. The SEFC also focuses on revamping the industrial scene of downtown Vancouver with a touch of sustainability. The Sustainable Seattle project takes the broadest approach of all, as it tries to reach out to the greater Seattle community in hopes of improving the quality of life through sustainability efforts. Meanwhile, Ithacas EcoVillage is a much more self-centered project which by nature, focuses and has a direct effect on those that live or are actively involved with the clustered neighborhoods.