Stewart Nelson

If you “Google” the word “sustainability,” 33,000,000 links appear. It seems almost every government, academic and business institution has their pet definition or spin of the new paradigm of our “Code of Conduct” for global development.

The World Commission on Environment and Development, WECD, defines sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

That sounds sensible but how do we accomplish these honorable goals? According to a standard text on the topic, Urban Planning (Fifth Edition), sustainability requires four factors.

• Ecology. This is the typical dimension that most people associate with sustainability. How is what we are trying to accomplish going to affect our environment?
• Equity. How will we distribute our limited resources and opportunity in a manner that is equitable and consistent with our broader social goals?
• Livability. How should we design the public spaces in our community to best utilize our streets and buildings to facilitate the numerous activities we go about doing in the course of our work and social lives?
• Economy. This is the final leg of the table that is the “glue” or economic engine that keeps the whole thing together. Do we create ways for our citizens to earn a livelihood to pursue their dreams, support their families, and enjoy the manifest benefits of living in the greatest country in the world?

Over the next month or two, I plan to drill down into each of these terms that I believe we can use to filter our thinking and to guide us as we move forward as a City. We can use it to fashion a “united vision” that we can use as a “destination” to get us all working together and pulling in one direction as unanimously as our human weaknesses will allow.

Source: Urban Land Use Planning (Fifth Edition) by Philip R. Berke, David R. Godschalk and Edward J. Kaiser, with Daniel A. Rodriguez, University of Illinois Press, 2006.