Sowing Seeds for
Sustainability
Susan Dakin
Kelly Andres
City of Lethbridge
Vision for Lethbridge
“To be a healthy, attractive and viable city”
A model for urban environmental
management
• A Council endorsed model guides programs and
initiatives
Compliance
(with regulations,
policy)
Present
Sustainable
development
(environment –
social – economic)
Desired
Ecosystem
management
(basis is city as
ecosystem)
What is a sustainable community?
• A community that seeks a high quality of life for all citizens
while maintaining nature’s ability to function over time
– minimizing waste
– preventing pollution
– promoting efficiency
– emphasizing a local perspective to revitalize the local
economy present and into future
• Sustainability is NOT anti-development … it
requires doing development differently :
• acknowledge the links between economy society - environment
• respect and restore “nature” by recognizing
its intrinsic value and limits
• enable citizens to minimize their ecological
footprint and consume sustainably
• recognize and build on distinctive, local
characteristics
• empower people to participate
Why become more sustainable?
Key Environmental Issues in
Lethbridge
•
•
•
•
•
climate change, GHGs and energy use
sprawl and auto-dependent neighbourhoods
resource waste
water quality and conservation
bioregional and ecosystem identity
Partnership – Leadership - Stewardship
How to become more
sustainable?
• consumption &
lifestyles
• transportation options
• building & community
design
Green consumption & lifestyle
Average Canadian creates
5 T of GHGs annually…
… driving
… heating home &
water
… using electricity
The Challenge:
“reduce your GHGs by
One Tonne (20%) per
person”
 adopt eco-
friendly yard
practices
 complete the loop:
recycle AND buy
recycled/recyclable
Sustainable Transportation
•Walk, bike, or take public
transportation when you ca
– encourage your local
community to be more bicyclefriendly (e.g. bike lanes)
 If you have a car: combine trips, keep it
well maintained, slow down
 If you plan to buy a car: buy most fuel
efficient model, consider a hybrid vehicle,
alt fuel potential (Biodiesel)
Water quality – knowledge & action
• Urban Beneficial Management Practices (BMP)
education program for storm water quality
• monitoring results – review – survey
citizens – program
“The River Starts Here …”
• encourage eco-friendly
home and yard
practices: information,
examples
• ensure municipal
demonstration of
leading practices: IPM,
naturalized storm water
ponds
• assist businesses to
provide information
“Green” building & neighbourhoods
Sustainable homes
• homes & yards built for: energy
efficiency, resource conservation,
health…
www.sunridgecommunity.ca
• SunRidge designated as “Built
Green” subdivision – minimum bronze
standard, incentives for higher levels
and neighbourhood
planning:
pedestrian friendly, low
water use parks, transit
access
“Green” home retrofitting


 improve the energy efficiency
of your home
 improve water efficiency
practices
Waste reduction & recycling
• “Grasscycling” –
Youth Challenge,
info
• Composting –
sell bins
• Recycling –
provide depots
Climate change & energy use
“Reduce your Eco Footprint”
Eco Footprint: a measure
of human demand on nature
- food – energy – fibre waste
Reducing Eco Footprints:
- walk, bus, bike
- eat locally-produced food
-build smaller, energyefficient homes
- create less waste –
recycle & compost
City of Lethbridge: www.lethbridge.ca
- Enviroscope newsletter; waste & recycling (cart program);
Sustainable SunRidge: www.sunridgecommunity.ca
www.builtgreenalberta.com
Water & yard practices:
www.oldmanbasin.org
Sustainable transportation:
www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca
www.goforgreen.ca
River valley & coulee ecology
• In 2001, the Lethbridge
Rattlesnake Conservation
Program was developed- an
ongoing urban conservation
initiative
• a “species at risk” protected
by law – “illegal to harass,
possess, harm rattlesnakes or to
traffic in rattlesnake parts” –
volunteers capture & release
reported snakes, educate, track
•population now estimated at
50
Educating for a Sustainable
Society
“The great aim of education is not knowledge but
action” - Herbert Spencer
“We abuse land because we regard it as a
commodity belonging to us. When we see land
as a community to which we belong, we may
begin to use it with love and respect” - Aldo Leopold
“To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster
its renewal is our only legitimate hope of
survival”
- Wendell Berry