CNN did a nice piece on “Cities blazing a green trail.” Nothing new for those up on the latest developments; the usual suspects are listed: Curitiba, Freiberg, Portland, Copenhagen – and Vancouver.
Vancouver is somewhat blessed geographically — with mountains, rivers, oceans and valleys — but citizens there have always tried to help what nature has provided.
Jane McRae, is program director at the International Center for Sustainable Cities (ICSC) which is based in the city.
“I think sustainability has always been important here because it’s a beautiful place and people value the environment. Green ideas are well accepted here and it creates a climate for innovation and pushing the envelope a bit,” McRae told CNN.
For the past 17 years, McRae and her colleagues at the ICSC have been spreading the message of urban sustainability at home and overseas sharing ideas and innovations with cities, regions and associations in Asia, Africa and Europe.
The same sustainability rules apply to cities wherever they are, according to McRae.
They need to be looked at as “one complex system,” she says, which “recognizes the inter-relations and interactions of the four elements of sustainability — economic, environmental, social and cultural — and treat the whole system as a whole.
“Sustainability is complex and requires moving from short term problem-solving to long term thinking.”
And here, Vancouver’s Planning Director Brent Toderian describes the green aspects of Vancouver’s pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. (Did you know we even had one?)
