By Christine Graziano, AICP/LEED AP, Consulting Planner, RPA
At the 2010 Regional Assembly, William McDonough, in asking what our legacy would be, noted that "all sustainability, like politics, is local - it can only be measured for its success at the granular level."
The Brattleboro Coop in Vermont is at the heart of a great local-level story. Recently, the Coop, a long-standing business in the heart of downtown, called in a design team to help it and its stakeholders look at issues of energy efficiency for a 'more sustainable building' which would better reflect their health- and environment-conscious image.
Through discussion, careful study of place, and a refocusing of questions to ask, the stakeholders and design team opened up the dialogue to a broader perspective, taking a thoughtful look at the long distance from which the food on the shelves originated as compared to the environmental resources and food producing capacity of the region.
The result was a 100-year strategy, which included a plan for local buying and supply. The building design incorporates new shell technologies, recycled products and materials, a green roof for stormwater management and reduced heat island effects, daylighting, as well as advanced energy-saving lighting technologies and refrigeration. The physical site plan introduces reduction in impervious surfaces from existing conditions, a bio-retention area located in a center island to treat parking lot storm water run-off, and a 20' vegetated strip along an on-site brook to capture overland run-off flow. The overall strategy ultimately helps the Coop as a business - giving it a competitive advantage over the threat of large national chains - and helps anchor it as an integral part of the local community, further strengthening and stabilizing the region's economy.
The Brattleboro story is just one of many that will be showcased at an upcoming June 18th conference on Regenerative Design for the New Jersey Highlands, which will focus on design that takes a more rounded view of sustainability.
Those now practicing regenerative design or more accurately, regenerative development, try to incorporate people and community into the process of development, and an understanding of how the end 'product' and its continuance or evolution hinges on the spirit and understanding of the individuals to make it so. Regenerative design is not a new idea per se. It has emerged from a long line of thinkers who have mulled over the proper relationship of Man and nature, and is found in the thoughts and writings of John and Nancy Todd and the New Alchemists, Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Catalog, writings by John Tillman Lyle such as in Design for Human Ecosystems, and works by the great permaculturalist Bill Mollison. Other names that come to mind are Ian McHarg, Sim Van Der Ryn, Anne Spirn, David Orr, James Corner, and as we heard from earlier, Bill McDonough.
Many of those above looked at how, as a society, we are overly prone to abstracting ourselves from natural systems, rather than asking how we can, through a better understanding of how they function, integrate with those systems to make places that are not just more efficient, but healthier, more pleasant and even more fun.
In the case of the Brattleboro Coop, the planning and design team, through discussions with the stakeholders, were able to communicate that a building, in and of itself, cannot be sustainable. The energy-efficient technologies and green building materials that were the focus of their interest were tools to limit damage, but not the real source of sustainability. From detailed study, and an understanding of the particulars of the place at the site, community and regional scale, they were able to craft a true sustainability plan, which positioned the building and the business as a contributing unit in a larger environmental and cultural system, and over a meaningful time frame.
In the New Jersey Highlands - a region of 88 municipalities covering over 1,343 square miles - this kind of thinking is critical to its future. The Highlands Regional Master Plan, adopted in 2008, now mandates (re)development that is environmentally sensitive in an effort to better protect the sources of drinking water for over 5 million people and stem the loss of forests and farmland. But the mistakes of the past will not go away with increased regulations and there will never be enough public money to pay for all the retro-fitting work needed. Only (re)development inspired by regenerative design will heal existing problems and improve natural systems.
As the Brattleboro project demonstrates, each development project is a chance to engage in a larger living system or community of which we are a part. It is an opportunity to make the environment better through development. But this must be understood and embraced by the policy-maker, municipal worker, design team leader, developer, and property owner. It requires a mind-set shift, and a learning process, one that at first is perhaps best communicated through stories and examples that show where we are, yet how far we have to go, and how to get there.
The New Jersey Highlands Regenerative Design Conference will be held at the Morristown-Beard School in Morristown, NJ on Friday, June 18th, 2010 from 7:30am-4pm. The event is free with RSVP. For more details go to www.rpa.org/regen.
@RegionalPlan
I attended the conference and thought it was first rate.
I wonder if the presenters' powerpoint materials could be made available?
Hi Michael, Thanks for this comment. We should have the ppts as well as audio and video up by next week. Check back shortly. Thanks for attending!