Living Better: Consuming Less

Chris Ryan [CR] spoke about the future inspired work that has been overseen by VEIL for an inner city redevelopment site.

It will be informed by 'slow' (as in slow food), it will be productive and it will have a re-shaped urban form.

Above all Chris spoke of the importance of imagining a positive and inspired vision of the future and opening up to the rich ideas of emerging designers.

• 'creating a movement for expanding optimism'
• 'motivating change'
• 'we cannot afford to create one building that is not sustainable (that would need to be retro fitted later). Docklands already needs retro fitting

Victorian Environment Innovation Lab

Chris Ryan

Why councils' should look after footpaths and the public realm

Enrique Penalosa is a former mayor of Bogota in Columbia

The few points captured here make compelling arguments for local government attention to the public realm. It's not about a transport system, it's not about engineering, it is about people and politics.

It's about what kind of city we want? How do we want to live? What makes a good city? 

A city that is good for the vulnerable old, young and disadvantaged. Convergence of environmental and social sustainability.

• Transport is a means to an end whereas pedestrianisation can be an end in itself.
• In the public realm, we meet as equals. It is democratic. The public realm is about social justice.
• People will never remember a road, but they will never forget a good pedestrian space.
• Transport is one problem that gets worse with affluence.
• Traffic congestion is not bad because it means you are ripe for public transport.
• Densify shopping living work
• Make pedestrian spaces the top issue
• perhaps do density neighbourhood by neighbourhood.
• (Any fuel is going to get more expensive.)

for more go to http://www.pps.org/info/placemakingtools/placemakers/epenalosa

Liveable and Just

'Liveable and Just' is a project funded by the Local Sustainability Accord. The partners are the VLGA, the McCaughey Centre, DSE and the Brotherhood of St Laurence.

These notes were taken at a workshop held at the VLGA on 30 June. This was the final workshop of a series conducted around the state

Panellists: John Wiseman and Taegan Edwards , McCaughey Centre, Liana Thompson, VLGA, Bronwen Davies, DSE

attendees: a range of community development, social and health planners, environmental staff, and councillors

'Liveable and Just' aims to

• consider the social impacts of climate change


• consider what this will mean for councils


• think about and develop some tools to assist local governments address the social impacts of climate change

Introductory:

• 'Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century' [Lancet, May 16, 2009]

Workshops:

The areas of social impact that workshop participants identified/anticipated

• transport


• food scarcity


• depression/mental health


• stressed service systems


• ageing community


• heatwave


• pressure on recreational facilities


• distrust of Council - council messages don't have credibility with community


• 'ghost' suburbs


• isolated settlements of retired people with no access to services/transport


• managing change, expectations


• inspiring positive change rather than despair


• evacuation - consider buddy councils


• social disharmony

Opportunities:

• don't necessarily see low incomes as a 'deficit'. Celebrate those who live with less


• skills in local government sector - (refer to the response to fires) Q: would the same level of responsiveness be in evidence if crises arise each year?


• skilled volunteering Q: can it be sustained year on year?


• council leadership


• work with neighbourhood centres


• support sustainability ambassadors/leaders in the community


• council enabling, rather than frustrating action S: a suite of trees residents could choose from rather than waiting years for trees to be planted


• support local travel/local services


• communication: within and across councils, with communities, levels of government,


• never been a more important topic to work across/coordinate across council departments


• skill up communities


• manage relationships, which partnerships need strengthening?

What resources are needed?:

• more localised information to postcode level - green maps


• scorecards in decision making that favour climate friendly initiatives


• cards to generate discussion


• make it easy to access relevant information


• best practice community engagement - examples and stories


• a pool of engaging facilitators


• a clearing house for information


• partnerships with universities


• networks, mentoring and relationships - also between producer/consumer, urban/rural


• partnerships and regional collaboration

S: suggestion Q: question

Michael Kiely: soil farming

Port Phillip Business Breakfast

Some notes:

• climate change means 'chaotic events everywhere'


• 'soil farming'


• 'if you can't imagine success, you can't be successful'


• 'your customer is an appreciating asset'


• 'not all customers are equal'


• you will have a fan club - work with them


• you may only need to deal with a small number of people


• 'the loyalty ladder'


• 'helping customers build community'


• 'the distance from awareness to despair is short'


• start from where you are


• 'business clusters'


• 'sponsor a suburb to catch the CO2 challenge and sell the story of hope'


• Carbon Farmers


• its 'an individual challenge', it about 'how do I live my life'


• 'I feel optimistic and I feel better and its better for my health'


• 100% ground cover 100% of the time


• its all cycles, carbon cycle, water cycle


• so that your soil is like a sponge


• your idea has to get wings


• yes, you will have war stories but nothing good was ever easy


• 'I sit with the strongest negative person because then I've got them all'

23 June 2009

Victorian Coastal Forum

23 April 2009
for the presentations referred to below see www.vcc.vic.gov.au Victorian Coastal Forum
Three themes of the Victorian Coastal Strategy

• climate change
• population growth
• the marine environment

John Church CSIRO

• sea level rise will be variable (will not rise like water in a bath tub)
• sea level rise will come from both mass and volume change (thermal expansion)
• we might go from 1 in 5 year events every 1 to 2 years, and historically derived 1 in a hundred year events several times a year
• combined storm surge and tide wil have more impact than sea level rise

for more information go to www.cmar.csiro.au/sealevel/

see also presentation from Clive Attwater from SGS:

Lyndon Webb from Wellington Shire

• ask developers to prepare a climate change sea level response plan (include S173 to acknowledge risk on vulnerable properties)

Peter Christoff

• burden sharing

Risk assessment is primary

'deceptive certainty of lines on maps' to define acceptable levels of risk

Climate Change Adaptation Symposium
3 and 4 June 2009

Dr Peter Christoff
spoke passionately, as he always does, about building community learning and capacity around climate change.
He was insistent that we would not have such weak targets in the CPRS if people understood the urgency of the challenges ahead. Governments can only do so much.
Institutions need to be flexible, adaptive.

Chicago's climate change adaptation plan

Climate Change Adaptation Symposium
3 and 4 June 2009

Julia Parzen
How Chicago has institutionalised Climate Change adaptation
I highly recommend this site www.chicagoclimatechange.org

Key messages

• 'there was a lot of process'
• built around involvement and engagement and collaboration
• designed the plan with participation

• Julia emphasised how much attention to process underpinned the development of their strategy 'there was a lot of process'
• She spoke about how Chicago had institutionalised their climate change adaptation framework
• She is not a climate change expert but experienced in organisations and process
• Everything was based around stakeholder involvement and engagement and collaborations. This was built into their structures. They worked with industries, businesses, research institutions and community members
• did not separate adaptation and mitigation - bringing them together in one strategy
• wherever possible they built on existing initiatives, relationships - the assets based model [McKnight - very Chicago]
• worked with whatever was important to people whether it was trees, gardening, concern about prices increases
• asked extra questions of whoever was working on an existing project
• the model can readily be updated
• risk factors were based on assessment criteria to avoid personal preference
• performance measures included permeability, morbidity
• used infra red mapping to identify heat islands and focussed tree planting there
• report emissions every 3 years

The five strategies in their plan are:

• energy efficient buildings
• clean and renewable energy
• improved transport
• reduced waste and industrial pollution
• adaptation

see www.chicagoclimatechange.org

Climate Change Adaptation Symposium
3 and 4 June 2009

Some points arising:

• there is an emerging clarification of roles with the Commonwealth assuming responsibility for mitigation (through the CPRS) and the States taking more responsibility for adaptation. This raises funding questions for the states, as well as whether it achieves the urgency around mitigation. The role of local government was barely mentioned
• adaptation is part of a continuum rather than a new and distinct discipline in its own right
• we should be wary of being too compartmentalised around adaptation and mitigation
• when is the optimum time to make an intervention?
• what level of intervention is appropriate?
• how do we share and engage with our community around the knowledge that we have shared and learned?
• all adaptation will be local!

Post summer observations from Life Saving Victoria

Nigel Taylor
CEO Life Saving Victoria

• all beaches have experienced a rise in visitation
• increased use of facilities
• increased drownings - 'there are so many ways to drown' - people seldom drown in the same circumstances. Makes it hard to have a 'one size fits all' response
• water activity is up around the Bay

Life Saving Victoria

19/02/2009

Peter Durkin

DSE

• natural buffers are the most cost effective

[see 15.08 of the SPFF and practice note on location and design]

'Wither the weather' - planning in a time of climate change

notes taken from an address by

Nick Dimopoulos (National Transport Commission)

Planning for environmentally sustainable transport

• agriculture is moving north
• 2 degrees of warming will result in 17% more cost on roads
• oil supply is going down whereas oil demand is going up
• Transport is responsible for 14% emissions
• Transport is the fastest growing sector for emissions
• The NTC supports the inclusion of transport in an ETS
• Pubic transport currently makes up for 9% of all trips
• the integration of all urban transportation needs to be optimised
• Australia is the only OECD country without a National People Moving Strategy
• More interventionist land use planning is going to be necessary in the future
• With developments of 5 storeys, over 600,000 people could be accommodated along Melbourne's tram routes - we've got to work smarter with what we've got
• Road pricing is preferable, though politically sensitive, to building new infrastructure

at IPAA 9/04/2009