Sustainable%20Calgary

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• Sustainable Calgary
• Community Sustainability Indicator Project
  Outcomes
• Noel Keough, Executive Director
• Sustainable Calgary Society

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Sustainable Calgary Mission

• To Promote, encourage and support community-level
  actions and initiatives that move Calgary toward
  a sustainable future

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Different Types of Indicators

• Conventional Economic Indicators
• Quality of Life Indicators
• State of the Environment Indicators
• Healthy City Indicators
• Safer City Indicators
• Community Sustainability Indicators

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Indicator Design Methodologies

• Pressure-State-Response
• Functional Domains
• Sustainability Domains
• Expert Selection Process
• Citizen-led Selection Process

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Diverse Geographic Scales

• Human Development Index
• Ecological Footprint Analysis
• National System of Accounts
• Oregon Benchmarks
• Community Sustainability Indicators
• Neighbourhood Sustainability Indicators
• Household Footprint Analysis

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Competing Sustainability Paradigms

• Market-Based Neo-Liberal Avoidance
• Technocratic Ecological Modernization
• Democratic Ecological Modernization
• Social Justice Based (e.g. LA 21)
• Eco-centric / Eco-Local / Deep Ecology

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Sustainable CalgaryState of Our City Reports

• Process begun in 1996
• Over 2000 citizens contributed
• First Report in 1998 (24 indicators)
• Second Report in 2001 (36 indicators)
• Third Report - February 2004

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Community Sustainability Principles

• A sustainable community maintains a healthy
  environment including clean, air, water, soil and
  spaces.
• In a sustainable community there is access to
  work that is meaningful, and sufficient to meet
  basic needs and services and provide the means to
  participate in community life.

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Community Sustainability Principles

• A sustainable community maintains social benefits
  (health, education, recreation, and safety) and
  the opportunity to achieve a sense of meaning and
  purpose in life without discrimination.
• A sustainable community fosters participation in
  governance and input into decision-making.
• A sustainable community acts responsibly in its
  relations with other communities.

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Key Concepts

• Citizenship vs. stakeholder, consumer, or
  taxpayer
• Expert versus community-based process
• Participatory and Deliberative Democracy

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Sustainability Sectors

• Community
• Economy
• Education
• Natural Environment
• Resource Use
• Wellness

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Community Indicators

• Person crime down 6.5 since 1998
• Property crime down 16.2 since 1998
• 60 of Calgarians physically active - decreasing
• 19 of Calgarians are Members of their Local
  Community Association

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Community Indicators

• Attendance at Major Festivals
• Almost 500,000 attended 10 festivals in 2004
• Sense of Community
  Calgary scores 70 on a scale of 100

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Community Indicators

• Valuing Cultural Diversity
• 232 positions of power and influence
• 31 women, 9.1 V.M., .9 Abor.
• 50 women, 19 V.M., 3.3 Abor.
• 47 of Calgarians Volunteer - Tops in Canada

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Economy Indicators

• Economic Diversification - Oil and Gas Reliance
• Oil and Gas industry accounted for 7 of
  employment, 23 of GDP and 66 of net exports
• A Slight Decline
• Food Bank Usage Increasing
• 52,000 hampers, to 131,000 clients in 2003

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Economy Indicators

• At minimum wage a single Calgarian had to work 71
  hours per week to meet basic needs.
• Increased from 2001
• The Living Wage - 10.44
• Housing Affordability
• 60,000 Calgary households spent more than they
  could on housing in 2001
• 2,597 homeless people counted in 2004

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Economy Indicators

• Income Gap (top 10 vs bottom 10)
• In 2000 the top 10 of Calgarians earned 20 times
  the income of the bottom 10.
• The highest income neighbourhood in Calgary has
  an average income 3.6 times that of the lowest.
• Unemployment Rate
• 5 in 2004, 75.1 participation, 47,000 looking

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Education Indicators

• Adult Literacy Middle of the Pack
• Day Care Workers 45 turnover rate
• Grade three Achievement Reaching Targets
• Library Use 60 of Calgarians
• Average Class Size 27.2 - Too high by 10/15

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Natural Environment Indicators

• Air Quality - Holding steady, Edmonton better
• Christmas Bird Population - 78 species recorded
• Food Grown Locally - More Gardens and Markets
• Pesticides - concentration down, volume up
• Water Quality - steadily improving
• Water Consumption - 512 litres/capita

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Resource Use Indicators

• Ecological Footprint highest in country -
  9.86ha
• Energy Use per Capita 40 barrels of oil and
  rising
• Population Density 2 increase since 1970
• Transit Usage No substantial change since 1999
• Transportation Spending - 51 roads, 49 transit

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Wellness Indicators

• Preventative Health Care 3.8 and declining
• Childhood Asthma 37,000 kids, emergencies down
• Healthy Birth Weights 93.5
• Self-Rated Health An income and education gap
• Support for the Disabled 39 of LICO
• Youth Wellness Obesity 37 for Canadian youth

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Is Calgary Sustainable?Some Good News and Some
Concerns

• Our research suggests that current trends in our
  community sector indicators and our natural
  environment indicators are sustainable.
• Based on our research, we cannot say with any
  certainty that current trends will result in a
  sustainable health and education system.
  Vigilance and continued improvement are the
  watchwords.

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The Most Critical Challenges

• The most critical challenge we face is how to
  create an economy where not only the average
  Calgarian, but every Calgarian, has the
  opportunity to prosper and share in our citys
  good fortune.
• A second challenge is how to shift to more
  socially, ecologically, and economically
  sustainable forms of community design, land use,
  mobility, and infrastructure provision what
  some call Smart Growth.

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Outcomes Research Methodology

• Qualitative Research Approach
• Participatory Action Research
• The Researcher as Participant
• Interviews with 32 participants in the process
  (3 founders, 3 aldermen)
• Application of Grounded Theory Techniques

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Framework Questions

• 1. What was your experience of the indicator
  project?
• 2. What personal outcomes have resulted from your
  participation in the indicator project?
• 3. What community outcomes have resulted from the
  indicator project?
• 4. How could the process have been improved?

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Interviewee Profile

• There were an equal number of male and females.
• The average age of interviewees was 44 years.
• Average period of residence in Calgary was 25
  years.
• On average, interviewees held between one and two
  post-secondary degrees.
• Twenty-eight of the 32 interviewees were
  Caucasian.
• Twenty percent of the interviewees live in new
  communities, 44 percent live in established
  communities, and 36 percent live in the inner
  city.
• Fifteen percent of interviewees live on the
  citys east side, and 85 percent live on the west
  side.

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Indicator Project Outcomes

• How Did people get involved?
• Who Participated?
• Why Did People get Involved?
• Personal Outcomes
• Community Outcomes

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How Did People Get Involved?

• Tier One Social and Affinity Networks associated
  with The Arusha Centre - the Sponsoring
  Organization
• Tier Two Local Government and University of
  Calgary
• Tier Three Special Sectors (e.g. Business,
  Disabilities)

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Why Did People Get Involved?

• Curiosity
• An Opportunity to Learn
• The Desire to Contribute
• The Projects Potential to Make a Difference
• Pride in Place
• That Caring Citizen Thing

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Who Participated?

• A lot of people from different organizations,
  different ethnic groups, communities young kids,
  women, seniors. A mix of people from different
  ages, organizations, immigrants, Canadians,
  people born here. Mahmoud
• I think the people that were missing were all of
  the people who neither know about nor truly care
  about the consequences of their actions towards
  the world as a whole. In others words most
  Calgarians. Louise

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Who Participated?

• Exclusion Due to Ethnicity, Age and Economic
  Means
• The Civic-Minded, The Complacent and The
  Mainstream

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Personal Outcomes

• 1. Inclusion of the Social Dimension into A More
  Holistic and Grounded Understanding of the
  Complexity of Sustainability
• Highlighting the Social Dimension
• The Holistic Nature of the Concept of
  Sustainability
• Appreciation of the Complexity of Sustainability
• Grounding the Concept of Sustainability in Real
  Life

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Personal Outcomes

• 2. Personal Growth
• Expanded Horizons
• Increased Mindfulness of Sustainability
• Increased Capacity for Critical Thinking
• The Good Citizenship High
• Inspiration
• Empowerment

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Personal Outcomes

• 3. Behaviour Change
• Contribution versus Attribution
• Major Home Renovations
• Connecting with the Community Association
• Travel Behaviour and Automobile Choice
• Dont have a TV anymore, Dont have a car
  anymore.

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Personal Outcomes

• 4. Greater Capacity for Sustainability Advocacy
• Its contributed, but there have been many
  other things in my life that have contributed.
• Interviewees felt they were more effective
  advocates because of the confidence,
  knowledge, and sharpened skills they had
  gained through the project
• As an advocate, Im a little tougher now. I
  wont back down.

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Personal Outcomes

• 5. Skills Development
• Professional Skill Development
• Personal Skill Development
• Career Path Development

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Community Outcomes

• 1. A Productive and Engaging Citizens Dialogue
• Employing Popular Education
• Making Room for Different Kinds of Knowledge
• An Inclusive Dialogue
• A Creative, Open and Welcoming Dialogue
• A Dialogue for the Common Good
• Tensions, Debates and Exclusionary Practices

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Community Outcomes

• 2. The Power and Sophistication of Citizen-Led
  Initiatives
• You folks did a very good job at keeping the
  indicator report more balanced. The energy of
  the people, the work that went into that was
  amazing and the quality of the product was
  astounding, to put it mildly. It was very
  impressive for a volunteer effort. Better than
  a lot of paid efforts Ive seen.

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Community Outcomes

• 3. Modest Municipal Government Policy Influence
• No Evidence of Influence in the Provincial Public
  Sector or The Private Sector
• Minor Policy Influence in the Not-for-Profit
  Sector
• Modest but Significant Policy Influence within
  Municipal Government
• Reality Check Limited Profile and Traction of
  Municipal Government Policy

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Community Outcomes

• Modest but Significant Policy Influence
  within Municipal Government
• The Actors City Council, Senior Administration,
  Planners
• Sustainability Subculture
• The Structures
• Council,
• Standing Policy Committees
• Environmental Advisory Committee
• The Instruments
• Triple Bottom Line
• ISO 14001
• Imagine Calgary

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Community Outcomes

• 4. Established a Benchmark for Indicators and
  Performance Measurement
• A significant foundational Piece
• A Pioneer

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Community Outcomes

• 5. Contribution to an Emerging Sustainability
  Network
• 6. Contribution to an Enabling Environment for
  Achieving Sustainability
• You create a climate that gives people
  permission to do things that people werent
  thinking they would do, or sure they should do,
  or didnt know if they wanted to take the risk of
  doing. And by golly, heres this group of
  citizens doing something, and it creates a
  climate of acceptance.

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Community Outcomes

• 7. A Valuable Reference Document
• 8. A Tool For Sustainability Educators
• 9. A Catalyst for New Research and Projects
• Indicators in Progress
• Sense of Community Assessment Tool
• Safer Cities

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A Call to Action

• A Citizens Forum on Smart Growth
• Smart Growth Backgrounder and Public Forum
• A Citizens Consultation on Indicators to Action
• Over 400 Citizens in over 30 workshops
• Citizens Agenda for a More Caring, Vibrant and
  Healthy Calgary (5 years)