Workshop report from RTPI's Planning Convention 2009.
Break out session 5: 11.50, Thursday 18 June

Speakers: Jonathan David (Director of Knowledge and Skills, CABE) Chair - Colin Haylock (Urban Design Director, Ryden)

David began with a short presentation on CABE’s Sustainable cities initiative. He gave examples of some of the challenges faced due to climate change:

• peak oil by 2012;
• need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
• cities consume 75% of all resources and produce 75% of all waste.

He explained how CABE has been working with four city leaders to understand what makes a sustainable city. Delegates received copies of CABE’s “Hallmarks of a Sustainable city” (also available online).

Placemaking is all about making places more sustainable. A key message was that taking action to tackle climate change will have a positive future impact, but also improve quality of life now.

The interactive part of the session came in two halves: examining themes and topics important to climate change (energy, waste, water etc), and working at different scales (regional, neighbourhood, city-wide etc). Delegates worked in small, facilitated groups, each discussing one topic. One group had a slightly different task, in which they were asked to take on the role of city leaders.

Having identified priorities and resource issues for their topic, each group gained a “city leader”. Each group worked at a different scale and decided what steps the leaders would want to take, given that they wanted to be re-elected.

In a final round of feedback, the following important issues were identified:

• it’s important to keep looking at the big issues, and not get bogged down in day-to-day practicalities;
• everyone wants to achieve sustainable development, the challenge is prioritising competing demands and costs;
• when working at a neighbourhood scale, it’s important to get the community on board;
• bringing together disparate interests is a challenge;
• linking themes together creates opportunities; for example, an authority could use an area of open space for rain water recycling, composting and cycle paths.

With its interaction between thematic content and place, the session was a timely reminder of the importance of collaboration. This was a genuinely interactive workshop which enabled delegates to learn from the presenters and from each other.

Useful links
Sustainable cities initiative
“Hallmarks of a Sustainable city” 

Author:

Kate Webster

Publisher:

The Royal Town Planning Institute

Date:

26-Jun-09

Sections:

News & Media

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