hat does a groupof 30 "sustainabil-ity" professionals dowhen they run into apair of two-story-tallcommon house spar-rows? Most of themadmire die anatomi-cally correct metal

sculptures; a few wonder what's happeningto the actual birds in this neighborhood.

It's July and we're in a planned commu-nity in the heart of Vancouver: green roofs,solar powered trash compactors, LEEDgold and pladntun architecture. It's also aThursday afremoon and hardly anyone isoutside. Even with a building occupancyrate of over 70 percent, there is no publicacdvity. No one is around but us and the two19-fbot-tall birds.

The visit is part of the University of Brit-ish Columbia's Summer Tnsdtute in Sus-tainability Leadership, a week-long coursefor professional planners. We are hoofing itaround the grounds of the Vancouver Ol\in-pic Village, the largest LEED-cerdfied plad-num neighborhood in North America—alsocalled the world's greenest athledc facility.The group includes planners, environmentaland sustainability directors, landscape archi-tects, s<K-ial planners, energ)' experts, a coffeeservices manager, a yoga clothing manager,a Unilever middle manager—most of themfrom Canada, several from Korea, one fromBrazil, and me, the lone Yankee.

The developers and the dty ofVancouverare trying to get Southeast False Creek, thesite of the Olympic Village, to a build-out of16,000 people, with 250 affordable housingunits—and ecology is part of the markedngcampaign.

But the sparrows so lovingly depicted byVancouver artist Myfanwy MacLeod are alsoa testament to humanity's constant threat tobiodiversity. Eight pairs of sparrows werefirst released on this condnent in the springof 1851, in Brooklyn, New York. T'hey arenow one of the most common birds inNorth America. MacLeod's artwork—com-missioned for the 2010 OKinpics and Para-lyinpics—speaks volumes about the state ofthe planet and the current markedng aroundsustainability.

One of my conclusions from the stistain-ability insdtute is that green is in, but green-washing is prevalent. James Howard Kun-sder, a friend and colleague—and the authorof Geogmphy of Nowhere—is working on a

At Vancouver'sOlympic Village,

touted as the world'sgreenest athletic

facility, a two-story-tall sculpture

of the commonsparrow reminds

visitors about theneed for ecologicalbalance. Sparrows

are plentiful acrossNorth America but

are dwindling inVancouver. The citycommissioned the

work from artistMyfanwy MacLeod.

new book about die limits of technology.He tells us diat invendng and selling us newstuff won't fix our environmental problems."The 'green' campaign has largely become amoney-grubbing project based on extremelyunreaUsdc wishful thinking about technol-ogy, along with a sort of therapy campaignto make us feel better," he says.

Taking the pulse

My role at the insdtute's summer coursewas to take die pulse of a province, city,and university known as the most advancedgreen places on earth. I went in kx)king fora chance to frame the concept called green-washing—or "sustainability lite," as JudyLayzer calls it. Layzer is an associate profes-sor of environmental policy and die directorof MIT's urban sustainability project.

I quickly found that many of the leadersin sustainable cit\' movements across Cana-da and the U.S. tend to duck the really toughquesdons any planner might ask: Don't wehave to "do" deep sustainability at the mu-nicipal and regional levels to truly effectchange? How does the planning profession

promote greenwashing? If the poor have nosafety nets and the middle class is struggling,what is the point of LEED pladnum-cerd-fied communides?

Alany stistainahilit)' acdon plans call forsuperficial fixes like bans on plasdc bags andrestricdons on lawn watering, but do theseand similar measures really reduce green-house gas emissions? Andiony Flint, direc-tor of public affairs for the Lincoln Insdtuteof Land Policy, is one of those who suggeststhe answer is no.

"Now just about every developer andarchitect is green, as a standard," Flint says."It's no longer news to have a LEED-cerd-fied building, but rather an expectadon."

Flint, like others, sees the "greenest part"of any building as its locadon: "a redevel-opment of an urban site, access to transit,walkability context." From this perspecdve,a great LEED gold building in a suburbanoffice park that has to be accessed by car isnot green at all.

"All radng systems are ffawed and com-pletely depend on the assumpdons and in-puts used to get the output. And once you

30 Planning December 2011

Are'green'goals permanentor a passing fancy?By Paul K. Haeder

have them, what do they really tell us?"asks Mike Lydon, a principal for the StreetPlans CoUaboradve, a consulting finn thathelps clients improve the viability of acdvetransportadon and smart growth. Lydon isalso coauthor of the 2009 book T¿Í' SmartGrtrwth Manual, written with Andres Duanyand Jeff Speck.

A much larger quesdon grows out of thissustainability and greenwashing discourse.

What is a sustalnabie city exactly?

"Cides are at their core consumpdve net-works," says Tbdd Reisz, an Amsterdam-based architect and coeditor of the recendypublished Al Manakh 2: Gulf Continued,which looks at the Persian Gulf region fromboth historical and contemporary perspec-dves. "T hey constune the most energy, notonly in terms of fuels but also in terms of foodand natural and manufactured materials."

Suddenly ddes seem cleaner, Reisz tellsme, but that's not exacdy true. Both the U.S.and Canada have sent (or lost) their carbon-heavy industries to other nadons. "Manufac-turing and other tmappeaüng uses have been

moved elsewhere, either to an industrial parkbeyond the public's eye or to anodier cond-nent altogether." But does the ranking of the"greenest" communides, he asks, "include theCO, emissions reqtiired to manufacture thatdt/s computers in China, the energy requiredto grow its bananas in Costa Rica?"

Many planners and analysts look forguidance from architect and designer SteveMouzon, who has defined what real sustain-ability means in the built and natural envi-ronments. Among his major points for theaverage cidzen to live by, separate from whata city planner or architect has to do tor sus-tainability, are these:

• Choose it for longer than you'll use it.• Live where you can walk to the grocery.• Live where you can make a living.• Choose smaller stuff with double duty.But in his book The Orignal Green—a

must-read—Mouzon also coins the term"gizmo green." We can't rely on technologi-cal soludons to our global warming crisis, hesays. Instead, we shotild stop relying on a fewexperts like architects, planners, engineers,and designers.

"Think about this for a moment: If mil-lions of the best minds around the worldwork for years to figure out the mysteries oftrue sustainabilitv', how ridiculous would itbe to expect each significant architect to re-formulate sustainability in the image of dieirown personal style? Asking a single personto rctbnnulate years of work by millions ofthe best minds goes beyond the absurd . . . tothe globally treasonous! We must be allowedto share wisdom."

In the end, as the Vancouver OlyanpicVillage architects and Mouzon and otherstell us, die places diat are sustainable have tobuild on community involvement and a lovefor place. "We need to make places worthcaring deeply about, and diat requires farmore than aggregadng net-zero buildings,bullet trains, or bike lanes," Mike Lydonsays. "Indeed, a million net-zero homes thatrequire their inhabitants to drive 30 miles aday probably aren't as ecological as a millionhomes that aren't net zero, but which are inplaces that don't require driving."

So, how can we in the sustainabilitymovement start looking at sastainability ina much more holisdc way?

"This is a good quesdon and a chal-lenge," says Moura Quayle, deputy ministerof Bridsh Columbia's Ministry of AdvancedEduc"adon and the fonner chair of Vancou-ver's Urban Landscape Task Force, whichgave birth to the city's NeighbourhtxxlGreenways program. T hat program is a truecommunity-based sustainability tix)l usingsmall-scale, local connecdons ftir peilestri-ans and cyclists, linking parks, natural areas,historic sites, amenides, and conunerdalstreets. As the city of Vancouver's website ex-plains: "Neighbourh(X)d Cîreenways provideopixartiuiides to express die unique charac-ter of die neighbourhcxxl and often includepublic art which adds further interest anddisdncdveness to the project."

The projects in the Greenways Programare inidated by residents and operated inpartnership with the city of Vancouver. Thecommunity is expected to take the lead andmaintain the space, while the city assists withthe design, development, and constructionof die project.

Eor Vancouver, Quayle insists, place iden-dty also fits into the concept of green. "Placeidendty as a third conifxanent of communitysendment opens the discussion to a host ofrelated disciplines, such as humanist geog-raphy and environmental psychology," shesays. "These disciplines seek to invesdgate

American Planning Association 31

die tncaning of place to hutnan experience,"includitig itieas, memories, atdttides, values,meanings, and concepdons of behavior.

Some planners see sustainability as atnarket-driven soludon to the challenges re-lated to climate change, peak oil, and heavytirhanizadoii. But Mark Holland, a fonnerVancouver city platmer who worked as thecity's first Stostainability Office planner, takesa different stance: "Sustainabilit}' was co-opted by die environtnentalist and social jus-dce movements and was quickly branded itithe tninds of those not personally identifiedwidi those movements as just another left-ist radical stance," he says. "Sustainability issimply the only conte.xt which our economycan funcdon in diis century, and it needs tobe loudly rebranded as that."

Holland, who holds professional degreesin laniiscape architecture and comtiumit)'atiil regiotial planning, went private andis now \ ice president of development forNew Monaco Enterprise Corporadon, acotnpany developing a large master plannedcommtinity in the Okanagan Valley of Brit-ish Cxjltittibia.

What's next?How will we cope when the world has ninebillion people (about 30 years from now)?Different visions for how we might oper-ate were set forth in the report. Our Com-viorn Future, known more commonly as theBrtinddand Report, published in 1987. Therejxjrt—a muldgovenitiient and mulddisci-plinary effort—recognized holism and sys-tems thinking as forces to solve a tmiversalproblem.

All sectors of society, according to thereport, must be acdve pardcipants and de-cision makers in a world moving into crisismode. But it is only now that cides, coundes,and states might be attetnpdng to cotne to-gether collecdvely and strategically—morethan 24 years after that much-quoted defini-don of sustainable development was pennedby former Norwegian Prime Minister GroHarlem Brtinddand: " . . . development thatmeets the needs of die present without com-promisitig the ability of future generadonsto meet their own needs."

However, despite a general acceptancethat sustainable development calls for aconvergence of the three rails of economicdeveloptnent, social eqtiit\', and enwotitiieti-tal protecdon, the concept remains elusive.W'Tien I am with fellow educators, stjstain-ability planners, and professionals looking for

wa\'s to become change agents of sustainabil-ity, the leaniitig curve seems steep for thosenot already immersed in climate change, sus-tainability, and grassroots tnovetnents.

At the Sustainabilit)- Leadership class, itis clear that many of the facilitators did notwant to tackle the big E in the triple bot-tom line: equity, hi fact, diey resist when Ichallenge their asserdons that Wal-Mart is amodel of sustainability.

Many dtnes I've heard people cite a bookpublished earlier this year: Farce afNatun:The Unlikely Stmy qfWal-Maits Great Revo-lution, by Pulitzer Prize winning joumalistEdward Htimes. But to me Wal-Mart is anexample of a company trying to use sustain-ability as a tool for its profit drive.

Using solar panels tnade in China andselling orgatiic produce from Chile do nottnake a sustainable cotnpany when oneconsiders the wage gap issue, for example.According to the April 2011 "Living WagePolicies and Big-Box Retail" report by Cen-ter for Labor Research and Educadon at theUniversity of Califomia, Berkeley, the retail-er could easily pay associates $12 per hourand sdU keep its profit margins by passingthe extra cost along to customers at the rateof 46 cents per Wal-Mart visit.

Even taking account of equity issues, issustainability an either-or propo.sidon? Notaccording to Michael Harcourt, a formermayor of Vancouver and, later, pretnier ofBridsh Columbia who is now an author andspeaker. He sees sustainability as a spectnim."I don't use terms like greenwashing," he says."I prefer to look on sustainability policies andpracdces as a condtiumn from easy to do, tovery hard to accomplish without major stntc-utral, atdtudinal, polidcal changes."

Motira Quayle also thinks along those

lines. She helped save sotne valuable ftinii-land on the University of Bridsh Colutn-hia campus for what is now a showcase forsustainability: the UBC Fann, where land,food, and community learning reigti at the24-hectare (about 59 acres) fenn.

"My field has shifted from being fbaisedon the built etivironttient to a focus on lead-ership and transformadon of the way peoplethink. And I atii quite pragtnadc," she says."For e.xample, I've tried to figure out howto be pracdcal alKjut how comtnunides c-anbuild dieir owti envirotitiients—for socialand envirotitnental benefits."

Steve Mouzon from Miami thinks aboutsustainability at the commttnity level. It'sahout "builditig sustainable places, so thatit then tnakes sense to build sustainablebuildings within diem," he says. "Sustain-able places should be nourishable, acces-sible, serviceable, and sectirable. Sustaitiablebuildings should he lovable, durable, flexible,and ñugal."

"Today, tnost discussions on sustainabil-ity foms on giztno green, which is the prop-osidon diat we can achieve sustainabilitysimply by using better equipment and bettermaterials," Mouzxm says. "We do need bet-ter equiptnent and lietter materials, but diisis only a small part of the whole equadon.Focnising on giztno green misses the big pic-ture endrely."

I Paui Haeder is a Seattle-based writer who hasbeen a newspaper journalist in Arizona, Mexico,Central America, Vietnam, Texas, New Mexico, andnow the Pacific Northwest. He wrote a sustain-abiiity column for the Pacific Northwest weeklyiniander in Spokane for several years and nowwrites about sustainabiiity and ciimate change forDown to Earth Northwest: www.downtoearthnw.com. He aiso teaches writing at Green River Com-munity Coiiege.

FROM APA For principles, models, benchmarks, and metrics, see AssessingSustainability: A Guide for Local Governments, PAS Report 565,published this July by the American Planning Association. Theauthors are Wayne Feiden, FAlCP, and Elisabeth Hamin.

GREEN CiTiES www.chicagociimateaction.org; http://ourgreencities.com;http://vancouver.ca/greenestcity.

GREENWASHING httpy/sustainablecitiescolleaive.com/mothincarnate/24900/how-greenwashing-really-can-makedifference;www.greenwashingindex.com/index.php; www.smartplanet,com/blog/mart-takes/greenwashings-toll-americans-get-green-fatigue/i 3392; www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm ?id=greenwashing-green-energy-hoffman; www.scientificamerican.conn/article.cfm ?id=greenwashing-environmental-marketing.

32 Planning December 2011

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