Welcome to the latest issue of our newsletter! Once a month we compile the most timely and interesting articles on issues and trends shaping our communities.
Brought to you by the indefatigable staff at the Columbia Institute.
In this Issue:
A Greener Way to Clean Schools
Implementing Transit in Small Communities
London, Ont to Ban Bottled Water in City Offices
The Politics of Parking
BC School District to Ban Bottled Water
Toronto Tower Renewal
Orangeville School Builds Straw Addition
A Greener Way to Clean Schools
The Ontario Ministry of Education is planning to create a template for a green cleaning program in schools. The plan would see all non-green cleaners removed from schools in order to improve the indoor environment. The project is currently in the request for proposals phase with a pilot project running from December - April 09. The project would create a toolkit to help schools go green and would be voluntary for school boards. Read more about the project here.
Implementing Transit in Small Communities
The Town of Canmore has released a report, entitled Transit Implementation Guidelines for Small Canadian Municipalities. The report, which was prepared as part of the Town of Canmore's transit feasibility study, includes chapters on cost considerations, figuring out who would use the system, designing routes, operational guidelines, and revenue collection. The Canmore Financial & Implementation Plan is included in the appendix. The report also contains a useful table of transit cost comparisons for selected Canadian transit systems, including Whistler, Stratford, Belleville, and a BC provincial average.
London, Ontario to Ban Bottled Water in City Offices
City council in London, Ontario has voted in principle to stop selling bottled water in city offices, cafeterias, and parks, in an effort to try to reduce waste. A December 2007 report revealed that many plastic bottles are not being recycled and are contributing to landfill waste. The city will promote alternatives to bottled water such as water fountains and provide access to water pitchers and refillable bottles. Read the full story here.
The Politics of Parking
There is compelling evidence that free parking causes urban decay and suburban sprawl, since parking is the single biggest land use in almost any city. Low meter rates cause congestion and pollution as motorists drive around looking for spaces and research shows that charging just the right amount will prevent this without scaring away customers. Charging more for parking can have a profound effect on the transportation patterns of a city. A 1990 study done in Los Angeles and Ottawa showed that when employers eliminate free parking, the number of commuters who drove alone dropped 41%. In 2000 a survey of the San Francisco Bay Area showed that public transit is used more often by workers who do not have free parking. The introduction of a "Cash Out Law" in California, where employers are required to offer their employees the cash value of their parking spot if they choose not to use it, saw a reduction in driving by 13% in Los Angeles. Read more about parking expert Donald Shoup's fascinating research on how increasing the price of parking can revitalize a city's urban core in these articles in the Toronto Star or in the Los Angeles Times.
BC School District to Ban Bottled Water
BC School District 42 is considering banning the sale of bottled water in its schools because of the carbon tax and the environmental impact of the bottles. Trustee Stepan Vdovine is looking at getting the school board extricated from its contract with Coca-Cola and is planning to file a Freedom of Information request in order to obtain a copy of the contract. This article also makes mention of other jurisdictions that have banned or are looking at banning bottled water: the Waterloo Region school board plans to phase out the bottles by 2009; school districts in Ottawa-Carleton and Toronto are voting later this year on the matter; and the City of Nelson, which has banned bottled water in municipal offices, recreation areas, and parks.
Toronto Tower Renewal
Toronto is home to the second largest concentration of high-rise buildings in North America, with approximately 1000 in the GTA. Many of these towers are those less-than-attractive concrete slab buildings which were very popular in the 60s and 70s and were built on the "tower in the park" model, where each tower is surrounded by large amounts of green space - often in farmers' fields. Now E.R.A. architects is teaming up with the City of Toronto in order to take advantage of this existing high density to make these tower complexes into sustainable communities. Graeme Stewart, of E.R.A. architects, looked to Moscow for ideas and found that towers like those in Toronto had retail plazas, kiosks, bike paths, farmers markets, and street furniture. Stewart is hoping to add health centres to Toronto's towers in order to make these small communities virtually self-sufficient. Stewart also sees a way to reduce 60% of the GHG emissions of these buildings through introducing solar, wind, and geothermal power, on-site waste management, urban agriculture, thermal over-cladding, and improved access to public transit. Read the Tower Renewal blog, hosted by E.R.A. architects, or check out the Tower Renewal website, which features a number of interesting links. Also check out the Columbia Institute's latest publication, Innovative Strategies: Ideas for Sustainable Communities, which contains an article by Graeme Stewart and colleague Michael McClelland.
Orangeville School Builds Straw Addition
Island Lake Public School in Orangeville, Ontario is building an environmentally-friendly addition to its school which will be made out of straw bale covered in plaster. Other enviro-friendly features include a rain barrel collector for toilets, a thermal heat exchange system (which will reduce heating costs), solar panels on the roof, and a small wind turbine. 90% of the building materials will be from within 100km of Orangeville. The initial building costs are approximately $660,000 but the school will earn some income from selling excess energy from the solar panels back to the grid. The school will also incorporate the addition into the curriculum as students will be able to measure energy generated by the solar panels. Read an article about the planned addition or click here for the school board's project approval report, which includes detailed construction specs and budget.