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Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
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4

Advancing Sustainable Communities

Elizabeth Willmott, project manager at Climate Solutions’ New Energy Cities program, discussed efforts at the city level to address climate change mitigation, focusing on a case study from Issaquah, WA. New Energy Cities targets cities with populations under 250,000 to meet aggressive goals for reducing greenhouse gases by accelerating climate solutions in a variety of sectors. Cities of this size want to do something on climate change and clean energy but do not have the capacity to implement many programs, she said. In a report issued last year examining innovation in 34 cities, New Energy Cities found that many cities were implementing clean energy goals for reasons that focused on the economic value and not sustainability principles. Incentives were varied; some were prompted by federal funding and others by self-financing efforts.

New Energy Cities has evolved from focusing on community visioning workshops to a longer view and deeper-level approach focusing on fewer cities. The program only works with cities that already have aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals or are on the cusp of adopting them. This ensures that the cities will actually achieve reductions and will contribute to the reductions needed on a planetary level. The approach is focused on greenhouse gas accounting and creating sustainable energy strategies based on this accounting that complement local plans. New Energy Cities worked with Issaquah to meet the city’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent. To do this, an energy map was created that depicts the complex systems of energy production, consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions flowing through Issaquah (Figure 4-1). The sources of energy are found on the left side of the diagram, and the lines flowing through represent the amount of energy generation from each source. This diagram helps to visually represent energy sources. Even though hydroelectric power is a major

Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
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FIGURE 4-1 Energy map for Issaquah, WA.
SOURCE: Elizabeth Willmott, presentation, May 29, 2013.

Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×

source of electricity for the city, coal-powered electricity from Puget Sound Energy is also a major contributor. Petroleum is mainly used for transportation and is a major source of carbon emissions, as is natural gas, which is mainly used for heating in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. The graphic is not designed to be precise, but rather to show the order- of-magnitude difference between energy sources, uses, and carbon emissions.

The next step after mapping the energy sources, flows, and carbon emissions was to address how Issaquah would be able to reduce emissions to meet the 80 percent reduction goal. Under a business-as-usual scenario, as Issaquah’s population grows, their GHG emissions will also grow. Reaching their reduction goals would require multiple strategies, but some existing laws would help, such as the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard and renewable portfolio standards.1 Other initiatives that would contribute to meeting the reduction goal include replacing all coal with renewable energy and implementing the state’s policy goal of reducing vehicle miles traveled 50 percent by 2050. It would also be necessary to address the existing built environment, specifically with the use of natural gas for heating purposes. Collaborating with other cities in the region could help provide a more unified dialogue with the regional utility and political entities to further practices and policies that could help these cities meet their GHG reduction goals.

John Robinson, associate provost for Sustainability at the University of British Columbia (UBC) discussed universities and cities as living laboratories. One UBC project that is addressing climate change and research is the Meeting the Climate Change Challenge (MC3).2 The MC3 project brings together researchers, practitioners, and policy makers from non-governmental organizations, provincial ministries, and three of British Columbia’s universities to identify emerging best practices and innovations in community climate change responses and to develop strategies to share policy innovations and facilitate peer-to-peer learning exchanges. The project aims to stimulate the widespread knowledge mobilization needed to move communities beyond the changes required by current legislation and policies.

The province of British Columbia in 2008 implemented a carbon tax of $10 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions, which increased to $30 per tonne in 2012.3 The unique aspect of this carbon tax was that it was revenue neutral by reducing corporate and income taxes at an equivalent rate. Although there was much debate about using revenues for green investments, by making the carbon tax revenue neutral it became politically invulnerable,

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1 The purpose of CAFE standards is to reduce energy consumption by increasing the fuel economy of cars and light trucks (www.nhtsa.gov/fuel-economy). A renewable portfolio standard (RPS) is a regulatory mandate to increase production of energy from renewable energy sources, such as wind or solar (www.nrel.gov/tech_deployment/state_local_activities/basics_portfolio_standards.html).

2 See www.mc-3.ca/whos-involved.

3 A tonne is also known as a metric ton and is a unit of mass equaling 1,000 kilograms (2,204 pounds).

Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×

since removing it would essentially be equivalent to raising taxes. The carbon tax clearly targeted reducing carbon-using behaviors, and it ultimately saves the average British Columbian citizen money, said Dr. Robinson.

British Columbia also has a community charter where the province challenges municipalities to be carbon neutral in order to avoid paying the tax. Most of the municipalities signed the charter and are committed to being carbon neutral; however, there is no clear path for these municipalities. Eleven communities were identified because they exhibited best practices that could inform other communities, and a peer-to-peer learning network was set up. Learning between cities is a very powerful way to extend activities, and setting up this network in order to share best practices was important. There were several key finding that resulted from these efforts:

  • The Province was an important driver by creating new programs or helping to accelerate existing ones.
  • Reporting requirements generated new metrics and allowed municipalities to institute a set of processes for recording and reporting these metrics.
  • Framing climate change policies in a broader context of sustainability allowed municipalities to do more within the policies.
  • The underlying drivers of consumption need to be changed in order to reach climate goals through climate policy.
  • Partnerships with senior levels of government and the private sector are important, because many decisions are far reaching and beyond the jurisdiction of a municipality.
  • Giving target setting capability to an external advisory group pushes the envelope on what is possible and results in stronger goals.

One role the university can play is to engage citizens in thinking about the future of their region and about sustainability, continued Dr. Robinson. UBC set up the Greenest City Conversations (GCC) Project (Figure 4-2). The technology now exists to engage citizens online and by different media. The unique advantage this technology allows is that hundreds of thousands of citizens could be actively engaging in thinking about the future of their city. Outcomes from the GCC Project include:

  • Desire to engage online is higher than desire for individual privacy.
  • Designing for emergent dialogue promotes peer-to-peer interaction.
  • Inter-institutional collaboration is critically important but has many barriers (e.g., different cultures, expectations, and timeframes).

Universities are also able to leverage the planning process. The Regenerative Neighborhood Project at UBC addresses redevelopment more holistically and aims to develop actual tools that the university can use in its own planning

Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
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FIGURE 4-2 Vancouver’s Greenest City Conversation Project.
SOURCE: John Robinson, presentation, May 29, 2013.

and development. One example is to take a map of the development process and then incorporate sustainability into the process (Figure 4-3). The challenge is to start adding capability to the process so that sustainability is automatically incorporated and built into standard operating procedure—what is referred to as the lens and the gradient. The lens refers to the additional tools, such as mandated integrated design into university buildings and mandated sustainability targets at the front end of the process. The gradient refers to how the standard operating procedure has changed in a way that these tools and practices are not able to be reversed but instead are done automatically. The concept of the lens and the gradient is the idea of continuous improvement: every project is automatically more sustainable.

The challenge moving forward is to develop a suite of tools and processes that can be applied more generally to other organizations and cities, said Dr. Robinson. Universities can play a role in this by using the campus as a test bed. Universities have unique characteristics. First, they are single-owner occupiers of significant capital stock. Also, universities can accept a longer payback. If the investment has academic value, then a 15-year payback is acceptable. Last, universities both conduct research and teach. The whole campus is able to be turned into a labora-

Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×

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FIGURE 4-3 Incorporating sustainability into development processes—the Lens and Gradient.
SOURCE: John Robinson, presentation, May 29, 2013.

tory for every sustainability decision made that affects the campus. The university is also capable of taking on risks and testing new innovative technologies because they are able to absorb failures, learn from them, and publish the results to educate others. UBC liberalized the intellectual property process and lets the private sector take the technology for commercialization. The university does not do any of the commercializing itself and works closely with the private sector in order to ensure that it is applied. The university benefits from this because it gives them a unique recruiting advantage for attracting talented students. These partnerships with the private sector are important, but partnerships with other entities, such as cities, are also key to incorporating sustainable solutions. For example, UBC has a memorandum of understanding with the city of Vancouver to work on district energy and the challenges involved in implementing it, such as low electricity prices, waste disposal, and transportation issues. This allows the university to engage the students and faculty on these issues, which solves real challenges and provides opportunities for learning.

Mike Hoglund, director of the Metro Research Center (Metro), discussed the role the Portland Metropolitan Region has played in mitigating and adapting

Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×

to climate change. Portland historically has been known for its planning, starting in the 1970s with the adoption of Oregon’s Senate Bill 100, which required comprehensive plans and the involvement of stakeholders in planning. In the early 1990s, Metro realized that the region was going to reach the limits of the urban growth boundary and that land needed to be used more efficiently. Work then began on the Regional Vision: The 2040 Growth Concept, which took the city’s comprehensive plan and expanded it to a regional scale.4 The plan had a regulatory component, and Metro had the regional authority to implement the plan, unlike many regional governments.

Presently, there are six regional outcomes that take a triple-bottom-line approach and are the driving principles in the 2040 plan: vibrant communities, equity, economic prosperity, transportation choices, clean air and water, and climate leadership. Regarding climate change, four main focus areas are being addressed: greenhouse gas planning from light-duty vehicles, analytical tools and methods development, a climate prosperity approach for jobs in the region, and climate preparedness and adaptation. To accomplish these objectives, Metro aggregates on a neighborhood scale high-density and mixed-use land use around housing, walkable communities, and alternative modes of transportation, such as walking and bicycling, and then connects neighborhoods with high capacity light rail and street car transportation.

One key result has been a decline in vehicle miles driven and an increase in bicycle traffic, Mr. Hoglund said. Since 1991, bicycle traffic has increased by six to sevenfold in the region. Residents in the Portland metropolitan area travel about 19 vehicle miles per day per capita, which is lower than the national average of about 23.5 vehicle miles per day. It has been estimated that driving four miles less per person per day yields a savings of about $1 billion per year for the region. Driving less also results in lower greenhouse gases. Metro has also been conducting greenhouse gas inventories to help establish a baseline and track progress toward targets. Because conventional sector-based inventories did not capture the dynamics of the Portland region, a consumption-based inventory was used instead. It includes energy consumed within the region, transportation emissions, and materials and goods consumed and processed for recovery or waste management in the region. Contributions from consumption were important to Metro from a policy standpoint, and they indicate where to concentrate efforts.

Strategic public investment has also been important for addressing climate change in Portland communities. Almost all funding has gone toward the 2040 plan, with investments in high capacity transit, multi-modal boulevards, and other travel options to reduce the impact of vehicle miles traveled. It has also been important to invest in adaptation, and over the last 15 years Metro has purchased 12,000 acres to protect open space and ensure they are militating against landslides, flooding, and development associated challenges. Targeted regulations

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4 See www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=29882.

Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
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are used for housing density, stream protection, parking management, street design standards, street connectivity, and multi-modal mobility corridors. In all of these efforts, the private sector and universities provide leadership and partnerships. Partnering among these entities offers expertise, governance, and research opportunities.

Lillian Shirley, director of the Multnomah County Health Department, discussed opportunities for local government to address climate change and create the conditions to improve health outcomes. The health community sees itself as a key element in sustainability; the community has been changing its language to avoid health jargon and instead to discuss co-benefits and working across multi-sector partnerships. Co-benefits include reducing the urban heat island effect, resiliency against climate change, and preventing chronic diseases. There needs to be more work on making sure that sustainability includes vulnerable communities, and one way the county health department has tried to engage these communities is by inviting community-based environmental groups, public health equity groups, and culturally specific organizations that represent ethnic and linguistic minorities to come to the table and join discussions around these issues.

The Health Department worked with the city of Portland to develop a health equity lens, which has been applied to a Safe Routes to School program and decision making around prioritizing resources to high need areas. Supporting school districts to secure transportation resources has been an element of this program. One school district that was experiencing poor health outcomes received $169,000 from the Oregon Department of Transportation, a grant that helped address the environmental and place-based issues that need to be supported for better health in the school community. Another middle school was awarded funds to construct crosswalks and covered biking structures. These projects were picked by asking the communities what they wanted. Another school installed water fountains that filtered water and took all soft drinks out of the school. Middle school is a key place to influence life-long behavioral decisions, and these programs help to set positive trends in the lives of children.

Food is also an important focus area, and the Health Department has a goal to increase access to healthy and local food and to improve healthy eating, said Ms. Shirley. This is done by identifying food sources that school commercial kitchens need and can source locally, and by teaching children where their food comes from, how to decrease carbon footprints around food, and how to pick fruits and vegetables that are in season. They also are working to ensure that Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) coupons are available at farmers’ markets so that these communities can have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Community gardens are also important in providing these benefits to more vulnerable communities.

Health impact assessments and outcomes are important to track and can inform decision making. For example, the Health Department tracked and mapped the Portland region’s urban heat island effect and found that it occurred mostly

Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×

downtown, along major roads, and around industrial areas; it was also found along communities with low-income housing. Reducing this effect would not only help address climate resiliency but also improve the health and welfare of the communities along these high-traffic corridors. Helping families feel that they and their communities are healthy increases their engagement, and continuing to engage citizens’ groups in discussion will increase the likelihood that policies will be implemented.

BEST PRACTICES FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

John Cleveland, president of the Innovation Network for Communities, discussed research funded by the Kresge Foundation and the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) on cities working to achieve carbon neutrality.5 This research, conducted in partnership with O-H Community Partners, determined the building blocks and developmental pathway toward carbon neutrality in urban environments. The study included an overview of power sources and their carbon levels. Carbon wedge analyses were reviewed, along with an inventory of 180 research projects on carbon neutrality. An 80 percent reduction in total emissions by 2050 was used as a proxy for carbon neutrality. Most cities have set interim carbon neutrality goals, and a relatively small number of cities have set long-term goals. Cities with populations of more than 500,000 that have the goal of reducing carbon 80 percent by 2050 only account for about 8.7 percent of the total U.S. population, demonstrating that solving the entire carbon problem in the United States by focusing on cities will not be successful. Some cities have developed fairly highly standardized sets of strategies and targets for addressing carbon neutrality, the study indicated. However, there continues to be a need for standardization, particularly for cities involved in developing these efforts.

Systems involved in meeting carbon-reduction goals include those for transportation, energy, and water, and all need to be redesigned, Mr. Cleveland said. This requires the owners of these systems to internalize carbon-reduction goals. Sustainability directors in cities can contribute to this process by motivating transportation systems, waste systems, electric utilities, and others to internalize these goals. Another challenge is that cities often omit consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions when developing targets for carbon neutrality. For example, the city of Boston does not assess emissions related to air travel into and out of Logan Airport. Cities do not adopt targets addressing these types of emissions because they are related to traded-good sectors that they either believe they cannot control or do not want to address because they may be related to economic development. Carbon neutrality goals will not be reached by relying on cities alone, but cities can serve as laboratories for innovation to drive state policy and inform federal policy.

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5 See www.carbonneutral.in4c.net.

Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×

Melanie Nutter, director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment, provided background on best practices to advance urban sustainability in San Francisco. San Francisco is setting ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Similar to a number of other cities, San Francisco has a goal of reducing carbon by 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2025 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. The city also has a goal of reaching 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 and zero waste by 2020. To achieve zero waste, the city has embraced several innovative policies, including a mandatory composting and recycling ordinance and a construction and demolition ordinance required for any commercial construction facility that diverts 65 percent or more of its waste from the construction site. In the transportation sector, the city’s goals include becoming the electric vehicle capital of the United States and seeing a mode shift of 50 percent to public transit, walking, and biking by 2020.

San Francisco developed financial incentives to motivate action, said Ms. Nutter. For example, GoSolarSF is a program that provides rebates to individuals who put solar panels on their homes, and this financial incentive has helped spur interest in renewable energy in San Francisco. Technology tools are key to making information accessible, and CH2M Hill developed an energy map in conjunction with the GoSolarSF program to better inform residents about the program. Citizen and community engagement is a critical component of sustainability, and the city is undertaking robust outreach and education campaigns to ensure it can meet its ambitious targets, Ms. Nutter said. In addition, a green jobs program that the Department of the Environment created four years ago called Environment Now is designed to hire underemployed residents from underserved communities, train them in eco-literacy, and employ them to work on behalf of the Department of the Environment.

Networks also serve as a venue for disseminating information, and the city of San Francisco works with three key networks: Green Cities California, which brings together sustainability directors from Californian cities to share best practices; the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), a network of over 100 sustainability directors who share best practices; and C40, an international network of the 40 largest carbon-emitting cities around the world. San Francisco also created the Business Council on Climate Change, a public-private partnership that provides an opportunity for the Department of the Environment to engage with the business community.

There are opportunities for cross-sector collaboration among federal, state, and local government, academia, and NGOs and the private sector, Ms. Nutter said. Cities struggle with engaging the private sector, and this is an area where cities could improve in order to advance their sustainability goals. Another opportunity is adaptation planning, which in San Francisco has been a way to engage cross-sector partners because of the many co-benefits offered by adaptation planning. Also, sustainable economic development is an area where collaboration would be helpful in better understanding how to merge the interests of economic

Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×

development and sustainability. The silos in city agencies are a microcosm of what exists at the federal level, and challenges remain in breaking down those silos and encouraging city agencies to work together. Cities are very interested in working with researchers and academics on turning theory into practice at the local level, but finding the right research questions to help extract the best definition of problems and barriers at the local level is also a challenge. Although the Sustainable Communities Partnership among the EPA, DOT, and HUD provides an excellent example of joint funding that encourages effective collaboration around sustainability, Ms. Nutter noted that sustainability directors do not have a large role in this program. It will be important for these agencies to engage cities when designing requests for proposals to ensure that the broadest constituency of local city officials and municipal employees can participate in the grant opportunity.

Susan Anderson, director of the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability with the City of Portland, discussed the city’s effort to address sustainability issues, including breaking down traditional silos. To encourage collaboration, Portland has merged the traditional land-use planning department with the sustainability office. Technology, behavior change, and urban design will be key to reaching sustainability goals. While technology is crucial to the transition, behavior change is the most essential element and poses the most challenges. With continued population growth in urban areas, additional tools are being developed to encourage a movement toward sustainability. For example, financial incentives have been effective at motivating change. “Normalizing” certain behavior that is consistent with sustainability principles is another approach to making such changes. For example, taking public transit, recycling, riding bikes, and purchasing green energy are now all normal activities in Portland. Federal and state governments can contribute to behavioral change by setting standards that encourage these activities, which will start to normalize them in every city. The city of Portland is working to make it easy for a sustainable lifestyle to be “normal.”

Framing sustainability issues in terms of the potential for economic growth has also been important to the city of Portland. For example, jobs have been created as a result of the demand for green building services; the industry has created a class of architects, engineers, and designers who specialize in green design. Urban design is important, particularly when making communities more walkable. It will not be possible to reach sustainability goals through technological development alone, Ms. Anderson reiterated; it will also require behavior change in the public.

Julia Parzen, coordinator of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), explained that the USDN allows municipal government sustainability professionals to exchange information and collaborate on best practices related to urban sustainability. This exchange is needed as cities continue to bring in many partners to develop sustainability strategies. There are four stages in developing a network. The first is the conceptual framing and identification of practice

Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×

examples. The second includes networking of innovators and proliferation of practices. The third focuses on the maturation of practices, including convergence around common methods and tools, integration of previously differentiated practices, and development of a professional implementation support network. The fourth and final stage includes the standardization of practices which are incorporated into formal training; as part of this stage, a reward system is developed to reinforce desired behaviors.

The USDN develops investment and dissemination mechanisms to encourage sharing with other cities, said Ms. Parzen. The network also includes a local sustainability matching fund to assist USDN members and their partners in collaborating to create, develop, test, and spread high-impact solutions for advancing urban sustainability. By 2018, the goal of the fund is to have accelerated the on-the-ground impact of key practice fields, attracted a large amount of public, private, and philanthropic investment in key innovations, and positioned the United States and Canadian local governments as “go to” sources for innovation. Foundations have demonstrated that they can be strong partners for sustainable development, she added. The USDN has partnered with the Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities to create a local sustainability matching fund. The USDN is also developing an “innovation survey” to track the status of best practices and their stage of development. The survey information will help the USDN focus its efforts. As ideas percolate, USDN tracks early adopters and how they use tools. To formalize these efforts, the USDN is creating an innovation advisory committee of outside experts in key communities of practice, said Ms. Parzen. This approach will encourage collaboration across federal agencies, universities, corporations, NGOs, and cities.

John Cleveland commented that urban sustainability is analogous to the story about the jet engine. All the technology needed to build the jet engine was in existence for 8 years before the jet engine was ultimately put together. It did not require a fundamental new technology, but rather just the right person to take the parts and put them together in a different way. Currently, many pieces exist, such as IBM’s Smarter Cities and the EPA-HUD-DOT Partnership for Sustainable Communities, all of which may be parts of a national system for innovation development around urban sustainability. There may be an opportunity for them to all fit together in a different way.

Susan Anderson from Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability commented that often the research questions are known, but there are not enough resources to pursue them. There is a need to fund the exchange of information, because there is great value in being able to meet and discuss best practices with other cities. Federal money is given to states, but that money tends to be given to smaller cities rather than larger ones, because there is a perception that larger cities can be more self-reliant. There is often much knowledge in these cities, but not the resources—whether human capital or financial—to be able to access that data and come up with results that can be shared with others.

Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
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Participants discussed the value in bridging resources and pools of knowledge, whether it be from private industry or academia. One example given is that in manufacturing there are institutions set up to do the translation from research to commercialization—entities like the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, which is a member-based consortium that aims to increase the global competitiveness of North American manufacturers through collaboration, innovation, and advanced technologies. Such organizations are intermediaries that help researchers bridge that knowledge directly with practitioners. There are few results coming forth at the federal level, some participants commented, but the local level has been very effective at making progress despite fewer dollars and resources by connecting communities, universities, and the private sector.

Jill Fuglister, program officer at Meyer Memorial Trust, discussed the philanthropic role in moving sustainable communities forward. Philanthropy in Portland has not focused exclusively on sustainability but also on different aspects of sustainable and equitable development in the Portland metro region. Part of this work has been through partnerships with Portland State University that apply research in order to help inform and support advocacy work in communities. Philanthropy is a capital provider and also a convener; foundations are able to bring together multi-sectoral organizations to discuss and address issues. A critical next step is aligning and integrating existing community-based infrastructure and connecting to other sectors involved in this work.

Meyer Memorial Trust reviews hundreds of grant applications from organizations all across Oregon, and a recurring theme is that organizations are collaborating more in networks and coalitions, said Ms. Fuglister; however, there is still much fragmentation among groups, and a need for better alignment. Part of this is the need to better understand what the landscape looks like and what organizations already exist before carving out space for new ideas. Fitting new ideas into current agendas and helping shape those agendas would better align many organizations. There are research opportunities to map out this landscape, identifying existing collaborations and gaps that need to be filled. Better understanding is also needed of the infrastructure of our civic organizations and the public, as well as of ways to optimize energy, water, and waste management systems and scaling issues around these systems. This understanding of these systems and scaling issues then needs to be matched with the civic organizations involved in public infrastructure. This would really help inform decision making moving forward, said Ms. Fuglister.

There is an ongoing perception that sustainability is a middle class issue, and social equity needs to be better integrated into sustainability discussions, she continued. It is important to reach out to marginalized communities and integrate their needs with the broader efforts around these issues. Often these communities do not have the resources or opportunity to participate in shaping these discussions, and there needs to be a better effort to reach out. As a capital provider, one instrument Meyer Memorial Trust uses are program-related invest-

Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×

ments, which are low-interest loans. These are an effective way to get resources into these communities. Another instrument are mission-related investments, which are more direct investments in mission-aligned opportunities. Although the majority of the trust’s funding is in more traditional financial investments, about 15 percent of the funding goes to socially responsible investment opportunities. Meyer Memorial Trust is looking at investments through the lens of the triple bottom line—social, economic, and environmental. One example where the trust is engaging these communities and working toward alignment of issues with civic organizations is Oregon Unlimited, a free online project management platform that allows Oregonians to raise issues, identify needs, and exchange information. The goal is to collectively take action, come up with solutions, and move those solutions out into communities.

Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×
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Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
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Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×
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Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×
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Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×
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Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×
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Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×
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Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×
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Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×
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Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
×
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Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
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Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
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Page 48
Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
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Page 49
Suggested Citation:"4 Advancing Sustainable Communities." National Research Council. 2014. Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18704.
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Page 50
Next: Appendix A: Workshop Agenda »
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Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Perspective from Portland and the Pacific Northwest is the summary of a workshop convened by the National Research Council's Science and Technology for Sustainability Program in May 2013 to examine issues relating to sustainability and human-environment interactions in the Portland metropolitan region. Topics addressed included the role of land-use restrictions on development, transportation innovations, and economic and social challenges. The speakers at the workshop used examples from Portland and the greater Pacific Northwest region to explore critical questions in finding pathways to urban sustainability. This was the third and final of a series of three place-based urban sustainability workshops - the other two workshops focused on Atlanta, Georgia and Houston, Texas. These public workshops gathered local, state, and federal officials, academics, and key stakeholders to examine how challenges due to continued growth in the regions can be addressed within the context of sustainability.

For more than 40 years, the Portland Metropolitan Region has been a national leader in urban policies and investments intended to revitalize the central city and adjacent neighborhoods, preserve the environment, improve equity, and make the city more economically competitive and livable. Portland has been both emulated as path breaking and discounted as overly idiosyncratic. Among the elements contributing to Portland's success have been strong public-private partnerships, a culture of planning, and a willingness to implement diverse ideas generated by federal, state, and local agencies, academics, and the private sector. Regionally, Portland benefits from its location in the middle of the progressive Cascadia Corridor, stretching from Vancouver, British Columbia, to San Francisco, California.

This report uses examples from Portland and the Northwest U.S./S.W. Canada region to explore critical questions about the future of urban sustainability. The report provides background about Portland and Cascadia, emphasizing policy innovations and lessons that are potentially transferable elsewhere; focuses on ways to leverage local success through partnerships with state and federal agencies, companies, and nongovernment organizations; examines academic and corporate scientific and engineering research that could help cities to become more sustainable; and addresses the challenging question of how resource-constrained cities can become agents for achieving broader societal goals not directly linked to their operational mandates, such as climate change mitigation, energy independence, and improvement in human health, particularly in low-income communities.

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