|
"Sustainable
Development" TOOL KIT |
The Florida House Institute for Sustainable Development is a non-profit community organization located in Sarasota, Florida that works to facilitate change for a sustainable future. They view sustainable development as a process of continuous improvement where each new project contributes to sustainable communities. This practice is rooted in:
Seeking to understand whole systems:
- Social
- Economic
- Built
- Natural
Building capacity to act on that understanding through:
- Facilitation
- Research
- Education
- Demonstration
- Implementation
In addition to a deep practice base in our home community, Florida House provides consulting, facilitation and implementation support on a regional and national basis for other community organizations and initiatives involved in sustainable community development.
As we have been pursuing our
practice, we have sought to share our experience with others. To
accomplish this, we have been developing a framework for a "tool kit"
focused on helping communities move towards a process of "smart growth"
in their development patterns.
These materials were conceived as a beginning platform for a formal
process or practice of sustainable development that connects with
existing state and county protocols. It is also a way of sharing our
work with other organizations and individuals committed to this rapidly
evolving practice field. The development of these materials was done
with support from the MacArthur Foundation�s Sustainable Everglades
Initiative, the Elizabeth Ordway Dunn Foundation, and the Department of
Energy.
Currently, this tool kit is focused on those areas where we have
practical experience � primarily community planning and real estate
development. However, we have tried to structure the tool kit in a
modular way so that it can grow "organically" and include practices and
tools of other organizations and communities.
The tool kit includes two main parts - one focused on practice, and one
on theory.
Tools to Support Sustainable Development and Smart Growth
Practices:
- Present State Scan: This tool describes a process for assessing the current state of a communities natural, built, economic and social systems; identifying the assets the community has to work with; and identifying potential areas for initial project focus.
- Sustainable Future Search Conference: This tool describes a multi-day planning process for involving large numbers of community members in the development of a shared vision of a "future that works" for the community.
- Sustainable Community Indicators: This tool describes the process a community can use to develop a set of graphic indicators to assess its continuous improvement towards sustainable practices in its natural, built, economic and social systems.
- Civic Learning/Community Design Centers: This tool describes the design of the "new town hall" -- a physical place that can demonstrate the principles of sustainable development, convene the process, and provide institutional memory. These centers support the sustainable development process by providing a meeting place, a source for information and technical assistance and access to design and decision support tools like geographic information systems and planning simulation and indicators software.
- Designing and Building Demonstration Buildings: This tool describes a process for designing and constructing buildings that act as economic incubators and demonstrate the principles of sustainable design. These structures can be residential, commercial or civic.
- Sustainable Real Estate Development: This tool provides a practitioner introduction to the broad subject of "green" development � the practice of planning, designing, building and managing real estate development projects in ways that contribute to the continuous improvement of a community�s natural, built, economic and social systems.
- Discovery Charrettes for Real Estate Development -- The discovery charrette is a large group planning process for exploring the optimum development potential of a real estate project as it might contribute to a communities long-range plan. The discovery charrette process can also be used on a wide variety of other projects that require broad stakeholder input.
- Sustainable Design Elements for Residential Real Estate: This tool suggests some of the many design features that can be incorporated into sustainable residential housing development projects. It provides a basic "menu" of ideas for sustainable design in all four system layers.
- Urban Agriculture: This tool describes an economic development strategy for strengthening urban / rural enterprise. An urban agriculture project can be used to create economic "back pressure " to counter sprawl; build markets for urban waste; reduce the need for food imports; recycle water; convert abandoned land; demonstrate organic production techniques; and create micro-enterprise opportunities for community residents.
Each tool has a common format,
and includes the following elements:
- What is it? (A definition of the practice described in the tool.)
- What is the end result? (A description of what you tend to have when you are done.)
- When is it most useful? (A description of the circumstances where communities tend to find this practice adds the most value.)
- Connections to other tools and strategies. (How this tool relates to others, and which ones it is most often used in conjunction with.)
- How do you do it? (A list of the most common steps in the implementation process.)
- Ingredients for success. (Lessons learned about what make this practice successful.)
- Other resources. (People, books, publications, web sites and organizations that can give you more depth on the topic.)
The tool kit also includes a
number of sections that provide a theoretical framework and context
within which to understand the tools and how they were developed. These
include:
- About the Florida House Institute. A brief description of the mission, beliefs, and systems approach of the Florida House Institute for Sustainable Development.
- The Florida House Framework for Sustainable Development. Our definition of sustainable development; a description of the "four system layers" � natural, built, economic, and social; and an introduction to FREDI � how practitioners can use Facilitation, Research, Education, Demonstration, and Implementation to support sustainable development.
- Creating an "Operating System" for Sustainable Development. This is our call for deeper collaboration and investment in a professional "practice field" of sustainable community development. We believe we need to invest in a more rigorous body of shared information and knowledge; information products and tools; and more sustained practitioner networks to evolve this knowledge base.
- Overheads. For user convenience, we have included our most commonly used overheads for presentation purposes.
The tool kit we have assembled to
date is only a very modest beginning. There are many existing tools
being used by other organizations that need to be included.
The tool kit in its current form will soon be posted on our web site at
FICUS so it is easily accessible by others.
We welcome your reactions, ideas and contributions. We believe that
this field would benefit from more sustained interaction between
practitioners, and the development of more disciplined tools and
strategies to support our work. Most of us are grossly
undercapitalized, given the level of transformation to which we are
committed. None of us alone can afford the level of R&D
investment required to "get to scale" in this work. We believe we can
accomplish more by seeking to integrate our strategies, tactics and
tools, than we can by trying to differentiate ourselves to compete for
scarce funding resources.
We look forward to hearing from you if you share a similar set of
passions. Together, we can make our communities: "Home to a future that
works."
John
Lambie, Director
The Florida House Institute for Sustainable Development
4600 Beneva Road
Sarasota, FL 34233
(941) 927-2020
(941) 316-1203 (Fax)
jlambie@gte.net
