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Civic Ecology: A community systems approach to sustainability
Many communities and institutions have begun to realize that attaining sustainability requires careful attention to planning, constructing, and managing a comprehensive framework of community systems. Energy flows, local food production systems, local-global economic webs, social networks, community governance, resource sharing networks, and integrated land use and transportation are just some of the community systems that, when synergized in a specific place, constitute a complex human ecosystem or “Civic Ecology.” Nurturing this web of relationships and flows affords communities opportunities to enhance their local wealth (environmental, economic, and cultural), resilience, and competitiveness, and to take control of designing and managing their future. The Civic Ecology (or “community software”) approach, provides a context for the community’s future “hardware”: green building and sustainable infrastructure.
This ‘white paper’ describes the principles and benefits of Civic Ecology, as well as a planning process that communities can use to design sustainable, community-scaled systems. This approach uses The Natural Step backcasting process to help communities envision a desired future and create integrated systems to achieve multiple benefits. There are many communities around the US that exhibit varying degrees of Civic Ecology, including Portland (Oregon), Ballard (Seattle), and Burlington (VT). One advanced example is Chestnut Hill, a 300-year old community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, animated by a web of mature Civic Ecology flows and systems.
Civic Ecology Principles
Communities with a strong or burgeoning Civic Ecology all share several essential qualities, which can be translated into five principles. Specifically, Civic Ecology:
Employs a whole systems approach. Civic Ecology is the web of flows that animates community life. All great, enduring communities – whether rural farming villages, suburbs, urban neighborhoods, or institutions – have a refined array of locally-based systems that facilitate resource, economic, and social flows. Moreover, these flows cross sectors; that is, economic, ecological, and social systems are intertwined rather than set in opposition.
Focuses on place. The systems of flows must be focused within the community, and, to the greatest extent possible, must provide locally-produced energy, use local resources, enhance community economic multipliers, and draw upon social capital.
Requires a new social contract. Presently, paying taxes and voting in exchange for services are viewed as the defining factors of citizenship. Civic Ecology draws upon a community’s social capital by requiring active civic engagement in the creation, management, and monitoring of community systems.
Matches needs and assets. A community’s capacity to create a positive future is dependent on the assets and strengths it has developed over time. The whole systems approach seeks to understand problems in terms of their root causes and broader needs. Matching assets to needs is at the heart of creating community systems that will result in an enduring Civic Ecology.
Is dynamic. Communities are continuously-evolving organisms. Because of this, Civic Ecology must be designed as a “learning ecology,” – a web of systems that adapts based on knowledge gained through constant vigilance and monitoring.
Civic Ecology Benefits
Communities that have and continue to nurture their Civic Ecology enjoy five essential benefits:
A high degree of control over their assets and future by virtue of the fact that they themselves create both a community vision and the systems necessary to implement, and chart progress toward, that vision. That these systems rely largely on locally-based resources enhances community ownership and control.
Enduring wealth. Because Civic Ecology integrates systems flows across sectors, it is possible for a community to realize the multiple benefits of ecological, economic, and social wealth. The common alternative pits the economic, ecological, and social camps in “zero-sum game” opposition, resulting in economic growth at the expense of ecological and social impoverishment.
Resilience. Integrated systems that are locally created and managed generally result in richness and redundancy. An example is a diverse economic base of locally-owned businesses and local resource inputs that is less affected by rising transportation and labor costs. These businesses will not “up and leave” the community for a better deal elsewhere because they are of the community.
An enhanced sense of place. With globalization, and the increasing homogeneity that accompanies it, those communities that are resilient, distinctively local, open, and adaptive – and ultimately unique – will succeed as valued places to live, work, and play.
A deep sense of community: Citizens of communities with a strong Civic Ecology share in learning about their community and envisioning its future. They also collaborate on designing the systems to implement that vision and labor together to keep the community on course. They work with strangers, friends, and occasionally enemies to create a collective future for themselves and the next generation. In doing so, they become citizens in-full and experience a true sense of community.
The Process of Civic Ecology
To begin the process of creating a Civic Ecology, a community must ask itself five essential questions:
Where are we now?
Where do we want to be in 10, 20, 50 years and beyond?
How do we get to where we want to be?
How do we know if we are getting there?
Who wants to help answer these questions?
Answering these questions requires that communities embark on a process that consists of the following CIVIC tasks: Convening, Investigating, Visioning, Implementing, and Charting.
Convening: The community must first convene a Civic Ecology working group consisting of stakeholders from all sectors of the community: business, non-profits, institutions, governance, citizens, and activists. These stakeholders must be willing to put in the time and effort necessary to see the process through and most importantly, work together on behalf of the community. The group must be trained in systems thinking in order for them to see their community and its future in a different way: as a web of interrelated systems and flows.
Investigating: In this task, the working group investigates what works, what does not, what systems exists, and what needs the community has. This assessment identifies problems and their root causes as well as leverage points to effect change.
Visioning: As the first step in a process called “backcasting” (see The Natural Step), the community asks where it wants to be in 10, 20, 50 years and beyond. (For contrast, it may also be useful to predict where the community will be if existing trends are projected into the future (forecasting).) The outcome of this visioning can take a variety of forms but must always build upon the community’s shared core values.
Implementing: Led by the Civic Ecology working group the community creates the community-scaled systems that it believes will help it realize its vision (and thus “backcasts” from their vision of the future). Some systems may be new, others enhancements of existing systems that seem to be working. In either case, the systems must bring identified assets to bear in satisfying identified needs. The group must also acknowledge barriers, assign responsibilities, and delineate specific tasks for implementation.
Charting Progress: In this final, but never-ending task, the working group and community create a series of indicators that, when measured over time, will help the community assess progress towards realizing its vision. Periodic assessments and adjustments ensure that the Civic Ecology is truly a learning ecology.
Civic Ecology’s whole systems approach will yield a snapshot of the community’s desired future, the “software” necessary to achieve that future, and the ability to chart whether means and ends are in alignment. It provides the fundamental context necessary for making decisions about capital investment in “hardware” (buildings, streets, schools, parks, and utilities), economic revitalization, business growth and retention, main street improvements, and virtually anything related to the common good.
“How is your Civic Ecology?”
Answering this question is the ultimate community building exercise. It requires citizens to learn about their place, its strengths, its weaknesses, and its possibilities. It requires them to do it together, continuously, forever. It also requires new eyes (a whole systems approach) and constant vigilance. The rewards are many, and mostly for generations too young or not present to participate.
October 5, 2006 by Tim Smith
Timothy W. Smith, AIA, AICP is an architect, city planner and principal with SERA Architects in Portland, Oregon. Mr.. Smith is Director of Urban Design and Planning for SERA and Team Oregon, an L.L.C that focuses on sustainable development in the Pacific Rim. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania where he taught urban design from 1986 until 1994. His work has received numerous professional awards including a Progressive Architecture Research Award, a Pennsylvania Planning Association Award and awards in the International Cities Design Competition and the Community Solutions Competition, both jointly sponsored by the American Institute of Architects and the International Union of Architects. He has served as Vice President of the Portland Planning Commission, on the Portland Mayor’s Central City Roundtable, the Portland chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Urban Design Committee, and as President of the Chestnut Hill (Philadelphia, PA) Land Use Planning and Zoning Committee. Mr. Smith has lectured extensively on the concept of Civic Ecology and is currently working on a book on the topic.
Contact Tim Smith at: tims@serapdx.com |
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Civic Ecology
"The White Paper" |
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