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Share your
community's story of sustainability with our online
audience
Leave us an
audio story
by calling
   1-888-654-2278
When prompted for
the 10-digit phone number you used to register,
enter
222-333-2222.
4-digit PIN
= 2222.
Click for details.
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e-Dialogues
Please visit our
e-Dialogues
web site for complete details on how you can join us as we
push the boundaries on internet communications technology.
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TIPS TO SUCCESS
TIP 1
Sustainable
community development relies on long-term integrated planning. Our unique
online Integrated Community Sustainability Planning Tool provides a
framework for any community, large or small, to develop their own
sustainability plan, independent of outside consultation, in a community
process designed to ensure implementation.
Click to download
TIP 2
Searching for info
on model sustainable communities or a set of operating
principles to guide you in your own development plans? Our Sustainability
Imperative Discussion Paper may be just what you need.
Click to download
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 Welcome to
Community Research Connections Issue 4
Sustainable community development
raises complicated social questions such as the meaning of place,
scale, limits and diversity for each community. Can there be too much
diversity, so that social cohesion is lost as well as shared meaning?
Why do human systems appear to be oblivious to optimal scale,
particularly as evidenced by recent food scares? Equally, what is the
dynamic relationship between place, limits, scale and diversity? Our
research team continues to explore this dynamic relationship through
engaging communities in dialogue around specific sustainable
development issues. If you have any thoughts, ideas or papers on these
concepts, please don't hesitate to share them with us.
Ann Dale
Royal Roads University
School of Environment and Sustainability
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Inner City
Neighbourhoods Threatened
Drs. Dale and Newman will be
presenting at the AAG meeting in Boston in April on the topic of
sustainable community development and gentrification. As concern over
environmental impact grows, "green" technologies and
developments have become popular additions to high-end urban
development. This change has been encouraged and facilitated by urban
governments eager to revitalize inner city areas.
In their presentation the team will draw
on case studies to examine the two sides of the growing popularity of
green development; though high-end green development can increase the
profile and desirability of sustainable technology, it can act as a
disincentive to grass roots sustainable development as such development
can actually threaten the affordability of inner city neighborhoods.
Ultimately "sustainability for some" is not a sufficiently
sustainable development pattern, and the debate should be reframed
to challenge the unsustainable nature of the bulk of current
development.
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COMMUNITY
SURVEY UPDATE
We are excited
to report that almost 3,000 Canadians from all major centres, and a
wide range of villages, towns, hamlets, and cities across the country,
have now participated in our Community Liveability Survey. However, we
have room for many thousands more so please help by sharing the survey
link (www.crcresearch.org/survey.htm)
with your friends and colleagues.
Results to
date suggest that we as Canadians are generally happy with the communities
in which we live. We feel safe, trust our neighbours and are
happy with the services and infrastructure that make up the fabric of
our communities. These feelings of trust are slightly greater in rural
areas than urban areas, but urban dwellers feel their services are more
accessible, and use a greater diversity of amenities than their rural
counterparts. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is a higher level of
casual meetings in rural areas where people are more likely to meet
acquaintances while shopping, picking up the mail, or dropping the kids
off at hockey practice. Where people have safety concerns they are
normally based on false perception (fear of crime) rather than reality
(concerns over pollution and traffic), but these concerns are at a low
level.
Our findings also reveal that survey respondents are largely been
skewed towards the more privileged components of society - with the
population surveys having a higher level of education and income than
the Canadian average. Please take a few moments to share your thoughts
on 'community' by taking our online survey at www.crcresearch.org/survey.htm. If
you would like to help us get our survey into every community in Canada
through your organization, group, or community newsletter, please
contact Chris Ling at chris.ling@royalroads.ca. Thank
you.
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Environments Journal features "United We
Can" case study
In a changing and unpredictable world,
sustainable community development is less a goal than a dynamic process
of working with the resources and information at hand. In order to
sustain this dynamic interactive process, communities need to
anticipate and respond to these dynamics and nurture their resilience
if they are to innovate and diversify. This is particularly
difficult for communities that are marginalized, dealing with poverty,
homelessness, and addiction. Authored by Drs. Ann Dale and Lenore
Newman, the paper focuses on the ability of community networks to build
social capital critical to the creation of the resilience needed to
sustain less advantaged communities.
Environments
Journal 34(2), University of Waterloo, Faculty of Environmental
Studies, Waterloo.
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 Sondage sur la
vie en collectivité
Si vous demeurez au Canada et avez un
peu de temps libre, nous aimerions lire vos réponses au Sondage sur la
vie en collectivité.
Vous pouvez le compléter en ligne à
l'adresse suivante: http://www.crcresearch.org/sondage.htm
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Case Studies
We invite you to visit our online library of over thirty
case studies in sustainable infrastructure and sustainable community
development. The site's dynamic interactive feature lets you
read comments left by previous readers, and add your own. Read and
comment on existing threads anonymously, or register to post new
topics. If you have a case study in sustainable community development
that you would like to contribute to our online forum,
simply contact us. Samples follow:
 Wind Power Generation
Wind power as a source of electricity has many advantages from a sustainability
perspective. It carries little ecological impact; produces no
green house gases; physically takes little room for implementation; and
substitutes for a number of environmentally problematic technologies
such as the burning of coal or gas, the creation of new hydro
reservoirs and/or the use of nuclear energy. Consequently, many see
wind power as a potential, if not an integral part of a sustainable
solution for Canadian communities.
Energy Efficiency for
Homeowners
By Josh McLean
and Chris Ling
 As a Kyoto
Protocol signatory, Canada initiated programs to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. The EnerGuide for Houses (EGH) program provided a financial
incentive to encourage homeowners to increase the energy efficiency of
their homes (related to heating and cooling). Despite the allure of
government grants and the financial benefits from energy savings, the
number of homeowners following through with upgrades in the EGH program
was relatively low. This research examines why homeowners took part in
the program and the types of barriers they encountered.
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 WEB SITE HIGHLIGHTS
Our on-line Community Research
Connections portal is a very young and vibrant site that embraces two
research projects by Dr. Ann Dale and colleagues: Bridging
Intellectual and Social Capital in Canadian Communities, and
a joint Infrastructure Canada / SSHRC project to study
the state of the art in sustainable
infrastructure in Canada. Site content will be growing
steadily from both our researchers and from readers like you. We
invite you to read, listen to, use, or contribute to any of its many
features.
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 Adding your perspective could
mean music to your ears!
Our research continues into the
links between people, the places where they live, and the degree to
which they are involved in their community. If you haven't
already participated in our Community Liveability survey, Please
consider doing so now by visiting http://www.crcresearch.org/survey.htm.
Five randomly chosen respondents will win an iPOD Shuffle as our
thanks. Your responses could well help shape the world you leave to
your children and grandchildren.
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