If You Build It They Will Come

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Cynthia Steinhauser | March 27, 2012

During my exchange to beautiful Townsville, Queensland, Australia I toured several building projects that had received a 4 or 5 star NABERS Rating. NABERS stands for National Austrialian Built Environment Rating System and is a general equivilant to the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) that we have in the U.S.  Buildings can receive a NABERS ranking of 1 to 5 and the higher the number the more efficient the building. However, NABERS takes energy efficiency to a whole new level.  Unlike the LEED system, once a building in Australia achieves NABERS ranking they must continue to perform efficiently as the ranking is only good for a few years.  Buildings must renew their NABERS certification every four or five years.  Recently the Australian Government has made a huge push to only locate their offices in NABERS buildings with a ranking of four or five stars, this leadership has helped to influence the private sector as well as more and more private developers are looking to certify their building as NABERS in order to retain or gain new tenants.  In addition, local lending institutions also consider a building's NABERS rating in the business plan before determining if they should lend to a developer and how much based upon the ability to attract tenants seeking to locate in highly efficient buildings.  One example I toured was a 20 year old building that received a $1.8 million upgrade (including high efficiency mechanical systems and lighting) in order to retain a tenant who was occupying 7 floors of the 13 story building. This tenant wanted to make sure they were in a buildng with a NABERS rating.  In addition to retaining their major tenant, the building saw a 30% savings in their electrical bill ($1 million annually to $640,000 and the return on investment was only 7 years) and heating/cooling and lighting complaints from the hundreds of employees in the building went down by 85%!  This is the perfect storm of a highly effective rating system that has an ongoing process to make sure the building is maintaining its efficiency, good public policy that rewards builiding owners with tenancy contracts for having efficient facilities and strong support from the private sector to fund projects that promote energy efficiency.  The lesson from Australia, if you build a NABERS rated building the tenants will come!

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Gateways

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Wendy Rampson | March 25, 2012

In the cities of Bogor and Yogyakarta, I've noticed gateway-like structures at road intersections. One of our hosts explained these are memorials of the Indonesian Independence Day - August 17, 1945. These arches are designed and built by residents to announce the entrance to their neighborhood. 

The importance of these neighborhood units in municipal governance had been surprising to me. When I hosted the Indonesian Fellows last fall, I learned that the public had limited access to council meetings, so I assumed there wasn't much engagement of the public in city processes. What I have since learned is the neighborhoods have a formal role in the governmental structure.

In addition to policy leadership by an elected mayor and council, the Indonesian democratic structure includes citizen representation at the sub-district, hamlet and neighborhood levels. Neighborhoods have 30-40 households and hamlets have 4-6 neighborhoods. The government engages most directly at the subdistrict level through participatory meetings for the budget process known as musrenbang. Teams of city staff visit subdistricts over a three month timeframe to learn about community program and infrastructure needs. At the end of the information gathering process, the planning agency reports this information to the mayor and council, which sets budget priorities for the following year.

This structure allows neighborhoods to advocate for their interests. We met with public works staff from the Sleman region who were tasked with relocating residents displaced by the Mt. Merapi eruption in 2010. The central government had concluded that residents in the eruption hazard zone should not rebuild there; they planned to buy their land for a preserve and assist the families in finding alternate housing locations.

Leaders from the affected hamlets met with representatives from the region to talk about the government's plans. Many were farmers and needed their land to make a living. After several months of discussion between neighborhood leaders and regional and central government officials, the plan was changed. Residents would not be required to sell their land. Residents who did not own another building site would be given the opportunity to purchase a home in new settlements, with a governmental "stimulus" of roughly 90 percent of the house price provided in exchange for sweat equity in the construction. These homes are under construction now.

In another case, Permeti Code (People Who Care about the Code River), a nongovernmental organization working with low income neighborhoods in Yogyakarta to attract tourism and reduce flooding risks, expressed to us that they have participated in the musrenbang process, but find coordination between city departments challenging. The residents' perception is that their priorities are not aligning with the priorities of the mayor and council. However, because there is a formal structure for this input, I believe their vision and persistence will bring attention to their issues in future musrenbangs.

The recognition of neighborhoods as a building block of communities is well documented in the urban planning literature. Until I saw it working here in Indonesia, I felt it was a romantic notion that had been replaced by our modern technological lifestyle. However, Indonesians are definitely tech-savy, and yet have managed to retain a sense of shared responsibility for their immediate surroundings. They organize and run their solid waste collection, cover daily "night watch" responsibilities, take care of the community owned playgrounds, and some even make money selling recycled materials, with the money going into a community coffer.

While some of what I have seen is engrained in hundreds of years of culture and religion, I believe that American communities can (and do) put their own spin on neighborhood engagement. As a planner, I know we can do better supporting this spatially by encouraging the ability to mingle with our neighbors where we live. This means neighborhood schools, even though they may be more expensive to run than combined campuses. It means allowing - and encouraging - live/work opportunities in homes and small scale commercial in residential areas. It means encouraging vertical housing to provide shared spaces for its residents to mingle and get to know each other. And perhaps it also means a formal seat at the local government table.

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Good bye and thank you

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Susanne Torriente | March 24, 2012

Every government manager should have the opportunity to have this type of professional and cultural exchange. I am so fortunate to have had the experience to immerse into Wellington City Council for two weeks. Nicci did an amazing job of preparing an agenda that fit my resume exactly - from climate change, sustainability, transportation, parks, landfills, waste to energy, utilities, coastal area management and local government strategy and policy. The extra treats included delicious meals, and even Green Drinks in the City and a traditional Hangi with the Mayor herself. Being in Wellington provided the opportunity to meet staff at all levels of government from central to regional, councils and districts. I true treat for a student of government. So I came all the way to NZ to find out how similar we are as people, as local government managers and climate change "co-conspirators" :) We share the same issues with our bosses, the elected officials and with the demands of the residents we serve. I feel that I have made true connection and in some cases, even friends. Thank you ICMA, SOLGM, and the State Dept for this experience. I will share more when I return to the states.

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Island Dreams

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James Keene | March 23, 2012

 

 

Island Dreams

When I prepared to leave Kaikoura,  District Council General Manager Stuart Grant gave me a lovely photographic book about his town.  In it was the following passage:

“Nature has unselfishly given us a gift.  It is up to us to care and preserve it for future generations.  We must manage it in a sustainable manner lest the future of the town and its people could be irrevocably affected.”

Before I left, I went for a run along the tip of the pensinsula that helps shape Kaikoura.  On bluffs overlooking the beach I could see the scores in the rocks along the water’s edge from the boats that had pulled slaughtered whales ashore in the heyday of the region’s whaling past. Today, whale watching and swimming with dolphins is a key attraction for the tourists who come to Kaikoura.

Whales are revered and protected, particularly the humpback, whose population dropped dangerously low in the last century. Today, the world protects the humpback, except for Japan, which continues to hunt. We all make excuses why we are exceptions, why the rules of nature can be ignored, or why we just can’t change.

Our rationales can appear viable within the limits of our time, or our understanding, or necessity as we see it.  In earlier days, whale blubber was boiled down for use in lamps that provided light for homes.  Japanese fisherman find a reason to continue whaling. When the Maori first came to New Zealand, large flightless birds, the moa, inhabited the island. With few natural predators previously, they were easy hunting.  They were all gone by the time Europeans arrived.

The benefit of visiting an island nation lies in the intimacy and immediacy of place.  Here, the sea is everywhere.  Here, it is harder to forget we live on a water planet with limits.   The earth itself is a small blue island, circumscribed  by a sea of cold darkness. It is as delicate and as impressionable as this small country at the bottom of the world. 

What is true for this little island in the south pacific is true for a continent like Australia, a country like the United States, and China, the most populous nation on earth.  Every choice we make has consequences.  In the larger space of seemingly endless land, or the busyness of crowds, or the heady demands of growth and economic survival of the fittest, maybe the unhealthy consequences of our decisions seem so distant as to be unreal. Does the scale of such places or our inflated view of the size of the earth allow us to ignore reality more easily, or excuse our responsibility away as collateral damage from the the way things are?  In the end, our excuses do not matter.  For the laws of nature are just that, laws.

So, the inevitable question is, always, what are we to do? In the face of such large problems, it will not be the technical solutions, or nuts and bolts answers that matter most (they may yet to be discovered),  but our awareness and will and the questions we are willing to ask.  The solutions will come if we are driven enough to believe that we can save ourselves from our folly. If we awaken to what we have wrought and the bleaker, diminished inheritence we will surely pass on to our children.  If we recognize, like the good people of Kaikoura, that nature has given us a gift, a most bountiful and generous gift.

Our future will be irrevocably poorer if we do not care for what we have been given, and own this truth: that the bad decisions we have already made must be redeemed through a new, deeper level of sacrifice and stewardship.  We have run up a massive tab that we must start paying down, before the world we had hoped to pass on to our children and grandchildren has disappeared, as surely as the moa did on New Zealand centuries ago.

If I came to New Zealand on the State Department and ICMA exchange to make new friends and to learn and share best practices—then that purpose has been achieved.  But the trip has reminded me, anew, of much more. There is no escaping from the fact that we all live together on a very small island.  And there is no end to the work I must do, ever, to care for and preserve the gift that nature has given us, for future generations.

I will not be content with little victories or the best practice of the moment, when I know that what is being asked of us extends far beyond such bureaucratic goals. The truth of every human being’s life has always included the advancement of civilization. Much of what we are doing around the world and in the communties within which we live, is not civilized. We should be ashamed. We have settled for so little, when we have been given everything.

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Hu is in charge?

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Rick Cole | March 20, 2012

If China is to avoid the kind of environmental meltdown that so many thoughtful Chinese and international observers fear, it must pursue sustainability with the same passion it has devoted to getting rich over the past thirty years. 

There is no question that there are Chinese leaders who are conscious of the stakes, but like leaders everywhere, they must strike a balance between what should be done and what can be done. 

The outward image of an all-powerful state run by an all-powerful party dissolves when viewed up close.  There is no question who is in charge – but in a society as large, diverse and dynamic as China, “all that is solid melts into air,” as Karl Marx noted about Europe during its industrial revolution.  There are new and powerful contending forces that clamor for attention and flex their muscles to influence political decision-making – including the emerging middle class, wealthy business interests, non-governmental organizations, grassroots protestors and international investors.

Our travelling companion in Beijing, Xi’an and now Chongqing is Professor Huahui Fu of the China University of Political Science and Law, has studied local governance for more than a decade.  Not content to observe things as they are, he has searched for an answer to how to change them.  Under the current system, he says, the key to effective environmental protection lies with the selection of the two most powerful figures in each locality – the mayor and the party secretary.

It certainly is a stretch to glibly compare contemporary local governance in China and America.  But city managers do have familiarity with the reality of shared power.  While the sources of power for the Mayor and Party chief in China are radically different than those of the Mayor and City Manager in America, one can at least agree that in each case those two leaders have disproportionate influence on policy direction and implementation in cities and towns.

Professor Fu argues that it is in the selection of the Mayor and Party boss in Chinese cities that the greatest leverage lies.  If environmental commitment and above all performance were given great weight in the selection process for top jobs, the leaders who would emerge would redirect local governance in a more sustainable direction.

Professor Fu is one of the eighty million members of the Communist Party.  He accepts the reality of its enduring pre-eminence of an organization that began at a meeting of twenty dissidents ninety years ago.  Yet he is also very much a product of a much older Chinese tradition of enlightened intellectuals that owes so much to the Confucian system that dates back nearly 2600 years.

Like so many of his academic and professional colleagues, Professor Fu seeks a way forward for China’s evolution from a third world nation into a successful twenty-first century society.  He understands the vital urgency of focusing on the environment.  So he points to a practical reform that can effectively bring focus to environmental aspirations.  He may be making a virtue of reality, but reality is where we all start.

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Small giants

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Matthew Naud | March 20, 2012

After a week I have found that the local neighborhoods are very strong. These neighborhoods are a tight knit groups of families that contain a wide range of education and incomes. Some nice homes in the middle of not so nice homes. Academics living in very small villages. For example, The local custom is for men to spend time on night watch. Night watch is a small group of men who meet on their night to protect the village but it sounds like they just spend time together and discuss the village needs...and watch soccer. Working with these neighborhoods is an important part of any environmental effort. The strength in the indonesian approach is to spend a lot of time building on the strong relationships that exist with the community. I have also seen that small efforts to get the economics right can have huge effects in motivating parts of the community to be more engaged. We visited a small village where a local academic saw that solid waste was not being managed and worked with the local community in 1997 so that 15 years later they have a complete recycling program and community waste water system that can fertilize the rice fields. There are local recycling committees in each community in Yogyakarta. Some take the recycled materials and create back packs and purses that they then sell. Local residents are paid a small amount for the recycled materials they bring in and value added products are created that are shared with the community center and the product creator. It reminds me of the book small giants where some companies have chosen to be great in their communities rather than franchising. These are some great examples that other communities here are trying to emulate. Very impressive strategies to integrate climate strategies into the existing community and culture.

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Dense suburbia is discouraging replication of American model

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Rick Cole | March 19, 2012

We have arrived in the third city on our fellowship itinerary, the megalopolis of Chungqing.  This Chinese giant boasts an urbanized center of seven million at the heart of a larger jurisdiction of 32 million.  It has been much in the news for the dramatic rise and fall of the charismatic Bo Xilai, the unusually visible Communist party chief of Chongqing.  His flair for a dramatic "war on crime" and outspoken views on China's emerging class divide led to the widespread expectation that he would vault from his membership on the powerful Communist Party Politburo to a seat on it's exclusive inner executive committee of nine-people when the party elects new leadership for the nation this fall. 

But despite Chongqing's economic prowess (or perhaps in part because of it) a mysterious scandal led to his ouster a few days ago from his local post with unknown consequences for his national leadership profile.  Bo's troubles began when his crusading police chief suddenly entered the US Consulate in the nearby provincial capital and was subsequently arrested on his departure.  Bo's ouster was announced by a key national party figure who was quoted in the official China Daily as saying:  "the CPC Central Committee made the decision after discreet consideration and based on current circumstances and the overall situation," obviously deepening the puzzlement.

We are staying in the remade financial and corporate area outside of Downtown, an area as sanitized of street life as any American edge city of the 1980s.  It is disturbing to see Chinese developers and planners pursuing the same soulless pattern of high rise "luxury."  The Chinese clearly thrive in urban settings and have a well-honed sense of human scale -- all of which is abandoned in this dense, suburban landscape of wide boulevards and auto-oriented office, residential and hotel towers.  Instead of the dynamic and rich fabric of streets of shops and restaurants, there are only vast dead spaces of stone plazas and decorative greenery. 

Of course, such building patterns continue in the West as well.  But not with the brazen scale and confidence that China is bringing to the task.  And in the forty years since Americans were first exposed to Jane Jacob's blistering critique of such arid habitats, a more human scale mindset has overtaken the celebration of big, sterile developments.  Even in places like Las Vegas, where wretched excess is a specialty "brand," newer developments like CityCenter at least mouth the cliches of "mixed use" and "human scale."  Not here. 

We look forward to seeing more of the City when we are freed from our car-bound exile when our hosts pick us up this evening for the journey to the center of the city.

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Cultivate Loving Spirit Through Action

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Jeff King | March 18, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

One could also hope that we can Cultivate Action through Love.  Dr. Wang in Beijing, when I asked him about whether he thought climate change was real said that “we need to address this global problem as a family.”  I was happy to hear such words from our friends in China.  The Venerable Master framed it up again for me when he said that his efforts include Cultivating Loving Spirit through Action.  Was uplifted again when, in Xi’an, at a middle school in the heart of town focused on environmental education, the young students, shared with us their posters and thoughts on environmental leadership.  They too said we all need to work together to save the planet.  A new generation devoted to improving environmental quality in a loving collaborative way.  That is the kind of action we all can support.

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Sunny results even in the rain!

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Cynthia Steinhauser | March 18, 2012

What a pleasure it has been to come to Townsville and meet all of the talented staff in the Integrated Sustainability Systems department! the thing that's struck me most me most is the passion the staff have for the work they are doing, the pride they take in each project making a difference and their loyalty and hometown pride - all of which is well deserved. I have had FULL days learning about the many projects Greg and his team have helped touch. We started our journey with a tour of Townsville and I am amazed at the sheer magnitude, size and diverse Eco-systems that exist in this area and all that has to be considered as they go about the day to day operations of making sustainability work in their community. We then had a wonderful overview about climate change in Australia from LGMA President Wayne Wescott who very much helped us understand these issues from a national perspective. more extreme weather events are presenting themselves and Australian communities are starting to adopt climate mitigation strategies as a form of self preservation. There is a huge awareness of the real cost of energy for citizens and it's Impact on the environment and the Australian Govt has set an admirable target of 20% renewable energy by 2020. It seems to be a target that Greg and his team have personally championed as they seek out ways to support projects to include the installation of solar energy systems. it boggles the mind how many units they have helped install on projects (industry, downtown streets ape projects etc). Even residences are getting in the game in a big way as they have solar put on their home as a way to curb large quarterly electric bills. the most impressive is the Solar City project on Magnetic Island that is being managed by Ian and Julie from Ergon Energy. This project has it all community engagement, creative solutions, major penetration rate as they set out to install hundreds and hundreds of Photovoltaic panels on residences, businesses and public infrastructure and the single most comprehensive campaign I have evere seen to educate its participants and the residences and visitors of Magnetic Island on how to change behavior around energy consumption and reducing the burden on peak demand load in particular. The results? nothing short of AMAZING as they not only reversed the trend line for energy usage On the island by about 40% this project has helped delay the installation of a large (and quite costly) third energy transmission line being run from the mainland to this lush beautiful island! It brings to mind the Margaret Mead quote "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world. Indeed it's the only thing that ever has" Lastly what is refreshing is the relationships Greg and his team have nurtured with the local representatives of Ergon Energy who seem to have a huge respect for Greg and his work and willing to think outside the box to deliver great solar projects. In the end they know it will help them as they work in cities across Australia - they really get it and want to be responsive. I think that's a direct cause and effect from Greg's natural passion for his work and focus on building local relationships. There is so much more to write about the businesses and NGOs that we met "get it" and how easy it is to be inspired by their work.

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Infill Agriculture

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Wendy Rampson | March 17, 2012

Dairy cow in urban Bogor

It’s field trip day.  We are making our way by van through the narrow streets of Bogor’s neighborhoods.  The houses are one- to two-story buildings, side-by-side and up tight against the street.  Prosperous homes share walls with humble ones.  People are everywhere.  I never realized that low-rise development could be this dense.

Late in the morning, the van scattered a herd of goats and pulled into a courtyard.  We were greeting by a wiry, gray-haired gentleman, who gestured us to follow him to a roofed structure.  Peeking around the wall, I came face to face with a cow.  Unbelievable.  Here in the midst of this packed urban neighborhood was a small dairy herd.

The farmer showed us how manure is washed down into a concrete septic tank.  The tank is connected by pipes to a methane tank nearby.  This tank in turn is connected by a hose to a small cooking stove nearby.  With obvious pride, the farmer demonstrated the system by lighting a burner on the stove.   A few minutes later, the farmer led us several houses down the lane to another small dairy, also with a bio-digester and cook stove. 

Bapak Farmer explained that there were 30 such dairies in his neighborhood, with a total of 300 cows.  The milk is collected and sold as part of a cooperative.  He had been born in the neighborhood when it was pasture land, but when development started in the 1960s, his family adapted to continue the family vocation.

So is this a transferable example of sustainable urban agriculture?  Clearly, these tight quarters are not a great environment for the cows.  But the ability for a family to make a good living and provide fresh milk to the neighborhood are pluses on the economy and equity side. The simple bio-digester technology minimizes the negative impacts on the environmental side.  

The question this raises in my mind is whether the small-scale US farms that have been surrounded by suburban development can be encouraged to stay and adapt to their new environment.  This could be done by ensuring zoning allows for agriculture to remain in newly established residential areas and by finding ways for farmers to limit the impact of their operations on their neighbors.  The bio-digester technology could be an important contribution to this effort.

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Kaikoura New Zealand: How a small community leads

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James Keene | March 17, 2012

In a tiny town on the east coast of the South Island, Stuart Grant and his small staff are greening their tourist town.  Prompted initially by northern european tourists who pushed for  a greater envronmental focus, Stuart says that green is ingrained in his community now.  Waste stream diversion is 80%.  His region is one of the first to acheive Earth Check standards recognition.  I think of how many small cities in the U.S. think that sustainability is beyond their means.  Kaikoura shows a path to a richer future, envuronmentally and financially.

Is there any location more lovely on the globe than Kaikoura?  Snow capped mountains (already!) crash into a sea that can attain almost caribbean blue color.  Seals bask in the sun along a well travelled tourist path.  People from around the world come to whale watch here (both resident and travelling whales) or swim,really, among hundreds of dolphins.

 

Stuart Grant and Jim Keene outside Kaikoura District Council Offices

But the city wrestles with more challenging issues of ecology--water quality, how to reuse sewage sludge, cost-effective composting of organics in a small scale city.  

 

Kaikoura: small town on the south pacific

Kaikoura cares and is succeeding.  What holds other small towns back?

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Christchurch plans for a new future

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James Keene | March 17, 2012

My apolgies.  My picture from Christchurch got attached to a previous post.  Here it is again.

I traveled to Christchurch, scene of a devastating series of earthquakes over the past year. The attached picture doesn't reflect adequately the extent of the damage to the CBD of the City and beyond.  Many to most of the taller buildings still standing in the CBD  will have to come down.  When we think of sustainability, we often don't reckon with ground zero perspectives-how do we go on, how do we rebuild beyond our comprehension a new city, that will last, and be better than before? In Christchurch, amazing staff are rapidly redesigning their city through a process rich with citizen engagement, and including perspectives on a greener, and more resilient community.  Are any City Managers on the globe dealing with more than our colleagues in Christchurch??  On the day of my departure, yesterday morning, I met with Simon Markham, with the Waimakariri District Council, a suburb, so to speak, of Christchurch that was hit hard by the earhquakes in the region. 

 

Christchurch CBD

A report he shared with me ended with this quote from Rebecca Solnit 2009 (A Pardadise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Aris in Disaster):

"What most people believe and what actually happens in the aftermath of a disaster are two different things. The movies, the media, and the authorities have too often insisted that we are a chaotic, selfish species and ought to fear each other. Yet in the wake of almost every major disaster a wave of altruistic and brave improvistion saves lives, forms communities, and shapes survivors exeriences."

"The most startling thing about disasters. . . is not merely that so many people rise to the occasion, but that they do so with joy.  That joy reveals an ordinary unmet yearning for community, purposefulness, and meaningful work that disaster often provides."

"These spontaneous acts, emotions, and communities suggest that many of the utopian ideals of the past century are not only possible, but latent in everyday life.  A disaster can be a moment when the forces that keep those ideals from flowering, those desires from being realised, fall away."

We sit poised on the edge of disaster of monumental proportions and on a planetary level that will reshape our societies, communities, and our everyday life.  It will not strike so quickly as an earthquake-- 25 seconds of hellish ground movement--but insidiously, over time.  Right in this momement it is happening. The fruits of its terrible labor will be harvested by the generations that follow us.  While my visit to Christchurch was to see the realities of an earthquake-generated disaster (a probablity that my city and many in California and elsewhere along the Ring of Fire face) and meet with the city's leaders charged with recovery and the creation of new future. . .  it reaches beyond that.  Christchurch shows us  a picture of a future where the challenges of our cities are multiplied 100-fold over where we are today.  Which is why each of us must lead in our cities and reach out to others around the globe--sharing best practices, getting inspiration, and sustaining our own determination to take care of business on our watch. We may not face an earthquake but we all face the balancing-act- consequences of a planet thrown out of equilibrium (but only temporarily) by our actions.  The planet always wins.  We have a lot of reconciling to do.

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Wandering Through New Zealand

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James Keene | March 17, 2012

So, I have been up and down the counrty quickly in the first week here.  Three days in Auckland, NZ's largest City, just over two days in Christchurch on the South Island, and now a drive up the east coast,

 

Jim Keene addressing Economic Forum of Auckland City Council

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The Organizational Chart for Coal

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Jeff King | March 16, 2012

NRDC

 

One issue that is clear, it is no simple task to understand how the government here in China, at all levels, is set up to effectively handle the enormous task of addressing climate change.  There is talk of new experimental districts, new energy cities, low carbon plans, eco-cities, but if you ask the environmental staff about specific issues, the response is often – that is the responsibility of another department, or those plants are under the control of the central government. 

What is clear is that the leaders are rewarded based on their performance.  But their performance is not just meeting environmental performance targets, it’s associated more strongly with whether they achieved economic or business development goals.  Their time is perhaps more strongly spent on social management, and in selecting the next round of leaders to support them in their work.  They may care deeply about the environment at a personal level, but in many ways their hands are tied, and achieving real and lasting improvement in the real measurement of environmental performance is elusive.

The photo attached, displayed at the office of the Natural Resources Defense Council in Beijing does a good job illustrating the complexity of just one area of concern – coal.  They rely on coal heavily here.  While all of the heating plants in Beijing were converted to natural gas, here in Xi’an, there supposedly isn’t sufficient supply of natural gas to enable a conversion so coal is king.  As you drive through the city and see the awesome and troubling expansion of high rises in place of green space or human-scale villages, each one getting their own provincially-controlled “chimney”, one thinks that try as they might to regulate emissions from automobile tailpipes, the grey air shrouding their cities may be a longstanding fixture for this generation.  Living by the rule of framework, plans, targets, and promotion incentives may not get them there.  Achieving the rule of law for things like allowable air or water pollution concentrations does not seem to be in the cards.  How they then take the leap to then address climate change is altogether another matter.    

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China's Future

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Rick Cole | March 16, 2012

Over dinner, a bright young environmental scientist shared her optimism for China's future.  "When people have little, they are concerned with survival," she noted.  "As people gain enough to live, they can pay attention to higher things like protecting the planet."

Certainly there is growing awareness of the staggering consumption of current and future resources that China's rapid development is engendering.  Today we visited a middle school in Xi'an organized around the theme of environmental stewardship.  This "green school" takes fervent pride in the devotion by staff and students to environmental education, projects and advocacy.  The 13 year-old student leaders we talked to were articulate and outspoken in their passionate focus on the need for a sustainable future.  One gave me her own trademark work of art -- a recycled soda can wrapped in reused paper which she also uses to create an elaborate flower blossom inserted into the drinking slot.

But even if national leaders are calling for a slowing of economic growth to promote more sustainable development and an increasing number of young Chinese are embracing environmental values, the explosion of consumer marketing is fueling a generation with money in their pockets and a desire for a lifestyle far beyond the reach of their hard-working parents.  Last year, nearly 18 million new cars were sold in China, far outpacing demand here in America.  In Xi'an, with a population of 8.4 million, there are now 1.4 million registered vehicles.  Despite efforts to curb demand, including high taxes, there is no sign of abating demand.  Here in the largest city in China's central north, roads, factories and high rise residential complexes are under construction for mile after mile on the periphery.  All this creates a booming central trade area that might be best described as "the great mall of China" -- except that it is overshadowed by the even more gargantuan shopping districts in virtually every Chinese metropolis.

Generalizing about China is dangerous, especially from our limited perspective.  Predicting its future is even more problematic when talking about the most dynamic society on the globe.  Even well-informed Chinese academics struggle to anticipate the future direction of this country on the move.  Will it continue on its current breakneck pace, counting on political stability and evolving technology to overcome resource constraints -- or will growth slow as it has done in Japan to allow society to catch up with economic change?

It's a question of values -- a question that the next generation of Chinese leaders will help determine.  Which makes it all the more interesting to watch what is shaping those values today.

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Bend the Mind

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Rick Cole | March 16, 2012

It is one of those staggering numbers that bend the mind.  Between 2010 and 2025, Chinese authorities project that the population of their cities will grow by another 300 million.

That means that the Chinese are recreating an urban environment as large as all American cities and suburbs combined -- in just fifteen years.

Unfortunately "recreating" is more true than not -- the Chinese are rolling out an auto-dependent landscape that will be traffic-choked and inefficient, despite their tall residential towers.  Officials and observers in China are telling us that the very scope of their challenge dwarfs the ability of orderly planning to cope.  China is a country in a hurry and despite the best intentions of many official and unofficial leaders, it has no time to think about the consequences of the cumulative impact of the changes taking place at massive scale and breakneck speed.

That the nation has come so far so fast is a source of visible pride, even among those responsible for warning about environmental consequences.  As an ICMA Climate Fellow, I am traveling to three Chinese cities with my colleague Jeffrey King of the Washington Metro Council of Governments.  Yesterday we met with a team of top environmental protection officials and their young staff in Xi'an, China's ancient capital.  The assistant director of the Xi'an Municipal Research Institute for Environmental Protection, GAO Rong, told us over dinner that she believes that things are actually better than they were a decade ago -- and has hopes they may be better still a decade from now.  She points to the continual stress on balancing growth with environmental concerns that is coming from leaders of the national regime.

Yet all are painfully aware of the disconnect between good intentions and realities on the ground.  While authorities are waging a titanic struggle against China's pall of urban air pollution, farm land continues to be gobbled up for auto-oriented industrial and residential development that will inevitably drive up vehicle traffic and demand for energy resources.  While showing careful sensitivities to the sincerity of many local officials, officials at China's outpost of the Natural Resources Defense Council (the American NGO) candidly stressed that those local officials have little option given the squeeze on local finances.  The central government is enthusiastic about bankrolling massive public works projects, but paying to maintain them and other mundane services falls to local authorities who lack sufficient power to tax.  Instead, they are incentivized to convert huge swaths of territory to development schemes that are the antithesis of "walkable communities" and as American suburban experience shows, will render public transit alternatives sparse and inefficient.

We have, of course, only scratched the surface of the complex challenges facing the Chinese nation.  What is most encouraging is the tremendous open-mindedness and concern we are encountering everywhere we go.

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Day of Hope

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Sally Palmi | March 16, 2012

Today was the day of hope.  We visited first, a Green 3 R’s Elementary school.  I was not prepared for what we would see.  Students, faculty, staff and parents all energetically and actively involved in doing all they can to REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.  Now this is serious folks, the children and their families have grown and planted over 600 trees at the school.  They bring reusable water bottles to school, recycle all paper and card board and eat healthy, sustainable foods at school.   They compost and use the compost to fertilize their plants, they have a clean water project and they collect plastic waste from all he families to make handicrafts.  The crafts are sold and the money is saved in case a student is sick or needs help and they give the money to the family.  This is all done through scientific and documented experiments and projects.  Not to mention, the children are happily singing REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE throughput the day.

After that we visited the most acclaimed High School in Indonesia for environmental education.  We received a presentation on the 3R’s from the students and then spent the next hour and a half discussing Climate Change and Global warming one on one with these engaged students.  There insight into the problems and possible solutions is insightful.  they are determined to help be a part of the solution to better living in Indonesia.

Between the two visits, it is clear, there is hope.

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Bogor

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Matthew Naud | March 15, 2012

Day 2. Bogor The city of Bogor is beautiful. Lush greenery along the roads and a beautiful presidential palace with 2500 small deer living on the grounds. We arrived at the city buildings and were met by the city secretary and senior staff from public health, environmental management, regional development, transportation, public space cleaning, and governance. Translators assisted with any presentations provided in bahasa Indonesia and allowed for more clarity in our series of questions and answers. Overall an impressive set of presentations. Transportation planning in a city of 1 million and built on a series of large hills with steep valleys and a river cutting through is difficult to say the least. Like the US, many people here live in Bogor where housing is less expensive and commute to jakarta which can be 30 min by train or commute by scooter or car which is cheaper because of low fuel costs but can take two hours. There are many small private buses that are now shifted so that they are not all on the roads on the same days. Because many people leave jakarta to visit bogor they are planning for park and ride lots at the edge of the city to move more people onto public transit. The recent effort to stop smoking in buildings and public places is very impressive. It's based on a new law that took many years to get into effect and Bogor is the first city in Indonesia to implement such a ban. The impressive piece is the amount of public engagement Including deputizing the community to remind people not to smoke in these spaces and exchanging cigarettes for flowers or candy in some cases. Great ideas and so fitting for the kindness in the culture. Picture to follow when I can figure out how to make it work from the iPad or work on another machine.

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Introduction to Jakarta Solid Waste

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Sally Palmi | March 15, 2012

As some of you may know, my focus is on sustainable solid waste management.  As an introduction to what the challenges are in Indonesia to manage resources that effect  climate change, I encourage you all to view this BBC You Tube video on The Bin Men of Jakarta 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIto4q5K7OM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

From this point forward we will attempt o show you and explain to you, what this massive undertaking of managing climate change in this densely populated, diverse country looks like.  This is a dedicated effort by caring individuals who realize that making this paradigm shift in the way they manage their resources, is imperative to the success of a sustainable future for Indonesia.  From the neighborhood farmer to the National Council on Climate Change, these people are serious.  We should all pay attention.

Our bin man in Jakarta - 12 March, 2012

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"Jammed"

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Wendy Rampson | March 14, 2012

Cars and motorbikes compete for space on Jakarta's jalan.

Mr. Hauto from Bogor’s Transportation Department provided some statistics that illustrate a problem facing communities throughout the world:

• Annual growth in private vehicles = 5%
• Annual growth in public transportation infrastructure investment = 1%

He concluded that the result is jammed roads and large transportation costs to the city.  The unspoken additional cost is to the atmosphere as emissions rise with the use of private vehicles.

Bogor is a beneficiary of Indonesian’s successful economy, which is growing at a rate of 6.5% per year.  This growth provides opportunities for a country of 230 million people, but brings with it a very Western problem - the dominance of the car (and motorcycles, in the case of Indonesia) and the spatial divide between jobs and housing.

Several employees of APEKSI, our host organization, live outside of Jakarta in cities such as Bogor and commute up to two hours each way, often on motorcycles.  They do this because the cost of housing in Jakarta is so high, and the trains and busses are packed.  The low fuel prices also make individual transport more affordable than transit.  

Mr. Hauto’s department recognizes that more public transport is necessary to keep the streets of Bogor from being jammed, even with 50% of trips already taken on transit.  While the city’s long-term goal is to implement bus rapid transit, it acknowledges it must start first with improvements to small bus transport, which currently is competing with larger buses on main routes.  Small private buses carry up to 10 passengers and operate a bit like a taxi, but on a fixed route.   The city is developing a licensing arrangement that would limit where these buses are allowed, creating a feeder service from neighborhoods to the main bus routes.

Bogor is also exploring a park and ride strategy for tourist traffic, capturing vehicles at the edge of the city and providing quick transit options to hotels and destinations.  The city has limited ability, however, to restrict parking supply or increase enforcement.  And as long as the preponderance of jobs are located in Jakarta, it may be difficult to make headway with traffic demand management strategies only.     

I came away impressed with the determination of Mr. Hauto and his colleagues to make the transportation system work for Bogor residents and visitors.

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