A Civic Engagement Model for Sustainable Initiatives:  Greenbuild International Conference

Speakers:

• Linda Dickerson-Hartsock | Director, Connective Corridor, Office of Community Engagement and Economic Development, Syracuse University
• Owen Kerney | Assistant Director for City Planning, Syracuse – Onondaga County Planning Agency
•  Andrew Potts, PE, LEED AP+, CPESC | Senior Technologist for Water Resources,  CH2M HILL

Overview of presentation:

Over the next 15 years, cities around the world face unprecedented challenge.  By 2030, it is estimated that 60% of the world’s population – or 5 billion people – will live in urban centers.  This rapid acceleration presents two challenges:

•  Over-industrialization, sprawl and environmental issues for rapid growth areas – including the U.S. and globally in emerging economies
•  The challenge of reinvestment in older post-industrial “legacy” cites that have aging infrastructure and older building stock with energy efficiency issues, and require a comprehensive “rebuild” and “reinvent” approach, but face financial obstacles due to tax base constraints and other financial hurdles

 Both are critical because cities are the largest contributor to the global carbon footprint.

 The McKinsey group suggests that the solution to both challenges is a three-prong strategy to:

• Implement smart growth
• Do more with less
• Create new partnership and governance models to leverage resources and expertise, and bring a creative new dynamic to problem solving

 This workshop explored the Connective Corridor as an example of a public-private sector partnership that exemplifies some of those best practices in sustainability, smart growth and shared governance.   Project sponsors include Syracuse University, City of Syracuse and Onondaga County. 

The Connective Corridor brings together cutting-edge urban design and development with initiatives around the arts, culture, technology, and sustainable development.   The largest civic infrastructure in more than three decades, the Connective Corridor links universities, medical institutions and R&D centers, and arts and cultural venues with downtown central business districts and neighborhoods. 

The project has earned international acclaim as a creative placemaking strategy to reinvent a post-industrial “legacy” city through a partnership model to accelerate growth through sustainability and infrastructure investments designed to create mixed-use walkable, bike and transit-friendly, revitalized urban cores.

The workshop used the Syracuse Connective Corridor model to illustrate how to build a partnership strategy that includes pedestrian pathways and complete streetscapes, green infrastructure, “green” bikeways, urban parks and green spaces, public transit and smart transportation, green building, and the integration of public art and new technologies developed by a regional entrepreneurial cluster.  It demonstrated how this model can catalyze new private sector investment, and foster a vibrant creative community and robust economy based on new models for economic development.  It also addressed a strategy for building a new civic engagement/social entrepreneurship infrastructure. 

The presentation also focused on how partners raised nearly $50 million in funding for the project and how that public investment led to $1.4 billion in projects local universities, medical institutions and the private sector across the project area.  It outlined partner roles and responsibilities, including the formal MOU’s and complex project coordination.

The workshop highlighted sustainability aspects of the project which include:

•        Complete street design integrated with pedestrian and bike pathways and traffic-calming measures to encourage multi-modal use;

•        Innovative green infrastructure design (using tools such as rain gardens, geogrids, bioswales, porous concrete parking lanes, permeable pavers, tree trenches, native landscaping) o  harvest and manage 22 million gallons of storm water annually;

•        Free public transit with integrated bus stops and smart transportation technologies to enhance usage (which increased from 6,000 to 190,000-plus riders per year);

•        Innovative lighting districts featuring energy-efficient lighting developed by local entrepreneurs;

•        “Innovation District” that is a testbed for new technologies, such as sensors and other advanced controls developed by local entrepreneurs;

•        Public art and cultural space activation;

•        Development of green spaces based on sustainable, context-sensitive, landscape architecture design;

•        Focus on LEED projects along the Corridor and Near West Side, with four LEED Platinum commercial buildings (Syracuse CoE, Hotel Skyler, King+King and Lincoln Supply), two LEED Platinum residential buildings (From the Ground Up homes), along with the Near West Side’s designation as the first LEED ND (neighborhood) in the country;

•        Partnership with city and county economic development on urban in-fill, fostering principles of smart growth.

•        Syracuse University’s commitment to the mission of green building on campus through numerous LEED building projects and a school-wide goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040.

See slides here.

Project partners wrapped up with a discussion on how to develop an informed vision through a broad, inclusive process for transformative change to:

•        Promote sustainability, smart growth and creative placemaking

•        Change the investment climate

•        Advance public policies that develop new civic capacity

•        Create partnership governance models that advance the next economy

The Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, presented by the U.S. Green Building Council, convenes the industry’s largest gathering of representatives from all sectors of the green building movement.  The 2013 show, held Nov. 20-22 in Philadelphia, was attended by more than 30,000 people who participated in extensive educational programming about technological innovations, new products and innovative projects.  Greenbuild attracts professionals from all aspects of the building industry:  architects, contractors, developers, educators, engineers, facility managers, financial service providers, government agencies, green power providers, home builders, interior designers, landscape architects, nonprofit organizations, product manufacturers, schools, universities, students, and urban planners. 

At last year’s Greenbuild International Conference, the U.S. Green Building Council recognized Syracuse University, the City of Syracuse and Onondaga County with its Green Building Council Leadership Award.  Partners were honored to be selected to speak this year about how the project came together and was implemented.