Think Piece January 7, 2008

Occasionally I come across a piece of writing that’s really memorable.  (At least it sticks in my mind until the next day.)  Perhaps because of all the news about avalanches in our surrounding mountains, this essay - The Failure of Networked Systems  - really resonates.
There is a critical angle for piles of sand - a level [...]

Green Alleys November 26, 2007

Once again, Chicago leads the way:
Chicago has decided to retrofit its alleys with environmentally sustainable road-building materials under its Green Alley initiative… In a green alley, water is allowed to penetrate the soil through the pavement itself, which consists of the relatively new but little-used technology of permeable concrete or porous asphalt. Then the water, [...]

What they are thinking August 29, 2007

Or rather, “What are they thinking!?”
Cars and more cars: In China, car ownership at present is about 20 million, but is projected to be 250 million in 2020 (an 820% increase in a decade!), subject to the availability of a fuel.

‘Bigger is better:’ An overwhelming sense of the development projects is that the bigger they [...]

New York Challenge August 22, 2007

Planning Director Brent Toderian thinks Vancouver’s designers should take this New York challenge to heart.
It’s in this issue of Metropolis.
We’re poised to build the sustainable twenty-first century—as Mayor Mike envisions in his 127 proposed projects, many of them impacting the design community: the creation of parks, retrofitting buildings, making schools community-friendly, new transit, and more [...]

Strip Search August 10, 2007

My current colmn in Business in Vancouver (unabridged):
B.C. Towns Seek New Vision
After a tour by rail and road through southern B.C., I have come to the conclusion that there are two kinds of small towns - the stripped and the constrained. And while that may be a tad simplistic, the communities of this province seem to [...]

Is Geen Just the Colour of Money? June 14, 2007

Do you have to be rich to be green?
Sustainability, it seems, is associated with affluence - at least if the projects proclaiming their green-ness is any indication. And it isn’t just because the cost of green technology is that much greater. (Indeed, if a project is well planned from the beginning, recent research indicates, there’s [...]

Cascadia Scorecard June 13, 2007

Are you better off? Cascadia Scorecard 2007 gives British Columbia its annual check-up.
Sightline’s annual state-of-the-region report finds some big wins in the Pacific Northwest, but shows that we still [...]

Sustainability as National Defence June 3, 2007

 My Business in Vancouver column this week:
Leaders need to view sustainability as a policy of national defence
More than ever, politicians are confounded by the Gap. And I’m not talking jeans.
Between the outer edge of what is politically possible and the inner edge of what is necessary, that’s where you find the Expectations Gap.
Leaders, of [...]