Planning for an Environmentally Friendly Community
Submission on Chelsea Master Plan Review
Action Chelsea for Respect of the Environment (ACRE)
December 6, 2004
Conclusion:
Chelsea's sustainability will be defined by the thousands of decisions that are made every day by Council, staff, institutions, and residents. Perhaps the most important thing we can do as a community is agree upon a set of criteria that we can apply to each of those decisions. Certainly the Municipality can show leadership by publishing a set of sustainability criteria against which all decisions are measured.
We believe that the principles and objectives that we have proposed could form the basis of a workable set of sustainability criteria. We would be pleased to work with the Municipality in elaborating these criteria.
ACRE believes that this Master Plan review should present a principled approach to community planning that embraces a broad framework of environmental sustainability. We also believe that we need to monitor our progress towards sustainability through the development and measurement of a set of indicators of sustainability. In our document we have proposed several indicators such as reduction of greenhouse gases and reduction of ecological footprint which could provide a starting point for developing a set of criteria and indicators. Within the ACRE membership we have considerable expertise in this area, and would be happy to work with you to develop this idea further.
ACRE believes that we need to work collectively to achieve an environmentally friendly future. Chelsea has been recognized for environmental leadership, but we all understand that we have a long road to travel to achieve real sustainability.
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