Lowertown Community Sustainability Plan

Our most recent project took place in Ottawa’s urban Lowertown community, where local residents came together for community sustainability discussions last month (Aug 2019) and helped to develop their very own Lowertown Community Sustainability Plan (link to plan here).

 

As with our previous Community Sustainability Plans, our goal is to encourage engagement and cooperation from as many community members, leaders and organizations in actively pursuing both individual-level and community-based sustainability project ideas which, with some motivation and support, are easy to take on and help contribute to a more sustainable future for yourselves, your community and for the planet!

Projects in our plans are related to OBEC’s 10 Themes of Sustainability:

Transportation – Theme 1 Movement of goods and people

Energy – Theme 2 For buildings and activities e.g. transportation, manufacturing, agriculture

Design – Theme 3 Built environment including community design

Habitat – Theme 4 Urban & rural spaces for plants & animals, connectivity

Food – Theme 5 Local healthy food, heritage crops & animals, urban gardens

Natural Capital – Theme 6 Human needs for land, water, soil, natural materials

Waste – Theme 7 Processing of waste, re-use, recycling, conversion to energy

Health – Theme 8 Clean air & water, safety, tranquility, environmental needs of vulnerable groups

Recreation – Theme 9 Non-motorized, urban or rural

Sense of Place – Theme 10 Feeling of belonging that leads to stewardship

 

The Community Sustainability Plan is meant to be used as a tool to inspire and get you started on achieving your sustainability goals.

Once you’ve gotten involved in whatever sustainability project(s), you can report back to us on this page what you are doing (no matter how simple) so that we can collect that information and measure your community’s sustainability progress.

What you do for sustainability will enrich your life, support your community and contribute to the world. It’s as simple as that!

We want to see Lowertown become an amazing example of a sustainability-minded urban community and we know it will! Let’s get started today.

When you begin a project, we would like to know about it. If you are willing, please share with us the following information for our summaries of activities in the community:

1. Name (required)

2. Email address (required)

3. Project name

4. Project idea (one sentence)

5. Project description

6. Project themes: Transportation Energy Design Habitat Food Natural Capital Waste Health Recreation Sense of Place

We plan to produce periodic progress reports on the sustainability plan for our website, HCA website and local newspapers. We do not plan to show your name or email address.

OBEC is forming a local follow-up committee to monitor progress implementing the Lowertown Sustainability Plan. We can help you send or receive information from that committee, i.e.:

Do you want to form a team to do a collective project? Would you like the committee to advertise your project and put other volunteers in touch with you? Yes No

As other teams form for collective projects, would you like the committee to refer you to those teams? Yes No

Thank you all for your time and for engaging yourself with such an important cause. Change is not possible without you.