What is the One Planet Communities programme?
The One Planet Communities programme is creating a network of the earth’s greenest neighbourhoods. By working with private and public property developers it aims to help create places where it is easy, attractive and affordable for people healthy, happy lives within a fair share of the earth’s resources.
What is a One Planet Community?
We believe that in order to create sustainable communities it is as important to look at the lifestyles of the residents and tenants who work and live there, as it is to look at the buildings themselves.
A One Planet Community is therefore a development where not only are the buildings designed to be as energy efficient as possible, but where there are also the services, infrastructure and design features that make it as easy, attractive and affordable for people to do the environmentally friendly thing.
Moreover a One Planet Community is a place where residents could reduce their Ecological Footprint to a One Planet level by 2020 should they choose to.
To read more about the existing communities in the One Planet network visit the Endorsed One Planet Communities section of this site.
How does BioRegional work with developers to create these communities?
Throughout the lifetime of a development project – from masterplanning and design, right through to long term estates management – BioRegional acts as an expert sustainability advisor, or coach, to a developer and their team.
Unlike a building ratings or certification scheme, BioRegional’s One Planet Communities programme staff are integrated into a project team providing on the ground advice and support. We do not simply judge whether a high level of environmental performance has been met by a project, we help co-create it.
To help with this we have devised a set of 10 One Planet principles. These principles are used to structure a holistic response to the unique sustainability challenges of a development project. The principles cover areas ranging from energy demand and generation, waste, transport, water use, materials, food, equality, and heritage.
To find out more about how we work with developers and their teams visit the How the programme works section of this site.
What does it mean when you say a Community is endorsed?
As an open source framework, the 10 One Planet principles can be used by anyone to structure their approach to sustainable development.
In order to recognise the truly remarkable commitment to sustainability of the developers that we work with, we have established an endorsement process, with successfully endorsed projects being granted use of the ‘planet with a heart’ logo as well as receiving additional support services from BioRegional.
To find out more about the requirements for endorsement, and the endorsement process itself, visit the How the programme works section of this site.
