One Planet Team shortlisted for major infill redevelopment competition
A plane flies above the City Centre airport in Edmonton on March 11 2010.
BioRegional North America, in collaboration with sustainable architecture and planning leader BNIM, have developed one of five submissions short-listed for a design competition for the Edmonton City Centre Airport Redevelopment, beating out 28 other teams.
While BNIM serves as the project lead, BioRegional North America hand-picked team members Windmill/BuildGreen Solutions, transportation planners Crandall Arambula, district energy experts FVB Energy, and Edmonton-based Minasc Isaac – a renowned green architecture firm headed by Vivian Minasc, a co-founder of the Canadian Green Building Council. BNIM of Kansas City are behind many notable projects, from the Omega Center for Sustainable Living (Living Building/LEED Platinum) to the award-winning masterplan for the reconstruction of tornado-ravaged Greensburg, Kansas, to the greening of the US White House.
Other finalist teams are Sweco of Oslo; Perkins + Will of Vancouver; KCAP of Rotterdam; and Foster + Partners of London. The City of Edmonton plans to turn the 217 hectare in-fill site into a sustainable development for 30,000 people. The BNIM/BioRegional submission calls for it to be developed as a One Planet Community. Greg Searle previously served on a Special Advisory Panel of the Urban Land Institute to the University of Alberta’s south campus project in Edmonton.
The redevelopment opportunity is a significant development because of its urban infill location just north of downtown. The City of Edmonton wants to turn the 217 hectare city centre airport into a sustainable, family-oriented development that can hold 30,000 people. According to BNIM’s Master Plan Submittal, the company plans to do this by strictly adhering to the 10 One Planet Principles. A jury will select the winning team in December or January. The City of Edmonton hopes this redevelopment will lead the way for other urban in-fill projects not only in Alberta, but around the world.
California’s Stockton Preserve Project applying One Planet principles
BioRegional North America has been commissioned by developer A.G. Spanos Companies to help architecture firm Gensler develop a comprehensive Sustainability Action Plan for the Preserve – a proposed 8,000-unit mixed-use development in Stockton, California. The draft Sustainability Action Plan has informed the project’s recently announced Master Development Plan. BioRegional is expecting a finalized draft of the Sustainability Action Plan to be submitted soon for consideration as an offical endorsed project. BioRegional rigorously assesses a development’s ability to deliver on this statement: “If everyone in the world lived in similar communities, we would be truly sustainable.” Endorsement is a sign of deep green leadership; for every 3 projects that develop Sustainability Action Plans, only 1 will meet the full criteria for endorsement.
Due to several online articles that have incorrectly identified the Preserve as an official endorsed project, BioRegional has released an official clarification on the status of the project as a candidate One Planet Community.
One Planet submission short-listed in Washington DC
For the last year, BioRegional North America have been working with HDG Waterfront Partners and EEK architects create a One Planet masterplan vision for Washington DC’s Hill East site at the DC Armory Metro Station. The sustainability targets outlined in a detailed 114-page One Planet Action Plan that have been created for the Hill East site are more ambitious than any sustainability plan ever undertaken in Washington DC, or indeed, in any US urban center. The plan calls for the creation of DC’s first renewable energy power plant by 2011, a 35 megawatt plant backed by partners Sunmark Energy and DE Shaw & Co. The plant will turn waste into clean electricity, heating, and cooling for Hill East residents as well as the DC Jail and other institutional customers, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 420,375 tons of CO2 per year – equivalent to removing 169,507 cars from DC streets. The plan is currently being evaluated by the Deputy Mayor’s Office.
Green Report for DC Developer
Washington DC. BioRegional have completed a Preliminary One Planet Action Plan for the Hoffman-Struever consortium for Washington DC’s Southwest Waterfront project. The 63-page document provided a ‘gap analysis’ of the measures that would need to be undertaken to go beyond existing LEED-ND plans for Southwest Waterfront to bring the project in line with the One Planet Challenge.
One Planet Action Plan launched
ROHNERT PARK. Developer Codding Enterprises and BioRegional have published a One Planet Action Plan Report for Sonoma Mountain Village – America’s first official One Planet Community. The report includes a “mini-plan” for each of the Ten One Planet Principles, and details how the suburban neighborhood of almost 1900 homes plans to slash total direct emissions by 83% (down to just 2.6 tons CO2 per year per household). The One Planet Community will meet the targets laid out in California’s stringent AB32 emissions reduction law 5 years early, and by 2020 will radically exceed the targets (AB32 requires a 25% GHG reduction state-wide).
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"The prestigious international program of One Planet Communities solves the climate change conundrum of new development. Instead of just trying to eke out more energy efficiency, it starts from the basic principle of zero greenhouse gas emissions from buildings and a massive 82% reduction from transit."
Ken Smokoska
Clean Energy Chair
Sierra Club California