THE REGION OF WATERLOO SUSTAINABILITY CASE STUDY David Roewade: Sustainability Planner, Corporate Resources The Region of Waterloo has set in motion a series of initiatives that are designed to embed sustainability considerations into all decisions and activities undertaken by the Corporation and to promote sustainability within the community. Its experience in the Sustainability Strategy development process offers interesting lessons learned related to several of the Tools contained in AMO s A Sustainability Planning Toolkit for Municipalities in Ontario including: Tool #2: Structuring a Sustainability Planning Process; Tool #3: Defining Sustainability, and drawing the distinction between sustainability and greening and overcoming departmental silos with a integrated approach to sustainability; Tool #6: Creating a Vision and Identifying Priorities; Tool #10: Adopting Sustainability Indicators, Performance Monitoring and Evaluation; Developing an appropriate Regional role that is complimentary to activities of local municipalities within Waterloo Region; Tool # 11: Institutionalizing Sustainability, for example, by incorporating sustainability into the Region s Strategic and Official Plans. Sustainability as Distinct from Greening David Roewade describes the process towards coming up with a definition for sustainability and distinguishing it from greening : Our Policy Advisory Committee grappled with a definition. We even came up with some of our own. In the end, we made reference to the original Brundtland definition 1. However, we also identified the need to emphasize balance as an important principle balancing, for example, community needs and financial limitations with environmental responsibility. If you deal with the environmental pillar only, it s like grabbing one can of paint and painting everything green. Sustainability is a multi-coloured mural that includes environmental, economic and social aspects all blended within the quality-of-life tapestry. In addition, Roewade pointed out that what works in one community may not work in other regions. One has to work with the specifics of local circumstances. For example, Waterloo Region is one of the largest communities in Canada that relies primarily on groundwater for its drinking supply. From a water supply and resource protection perspective their sustainability challenges are different than a community who relies solely on surface water. A lot of energy is used to pump and treat groundwater and protection mechanisms can be more complex than in other places. So, unique community conditions have to show up on the mural. 1 In Our Common Future, a report written by Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway for the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) and published in 1987, the classic definition of sustainability was forwarded as: "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Roewade adds that greening is a linear project management approach. You may green a process or activity, but not realize multiple objectives, or end up compromising other important areas. For example, water conservation and efficiency initiatives such as grey water re-use systems and low-flow toilets can help reduce greenhouse gases as reducing water consumption also reduces the amount of energy needed to pump and treat new water supply. Sustainability requires a broader strategic perspective that looks for synergies, achievement of multiple benefits, and optimizing the use of available resource for the greatest overall benefit to community quality of life. Background and Context: Rapid Growth with its Sustainability Challenges & Opportunities Reaching a population of just over 500,000 in 2008, the Region of Waterloo has become one of the fastest growing municipalities in the country. Full of diversity and contrasts, it includes three cities and four rural townships. It has attracted a significant number of new Canadians/immigrants while, at the same time being home to a historic and traditional Mennonite community. It has a large highly educated population, largely due to its three prominent post-secondary schools (Universities of Waterloo and Wilfred Laurier and Conestoga College) and a strong information technology industry. (Waterloo is the home of Research in Motion (RIM) and several spin-off high-tech companies.) As Roewade notes, the tremendous growth presents both challenges and opportunities as far as sustainability is concerned: One of the challenges in addressing this significant rate of growth is that we have to expand our infrastructure and maintain a high quality of life for current and future generations. Therein lays the sustainability challenge: With increased demands on infrastructure and other government programs and services, how do you reduce your ecological footprint as a government entity and as a community? Realistically we have to look at the future in two different stages: In the short term we can focus on improving our efficiency in delivering programs and services, for example, by reducing our per capita consumption of water or energy. This is the transition stage as we wait for more mainstream advancement in technology that better prepares us to make more substantial improvement down the road. For the long-term, our challenge as a Region will be to take on the larger goals of lowering overall consumption levels and reducing environmental impacts from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for example. Waterloo has a rich history of environmental firsts: It was the first municipality with a Regional Official Plan of its kind in Ontario, the first with a Blue Box program in North America, the first in Ontario with a source water protection plan, the first in North America to run a municipal landfill meeting ISO 14001 environmental management standards, to name just a few. However this demonstrated leadership does not preclude the fact that there is a lot more work to move towards sustainability within the region. Overview of the Main Regional Sustainability Components The Region of Waterloo has integrated, or embedded sustainability into several layers of its activities from the highest overarching level of its Strategic Plan, through its Official Plan to its Environmental Sustainability Strategy and Progress Indicators. These components and the approach as a whole offer a number of lessons learned as described below:
Region of Waterloo Strategic Plan: - Vision/Mission - 6 Focus Areas addressing quality of life - Strategic Objectives/Actions Regional Official Plan and Growth Management Strategy Integrated Approach to Sustainability Environmental Sustainability Strategy Environmental Priorities: Air, Energy, Land, Water, Waste and Environmental Stewardship Environmental Progress Indicators The Region s Strategic Vision and Focus Areas The Region s vision overtly cites sustainability. The Vision is that the Region will be an inclusive, thriving and sustainable community for current and future generations. As part of the overall Strategic Plan, strategic focus areas have been identified and include the following, all of which can be seen to involve sustainability considerations: Focus Area 1: Environmental Sustainability: Protect and Enhance the Environment. Focus Area 2: Growth Management: Manage and shape growth to ensure a livable, healthy, thriving and sustainable Waterloo Region. Focus Area 3: Healthy and Safe Communities: Support safe and caring communities that enhance all aspects of health. Focus Area 4: Human Services: Promote quality of life and create opportunities for residents to develop to their full potential. Focus Area 5: Infrastructure: Provide high quality infrastructure and asset management to meet current needs and future growth. Focus Area 6: Service Excellence: Foster a culture of citizen/customer service that is responsive to community needs.
It is the Region s policy that reports or recommendations sent to Council must include direct assessment of which of these are affected, and how, thereby making their corporate strategy and focus areas an integral consideration of all Regional decision-making. The two main cross departmental mechanisms influencing environmental sustainability are the Regional Official Plan and the pending Environmental Sustainability Strategy (due to Regional Council for their consideration late in May 2009). Regional Official Plan and Sustainability The Region of Waterloo has recently prepared a new Regional Official Plan (ROP) in close collaboration with its area municipalities and other community stakeholders. The new ROP embraces sustainability as a central concept, which provides the foundation for the land use policies and future actions set out in the Plan. For the purposes of the new ROP, sustainability is defined as follows: Sustainability involves balancing the needs of current and future generations, sustaining and enhancing the natural environment in form and function, fostering a strong sense of place and community by preserving elements of the past and providing new opportunities for cultural expression, and providing appropriate infrastructure and services to support a diverse and growing economy. A sustainable region is one that is robust, resilient and strives to live within its natural limits. For Waterloo Region to be such a community, the four related components of sustainability - cultural, economic, environmental and social - need to be balanced. 2 Another core concept of the ROP is that of creating a liveable community. In many respects, this principle, as articulated in the ROP, addresses long-term sustainability. A liveable community is defined as one in which the majority of people's day-to-day housing, employment, shopping, health, transportation and recreational needs are met. Livability can be achieved by encouraging integrated, compact, mixed-use communities with a distinct sense of place and character. The ROP seeks to encourage the development of such communities to provide for the needs of all residents, foster social equity, inclusion and collaboration, and encourage healthy lifestyles. 3 The ROP establishes a long-term framework for guiding land-use and infrastructure planning over the next 20 years. The ROP and Regional Sustainability Strategy are mutually supportive and together will enable the Region to move towards realizing its vision. Creation of an Environmental Sustainability Strategic Framework (ESSF) After embedding sustainability into the Region s vision, mission and ROP, the Region decided that a logical next step to follow would be to identify areas where the Region, as a Corporation, can affect achievement of sustainability through its own reach, actions and leadership. A decision was made to create the Environmental Sustainability Strategic Framework (depicted on the diagram on the next page) to chart the course. As D. Roewade explains: We have 3,000 people directly and indirectly engaged throughout our Regional Corporation. Through our regional actions, we can influence sustainability in many areas of life such as public health and emergency medical services, transportation planning and roads, social 2 See: http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/region.nsf/0/e3901e4f5d95aa9485257471006228d5?opendocument 3 Ibid.
services, water, waste management etc. We decided that we would first do a strategy focused on our corporate operations, programs and services. We should walk before we can run. Getting every local municipality s sustainability plans and activities coordinated, for example, with ours would take a long time and some of our municipalities are at differing stages of development and engagement with their residents. It made more sense to get our own house in order to optimize the use of our resources in producing results at this time. To avoid a silo approach, and to promote sustainability both within the Corporation and out in the community, it was decided that the Framework s development and oversight would be stewarded by the Corporate Resources Department whose activities cut across many departments. The Region of Waterloo is a decentralized organization that has environmental functions spread across several departments (water, transportation, waste, etc.). Their Corporate Resources (CR) Department is positioned for a dual role relating to sustainability. The CR department already provides support to all Regional Departments in areas such as fleet management, green building construction, corporate waste diversion and energy conservation and is also central to delivering the Citizen Service Strategy. The Sustainability Strategy Framework addresses this dual focus by including Regional operations, programs and services within its scope. The Region had conducted research regarding what its residents expected in terms of environmental action. In doing so, it found that people didn t want to hear about departments activities, but rather, about actual results. As Roewade explains: Our best management practice research revealed that sustainability needs to be integrated in every department so it s a part of the corporate culture of continuous environmental improvement and service excellence. Public research also indicated that people in our community wanted more environmental information following themes of what they understand e.g. air, energy, water, land. Therefore, we structured our Framework around priority outcome areas, not departments. This approach gets us away from silos and helps us to work interdepartmentally, because environmental responsibilities are cross-disciplinary and not limited to one department s mandate. Everyone in the organization has an opportunity to be an environmental champion, whether they are a buyer in purchasing, or working at the landfill, or as a transit driver. Everyone has a role to play in making the strategy a success. You need to harness your entire workforce to work towards sustainability within an organizational context. The Corporate Resources Department created a highly collaborative approach to come up with elements of the Framework: For the Framework s development we re working with about 30 managers and directors from across the organization. We formed six issue-focused working groups in addition to a Policy Advisory Committee. We adopted as a starting point the Region of Waterloo s Vision [see framework diagram]. We used the mandate from Focus Area 1: Environmental Sustainability as our Policy Statement as this reflected what was communicated to us as a priority within public
consultation. We did not start from scratch to come up with our Principles. We looked at different frameworks used by other organizations although no single one of which seemed to exactly suit our vision and needs. For example, we considered the Natural Step, the Melbourne Principles for Sustainable Cities, Agenda 21, etc. We also reflected on the values of this organization. Based on this process, we adapted our Principles using a blend of environmental and municipal perspectives. ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY FRAMEWORK Region of Waterloo Vision inclusive, thriving and sustainable community... Environmental Policy Statement The Region of Waterloo will embrace environmental considerations in all of its decision and will foster community stewardship of the natural environment. Environmental Focus Policies, plans and activities will be developed and evaluated as to whether they: 1. Optimize the Efficient use of Natural Resources 2. Prevent Pollution 3. Protect and Enhance the Environment Sustainability Lens Guiding Principles Thinking Globally and Acting Locally Balance Needs (community environmental, financial) Demonstrate Leadership Accountability Community Engagement Priority Outcome Areas Air and Energy Water Waste and Material Resources Rural and Urban Land Sustainability Culture As can be seen from the framework diagram, through this collaboration the Region came up with five Guiding Principles which indicate the ethics behind the application of the strategy. For example, when the Region makes decisions, there is the recognition that there may be global implications such as with GHG emissions. The next step in the collaborative cross-departmental process was to develop a decision-making matrix and a way to operationalize the Sustainability Lens. It was determined that there were four main decision areas within Regional activities that would have the greatest impact on sustainability where change could be affected Purchasing, Planning, Infrastructure Life Cycle Management, and Office and Field Practices. Roewade explains further: In developing our strategic framework, we conducted an internal gap analysis in terms of what was already working well and what needed improvement. We looked at our existing decision making frameworks, such as our ISO 14001 system in Waste Management and our green purchasing program, as well as the incorporation of LEED standards within our new facility
construction. Then, we looked at how we were making decisions in other Regional program areas without an existing environmental influence. Through this process, we developed a decision-making matrix which will enable the organization-wide application of what we call the sustainability lens [a series of statements that define environmental considerations that need to be considered in decision-making processes]. These environmental considerations or factors help form the focus of the lens which identify the main overall environmental aspects that can be applied across the organization. Through this decision-making process, we will be better able to know where and how to make specific modifications to improve our overall environmental performance as a responsible municipality. Measuring Progress: Establishment of Indicators The Framework is focused on targeted outcomes and on indicators to measure success. As can be seen from the diagram above, five Priority Outcome Areas were identified as domains where the Region can have an impact on sustainability through its practices and outreach. The next step was to develop an accountable method of measuring and reporting progress: When you look at other sustainability strategies, there are all kinds of things that people want to monitor, but you really should focus on those that can actually be measured and the areas where as an organization you can affect change. For example, air quality indicators are appropriately monitored at provincial and national levels. Local actions in Waterloo Region may not be seen within these large scale indicators which are heavily influenced by weather patterns and transboundary pollution. Whereas if we look at the fuel consumption of our fleet, which we can directly affect and measure, then we can improve our air emissions as an organization! The development of appropriate progress indicators involved a six-month process with all of the projectcommittees including an indicator workshop facilitated by a consultant. The teams looked at what was already measured as well as where there were gaps such as organization wide measurement of GHG emissions. This process also involved research on sustainability indicators from other municipalities and put them through selection criteria. For example: Were they relevant to the Region s specific operations? Was data available at a reasonable cost? Would monitoring produce credible results? There has to be integrity in the indicator in that it should accurately reflect fact and not subjectivity which can undermine credibility and distort decision-making. Clarity was also an important criterion as results have to be easily understood by target audiences and able to be presented in an appealing format. Progress indicators also have to be reportable over time rather than on a one-off basis. The six sub-committees came up with roughly thirty progress indicators which are a blend of community indicators (e.g. community-wide waste diversion) and corporate performance (e.g.
corporate energy consumption). The Region has adopted a user-friendly reporting system to display the indicators on the internet for 24/7 access. The Motivation for Embedding Sustainability into Corporate Decision-making As the Region s Sustainability Planner explained: Back in the 1960 s and 70 s, the environment was a social activist movement. Then during the 1980s and 1990 it became a poll item during election platforms as it gained a greater presence in the political arena. During those more recent decades, if the economy was suffering, environmental concerns tended to take a back seat. Then, through the late 1990s, there was a ground swell or critical mass of people who became more aware about environmental issues such as climate change. Since the early 2000 s there has been a general recognition that environmental concerns are an ongoing priority that is linked to our overall quality of life and economic stability. As indicated earlier, the Region has initiated many leading edge environmental projects over the years but it has not had a high profile or focus in our strategic plans. Environmental awareness was evident in the Region s Strategic Plan in 2001-2004 and in the 2004 2007 Strategic Plan it became more focused. In that Plan, the environment became an integral part of the vision and mission. As a result, Council directed that a number of environmental initiatives, concerning water, waste and clean air be grouped in a new Focus Area called To Protect and Enhance the Environment. In the most recent Strategic Plan the environment is Focus Area #1 and includes an objective to develop an integrated approach to environmental sustainability. This evolution has occurred as a result of public input in surveys leading up to the development of the Strategic Plan, senior staff interested in improving the region s environmental program, as well as Council s commitment to an environmental strategy rather than continuing with a series of individual initiatives. The question became: How will we keep environment as a priority and embed it into our day-to-day business? It s now permeating departmental silos and there is external pressure to do more. Sustainability does not come free yet the Region of Waterloo Council has been a huge supporter for environmental investments and the CAO has also embraced the organization s commitment to sustainability throughout the strategy development process. Roewade acknowledges this support: Having a supportive Council and CAO has really made a difference working with senior management and throughout the corporate hierarchy so that every staff member knows sustainability is a corporate priority. Everybody s role in contributing to sustainability will become more evident as the strategy is implemented over time.