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Portland is a beacon of green
15 Jul, 2009 By: Jamie J. Gooch Get Growing |
| While city leaders are working hard to keep Portland as a model of sustainability efforts, it's still a traditional metropolitan area of skyscrapers and commerce. Photo courtesy of Portland BPS |
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| Portland's Bureau of Planning & Sustainability notes that the preservation and enhancement of natural systems — like watersheds and tree canopies — will be an integral part of its Portland Plan. Photo courtesy of Portland BPS |
It's no coincidence that the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) is holding its international conference this week in Portland, OR. After all, the city has been named as the No. 1 sustainable city in the nation by SustainLane.com, which also notes that its city planners were thinking about ways to be environmentally responsible as far back as the 1970s.
"Landscape designers are drawn to natural beauty, and Portland embodies how nature and urban design can work hand-in-hand," Denise Calabrese, executive director of APLD, told The Oregonian. "Sustainability is becoming a paramount concern to both commercial and residential clients."
APLD created its seminar schedule based on the platform of sustainability. For example, on Monday, Portland's own Toby Hemenway, owner of the Center for Pattern Literacy, presented "Permaculture: A Tool for Ecological Garden Design," while Lorene Edwards Forkner, a former specialty nursery owner and current owner of Seattle-based PlantedAtHome.com, spoke about "Ornamental Edibles in the Landscape."
Yesterday, Mike Faha, a registered landscape architect and founding principal of local landscape architecture and environmental design firm GreenWorks, spoke to attendees about how Portland became a green city — touching on how to get the public's buy-in of sustainable practices, integrating habitat into the urban environment and rainwater harvesting, among other factors. Faha is also on the Board of Directors for the Urban Greenspace Institute, which is based in Portland and seeks to "ensure that parks, regional trail systems, greenways and greenspaces are integrated with the built environment in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region; and to promote urban greenspace efforts nationally and internationally."
Tomorrow, Ed Snodgrass, who co-owns Emory Knoll Farms with his wife, Lucie, in Street, MD, will advise attendees on the ins and outs of designing green roofs — using case studies from across the US and Canada to illustrate how to choose, option and implement the designs.
Contact communications@apld.org for more information on any of the APLD presentations mentioned above or other seminars in the assocaition's Portland Conference lineup.
Portland itself features an actual Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, which implements such diverse community programs as "Solar Now," which serves as a local resource for how to implement and sustain a solar energy program for homes and businesses, and "Climate Action Plan 2009," which will "serve as the 40-year roadmap for the institutional and individual change needed to reach our ambitious climate protection goals in the City of Portland and Multnomah County. This draft plan proposes objectives and actions that will help residents, businesses and government meet the 2050 goal." On Sept. 19, the city will host the "Build It Green Homes Tour and Info Fair," which highlights both high- and low-tech residential strategies. The free event will feature 20 remodeled and new homes, and will also feature the green aspects of each one's landscapes.
In all, while not every major city is as lucky as Portland's to have such environmentally minded citizens working toward a sustainable future, Portland can be looked at as a model from which to learn. Take the projects and initiatives they've implemented and see what makes sense in your market, and take away some hope in the fact that "The City of Roses" is literally living proof that it can be done.
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