Assessing and Implementing a Sustainable Holistic Planning System

Abstract

In 2019, the New York Olympic Region received the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Communities Certification (gold) for a rural multi-jurisdictional region comprised of Lake Placid Village, North Elba Town, the Olympic Regional Development Authority, and the Lake Placid School System. Much of the work involved in this initiative was executed by 14 undergraduate students and two faculty members from Clarkson University working in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council, and four local jurisdictions. The endeavor was successful and unique in several facets. First, it provided an experiential project-based education in the application of a sustainable holistic planning system, LEED for Communities/Cities. Second, it demonstrates the value of a university collaboration with a rural region and its communities. Third, it developed the first rural regional model for smart community planning that integrated multiple jurisdictions and stakeholders. Finally, it provides a replicable template for implementation and operation by other communities with institutions of higher learning. A variety of challenges remain, however, for emerging sustainable holistic planning systems in metrics development, civic and stakeholder engagement, determination of efficacy, and implementation optimization. Readers will emerge with an improved understanding of sustainable holistic planning systems, knowledge of multi-jurisdictional planning concerns in sustainability metrics, and insight into implementation of these systems as a pedagogical tool and partnership mechanism.

Full text

ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Assessing and Implementing a Sustainable Holistic Planning System:
LEED for Communities and the New York Olympic Region
ERIK C. BACKUS
1
AND STEPHEN BIRD
2
1
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, USA
2
Institute of Sustainable Environment & Humanities and Social Sciences, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, USA
Email: sbird@clarkson.edu
ABSTRACT In 2019, the New York Olympic Region received the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED) for Communities Certification (gold) for a rural multi-jurisdictional region comprised of Lake Placid Village, North
Elba Town, the Olympic Regional Development Authority, and the Lake Placid School System. Much of the work involved
in this initiative was executed by 14 undergraduate students and two faculty members from Clarkson University working
in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council, and four local jurisdictions. The endeavor was successful and unique
in several facets. First, it provided an experiential project-based education in the application of a sustainable holistic
planning system, LEED for Communities/Cities.Second, it demonstrates the value of a university collaboration with a rural
region and its communities. Third, it developed the first rural regional model for smart community planning that
integrated multiple jurisdictions and stakeholders. Finally, it provides a replicable template for implementation and
operation by other communities with institutions of higher learning. A variety of challenges remain, however, for
emerging sustainable holistic planning systems in metrics development, civic and stakeholder engagement,
determination of efficacy, and implementation optimization. Readers will emerge with an improved understanding of
sustainable holistic planning systems, knowledge of multi-jurisdictional planning concerns in sustainability metrics, and
insight into implementation of these systems as a pedagogical tool and partnership mechanism.
KEYWORDS sustainability, rural planning, participatory planning, metrics-based planning
INTRODUCTION
In September 2019, the New York Olympic Region,
a partnership of four jurisdictional entities, was awarded
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
for Communities (LFC) Gold certification in a first-of-
its-kind attempt. The project was unique given its focus
on the design and implementation of “smart” community
planning (a “sustainable holistic planning system” or
SHPS) in a rural regional context. Performed via a univer-
sity–community collaboration, students determined sys-
tem metrics and goals under the guidance of two primary
faculty and other contributing professors. This form of
action-learning meant that students received a unique
pedagogical experience in sparking “real-world” outcomes.
The rural regional context created significant chal-
lenges for the development of a sophisticated metric-
based sustainability planning system like LFC. Rural com-
munities often lack human and economic resources for
implementation and operation (Frank & Hibbard, 2017,
p. 304). They also have unique environmental contexts
that differ extensively from urban areas, greater sociode-
mographic challenges, and fundamentally different eco-
nomic systems (Frank & Hibbard, 2017,p.301). To
complicate the process further, the New York Olympic
Region is actually a multi-stakeholder partnership that
includes the following:
two governments (the Village of Lake Placid and
the overlapping Town of North Elba),
one school district whose jurisdiction extends
beyond that of the Village and the Town (Lake
Placid Central School District), and
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Case Studies in the Environment,2021, pps. 1–20. electronic ISSN 2473-9510.©2021 by the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
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web page, www.ucpress.edu/journals.php?p¼reprints. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/cse.2021.1245219.