SLDI Knowledge Project
From SLDI Knowledge Project
The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become."
Kurt Vonnegut
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Welcome!
The SLDI Knowledge Project, initiated by Sustainable Land Development International (SLDI), is the wiki dedicated to promoting and enabling sustainable land development.
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Getting Started with the Knowledge Project
Search for articles on specific subjects by entering the key word(s) in the search field to the left or by perusing the Contents pages.
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About the Knowledge Project How to Contribute/Edit Articles Help
Sustainable Land Development Defined People, Planet and Profit Welcome to SLDI
Sustainable Land Development Best Practices Model
As introduced in the May, 2007 SLDT article entitled, People, Planet and Profit ([1]), SLDI is now developing a set of sustainable land development best practices designed to meet all stakeholder demands that can be used as a decision model for land development project teams, and is seeking feedback from industry professionals and stakeholders throughout this process.
The comprehensive model is intended to provide a user-friendly and value-added set of practices that can enable project teams to:
- Achieve greater balance among people, planet and profit;
- Enhance project development processes;
- Reduce project development and land holding costs; SLDI Guiding Principles
- Better address financial risk;
- Enhance property values;
- Differentiate your project and gain valuable marketing benefits;
- Enable more effective response to project opposition;
- Receive third-party validation of achievement;
- Receive quicker regulatory review of projects;
- Qualify for a growing array of federal, state & local government initiatives;
- Be recognized for leadership and commitment to sustainability issues in your community, your organization (including stockholders), and your industry;
- Receive marketing exposure through SLDI’s publications, websites, conferences, awards programs, and media announcements.
The objective is to help land development professionals achieve greater ecological stewardship and social equity, but to do so through the simultaneous achievement of greater economic results. That is achievable, but high standards of performance are required. Fortunately, high-performance professionals and new technologies are bountiful throughout our important industry.
The need for – and benefit of – formalized professional project best practices is now central to continued land development success. The type of model used, however, is equally as important as the mere act of using one. In order for a best practices system to achieve sustainable use and value, it must be based on the principles of sustainability itself. It must successfully balance – in fact maximize, the triple-bottom line perspectives of people, planet and profit. Ultimately, it is impossible to achieve any one without the other two.
An effective model must facilitate more effective project processes – not hinder them. Achieving sustainable development according to the triple-bottom line perspective requires adhering to practices that encompass a holistic perspective – one which focuses on positively addressing the vital issues of ALL stakeholder interests throughout the development process, not just one or a few. Such a successful system must also model the project development process by placing the perspective of the team-building, risk-taking, and ultimate decision-making developer at the fore.
It must embrace the profit motive by addressing project inputs such as management processes, market dynamics and cost controls. It also considers ecological needs such as natural systems, energy flows and biodiversity. Further, the model will help project teams analyze social considerations such as community access, spiritual connectedness, well-being, and governance. Additionally, it considers the interdependent nature of the relationships among economic, ecological and social forces, and among all stakeholders who possess special interests.
The SLDI best practices system will be a tool designed to help fragmented stakeholder groups find commonality in their purpose. It serves to balance the needs of all interests to aid in the sustainability of our world.
What practices and experiences can you share in each, any, and/or all of the areas of sustainable land development outlined here?
Click here to review and contribute.
Delivering on the Promise of Mass Industry Intelligence
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Time magazine, in its March 24, 2008 article entitled "10 Ideas that are Changing the World" identified sustainable development as the #1 idea for the next hundred years. The article acknowledged the significant challenge to achieving that ideal being poor solutions and problem-solving on a micro-scale, partly as a result of “outdated institutions.” The article went on to assert that, “undertaken cooperatively across the world, our generation can harness new technologies” that will help facilitate more sustainable development. Then, the appropriate knowledge and technologies must “rapidly reach all those who need them.” That is a weighty, but inspiring challenge – one in which Sustainable Land Development International is taking head on. Ever-increasing specialization and regulation in land development naturally causes stakeholder interests to become more and more fragmented into "camps" which have tended to focus on one of the environment, social justice or economic gain. The result is increased conflict and, according to the University of Massachusetts Center for Economic and Civic Opinion, opposition. What’s more, fragmentation has caused the industry to suffer from severe productivity and innovation problems. As documented in the May, 2007 SLDT article, “People, Planet and Profit,” the U.S. Department of Commerce has determined that, while the rest of the world has doubled its productivity over the last 50 years, our industry was actually more productive 50 years ago than it is today!
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Ineffective communication, knowledge transfer and divergent priorities have taken their toll. What’s needed is a more informed holistic perspective on the part of all stakeholders. The various stakeholders need to get on the same team, but in order to do that, they need to better understand each other’s perspective and the issues with which they deal. Whether your particular perspective or expertise lies in planning, finance, site design, building design, stormwater management, wastewater management, erosion control, transportation, geotechnical, community forestry, landscape architecture, marketing, maintenance, or food production for that matter, there are a multitude of vital issues about which everyone in the industry needs to learn more if we are to achieve sustainable development to a level necessary to have enough impact on the future. The land development community needs a new technology to introduce some of the knowledge everyone possesses to the rest of the industry in a rapid and efficient manner. In other words, the entire industry can benefit greatly by leveraging an organized, comprehensive and dynamic central repository of knowledge upon which to become more informed of the various issues we face in this complex process of land development. As we progress deeper and deeper into sustainable land development, we must be willing and able to share the knowledge we gain with the other stakeholders throughout the world. No company or organization, no matter how big or small, can develop the dynamic knowledge base necessary to move forward in this bold new sustainable land development environment on its own. We need to work together – for everyone’s benefit. Traditional collaboration will not work. We need collaboration on a scale never before achieved. Enter the SLDI Knowledge Project™.
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