Nashville Civic Design Center Center for Sustainability Education Network of Sustainability An important step in creating a new institution in our city, providing information and education related to water, air, climate change, sustainable development and responsible consumption, is to establish an education and action network focused on sustainability. The network as a physical form would correlate information related to environmental, social and economic sustainability. The network of sustainability – with centers serving distinct yet interrelated constituencies – offers an effective medium for catalyzing measurable reductions in personal consumption within our community. It is also a potential branding tool to position Nashville as an innovative leader in educating citizens and companies on practical and accessible ways to reduce their carbon and ecological footprints (environmental), increase possibilities and variations of work patterns (economical), and ultimately make Tennessee a more enjoyable and equitable place for all its inhabitants (social).
As recommended by the Green Ribbon Committee on Environmental Sustainability in a 2009 report to Mayor Dean, Nashville should create a Center for Sustainability Education (in the report it is called the Green Building Design Center). The creation of a Center could, in fact, act as a vehicle for the “Network of Sustainability.” In December of 2009, Gary Gaston, Design Director of the NCDC, presented work done in conjunction with the University of Tennessee College of Architecture + Design. The Design Center had strategically selected a site bounded by Lafayette St., 6th and 7th Ave, and Peabody St, that would serve to revitalize an underutilized area of downtown. The location anchors a building program for what would be the Center for Sustainability Education. Though the designs were not intended to be built, they helped to establish the scale and scope of the vision at hand. This Center would become the Downtown/Corporate base focus for the network of sustainability.
The scope, complexity and uniqueness of these endeavors are a significant undertaking, but the outcome appears both indispensable and obtainable. The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) noted that the greatest thing that could come about because of an individual center and a network was: “We could benefit from each other’s strengths and help fill in areas where more expertise is needed. So often in our work we see that many groups are all trying to promote the same goals, but separately. This would be a great unifying network for us all to work together to meet these goals more effectively.”
Neighborhood base
Watershed base
Gina Emmanuel Local USGBC Chapter Mak ing the Connections The Network of Sustainability has three potential focuses: •
Downtown/Corporate based
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Neighborhood based
•
Watershed based
Downtown base
Map of Nashville and projected network of information exchange. As the watershed base, neighborhood base, and downtown base develop, the opportunity to expand to suburban and rural areas would increase the database of knowledge needed to include a variety of land uses.
Nashville Civic Design Center • Urban Design / Policy Brief • Center for Sustainability Education • www.civicdesigncenter.org
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