Day eight: Involve me, I understand

"This is part of our 10 Big Ideas which we hope will help the transition to a very low-to-no-carbon economy make cities, homes and work places better, movement easier, society stronger and improve quality of life...oh, and save the planet." The Beyond Green Team

Day eight: Involve me, I understand - it's all in the process.

"Let me get it right. What if we got it wrong?

What if we weakened ourselves getting strong?

What if we found in the ground a vial of proof

What if the foundations missed a vital truth"

Lemn Sissay, ‘What if?' from Earth, Art of a Changing World, Royal Academy of Art

Don't even think about doing anything we've suggested unless you involve stakeholders and people at all levels in these decisions and actions. Tell me, I forget, show me I (may) remember, involve me I (might just) understand. It's time to go beyond consultation and get people properly involved in demanding and then creating exceptional places.

The principle of consulting with local communities is well established in the planning system and generally accepted, and yet it's hard to know who groans the loudest at the word consultation - the developer obliged to consult the public on a scheme that is, to all intents and purposes, already fixed; the public, whose only opportunity to try influencing development is to fill in a form at a public exhibition; or the planner trying to arbitrate between the two while keeping their politicians happy.

Is it any wonder we're turning into a nation of NIMBYs and increasingly BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody)? The vast majority of British people appear to be opposed to any new development near to where they live - 85% according to consultants Saint. Development in this country doesn't have a noble track record to which we can refer when seeking to reassure people about what might happen on their doorstep. Is it ever surprising when local residents don't want development in their backyard, particularly when the whole process can be plagued by misinformation, misunderstandings and sometimes plain mischief.

This is a situation that can't be allowed to continue. New homes are being constructed far more slowly than the rate required to meet housing need - three million homes by 2020 according to Government forecasts - a situation only made worse by the current recession. The pace of construction will of course accelerate as the economy emerges from recession and credit begins to flow into the housing market again. But the challenge for the development industry isn't just to satisfy demand: it must now do so in a way that acknowledges the relationship between buildings, places and carbon emission and is transformational in the conception, planning, design and delivery of new or regenerated places.

Too often in the past growth has been the product of incrementalism, leading to the fragmented, opportunistic, single-use and zoned developments that litter the country today. Strategic planning at national and regional levels is essential to ensuring that the right number of homes are built in the right places at the right time; and that the sustainable infrastructure necessary to support them can be delivered. It is right and proper that those decisions should be taken by ministers acting on expert advice. But a steer from government isn't a green light to develop and local objections can't just be dismissed out of hand - many will be legitimate concerns about the potential impact of development on the local and global environment or on local roads and services. Addressing those concerns while simultaneously encouraging and enabling the necessary changes in lifestyles amongst both new and existing residents requires a proper conversation rather than a slanging match at a community meeting.

We have to overcome cynicism even as we recognise that it's legitimate. Moreover, no-one can just build development anymore, leaving everything other than bricks and mortar to others (as we've argued in this series). We need to evolve new processes and mechanisms for involving people locally in answering the question about what collective action can and must be taken to reduce our carbon footprint by at least 80%. Not just how shall we build but how shall we live? Communities need to come together to address these issues, supported by their local authority, whose members and officers need to become fully conversant in the language of authentically sustainable places and lifestyles.

So, while nationally and internationally we need to be clear about the uncompromising standards that places and development must achieve, we need to work locally with real people in real neighbourhoods to interpret what these might mean for a locality and capture the opportunity for positive change above and beyond the physical change of development. While saying this let's be clear that with regard to the built environment infrastructure and place are long term creations requiring long term investment. Done well, as they must be, they will last for several generations and this has implications for the limits of exclusively local democracy - especially when people move on average once every eight years.

Anyone who has been involved in a genuinely participatory design exercise will know that the direct involvement of a wide range of professionals and stakeholders is essential to the ultimate creation of places where people want to live, invest, work and visit - and choose to do so in a more sustainable way - and that help strengthen surrounding communities and act as a catalyst for wider change. Effective and meaningful engagement is a fundamental principle of sustainable urbanism, improving the quality and outcome of the design process, reducing planning and delivery risk and helping to add value.

Participatory exercise such as Design Enquiries, Community Enquiries and Enquiry by Designs that bring all relevant stakeholders together in open and hands-on fora are much more efficient and effective than consulting stakeholders in isolation. They allow and encourage frank and honest exchanges of views and aspirations, explore concerns and attempt to resolve conflicts of opinion as they arise. In our experience such tools can be an effective means of kick starting the long but essential process of exploring together how we might re-think the way we live and the places we live in. Of course there need to be ground rules, targets and principles that inform the ultimate outcome, but each community must find its own way.

You don't need to be a professional designer, planner or developer to know a good place when you see one, just as you don't have to be a chef to know good food. The professionals responsible for development need to see themselves as the enablers rather than dictators of change. They need to become the Elizabeth David and Delia Smith of place, raising expectations of what development can and should deliver, so that people can enjoy exceptional places every day rather than just once a year on holiday.

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A PDF version of our 10 Big Ideas is available to download from the ‘what's new' section of our website. Please follow the link, enter the website and select ‘current' under the ‘what's new' page: www.beyondgreen.co.uk

The Beyond Green group puts sustainability principles into practice through strategic and practical projects that achieve real sustainability outcomes. Beyond Green Consulting delivers policy, strategies, plans, place-making and process for authentic sustainable developments which inspire and enable free, pleasurable, healthy and environmentally sustainable living. Beyond Green Living offers advice on sustainable lifestyles, often through brands and communications; TV projects, personal appearances and publications. Sister company BlueLiving has a portfolio of strategic land and development projects with a view to building, owning and managing seminal sustainable developments across the UK.

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