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SuNliving User Benefits

Based on feedback from those directly involved with the Emerald Hills Urban Village project (www.emerald-hills.ca), the benefits of applying SuNliving are exciting and numerous.



STAKEHOLDER

BENEFITS OF APPLYING SuNliving
Municipality
  • Integrates with traditional development approval processes.
  • Links intentions and policies to development and implementation.
  • Generates metric and measurable outcomes for assessing performance.
  • Builds public/private relationships based on understanding and trust.
Developer
  • Provides a single, inclusive approach that integrates with traditional processes.
  • Can be adapted to a wide range of sustainable development initiatives.
  • Optimizes projects based on potential rather than a standard set of solutions.
  • Generates a sound business case with feasible sustainable solutions.
  • Takes development beyond urban form to considerations for Earth-friendly living.
Consultant
  • Integrates with traditional planning and design processes.
  • Engages key stakeholders and consultants from the onset to ensure their ultimate buy-in.
  • Immerses the development and design teams in holistic planning and integrated design.
  • Approaches sustainable neighbourhood development in a systematic and achievable way.
  • Provides a methodology for raising essential questions and finding the answers.
  • Facilitates collaboration and directs research towards optimal and synergistic alternatives.
Future Residents
  • Helps view neighbourhood development through a sustainable lifestyle lens.
  • Creates neighbourhoods with a sense of inclusion and belonging.
  • Empowers residents with opportunities to contribute to their local and global communities.
  • Fosters sustainable living by linking well-being and quality of life to urban designs.

TESTIMONIALS


"The involvement of Natural Resources Canada’s (NRCan) CanmetENERGY was critical to the success of the SUN Pilot Project. Their support allowed Christenson Developments and the Emerald Hills Urban Village stakeholders to bring in a sustainability coordinator capable of shepherding all parties through a structured and collaborative planning and design process. This made it possible to initiate interaction with the Strathcona County municipal team much earlier than would normally occur in a traditional neighbourhood development process; to commission the hard science; and to develop the internal capacity and capability necessary to implement and, ultimately deliver, the vision, goals and guidelines established for this initiative. Of perhaps even greater importance, NRCan was instrumental in the creation of SuNliving, an inclusive how-to approach that any team can use to replicate neighbourhood developments capable of enabling and fostering sustainable living. The end result is that Emerald Hills Urban Village will be the first built neighbourhood in Canada developed using SuNliving."

Bard Golightly
Chief Operating Officer
Christenson Group of Companies


"Strathcona County, like many municipalities across the country, utilized the general approach of social, economic and environmental pillars as its model for achieving a more sustainable community. Natural Resources Canada’s CanmetENERGY introduced Strathcona County and Christenson Developments to the concept of a sustainable urban neighbourhood (SUN) planning and design process, allowing us to take community planning to the next level. NRCan was instrumental in providing us with the support and knowledge required to turn the Emerald Hills Urban Village Plan into the first SUN Pilot Project. The Emerald Hills Urban Village demonstrates the SuNliving approach. This approach has subsequently become an important element in all the County's land use policy planning documents moving forward. I would encourage anyone interested in developing more sustainable neighbourhoods to visit the Buildings and Communities section of CanmetENERGY’s website (www.canmetenergy.gc.ca) for further planning resources and to pick-up a copy of the SuNliving book."

Peter P. Vana
Associate Commissioner, Infrastructure and Planning Services