Developing new districts

Sustainability at Portland State took a big step forward on Tuesday, Oct. 13 with the inaugural EcoDistrict Summit.

About 100 people from various community organizations and institutes attended the event, which was spearheaded by the Portland + Oregon Sustainability Institute, the City of Portland, Metro and various urban developers. According to Fletcher Beaudoin, research fellow at P+OSI, the goal of the day was to move from envisioning the eco districts into thinking about implementing such a project.

According to P+OSI, the project was launched in December 2008, and by spring or summer of 2010, policy implementation should start.

Five pilot districts were selected for this project, including Lloyd, Lents, Gateway, Portland State and North Macadam.

Eco districts: A new way of thinking sustainably
The concept for an eco district is to focus all sustainable measures on an entire neighborhood, or “district,” rather than simply focusing on one aspect of sustainability for one particular building.

The P+OSI describes an eco district as a neighborhood that is “resource-efficient, captures, manages and reuses a majority of energy, water and waste on site.”

 “An eco district is about taking a more integrative approach to planning, implementation of all sorts of systems: energy, transportation, water and waste management,” said Jennifer Allen, associate professor of public administration.

Allen said such an approach would ideally result in lesser impact on the environment.

“From a social standpoint, it is to create community by getting people more engaged in the place they live,” Allen said. “I think that’s a very important aspect, to have students faculty and partners engage in thinking about this neighborhood and thinking about what it could be.”

As a representative for Portland State in the project, Allen helps coordinate with PSU faculty interested in doing research on the eco district. Allen is currently teaching a University Studies course where students study an eco district as one of their projects.

Beaudoin said his organization, P+OSI, is tasked with investigating the feasibility of the project by testing it on five different districts. The nonprofit organization is funded by the city and is also working on the Oregon Sustainability Center, soon to be the world’s first living building.

Some of the objectives P+OSI outlined in the eco district framework include reducing 95 percent of waste disposal in buildings and achieving carbon neutrality in operation and transportation across the district.

“We felt very strongly that this is a good piece of work and it’s starting to lay the groundwork,” Beaudoin said. “We brought together a lot of the technical experts and the stakeholders to this project.”

Portland State and sustainability
The idea of an eco district is not entirely new, though it in still in its infancy at this point.

At the summit, three developers who have worked on other eco districts or similar projects presented their ideas and concepts to the guests.

One of the presenters is a developer who is working on Vancouver’s Olympic Village, another sustainable living model. The city of Malmo, Sweden, also serves as an example for how to implement an eco district.

Mark Gregory, associate vice president for Finance and Administration, said the Portland State eco district might encompass 30 or 40 blocks of neighboring properties.

“The boundary hasn’t been determined yet,” Gregory said. “We want to be a greener campus with a more livable environment, but we don’t own all the property downtown, so this is a way of connecting with those neighbors into our initiative.”

According to Gregory, several architecture and development firms around the area are showing different levels of involvement in the projects. Some of those companies include Gerding Edlen, PAE Engineers and SERA Architecture, which was hired by the Portland Development Commission to study the Portland State eco district.

Eco district timeline
December 2008: Launch of the eco district initiative
Spring 2009: Mayor’s subcabinet formed
Summer 2009: Five pilot sites selected
October 2009: Inaugural EcoDistrict Summit
Winter 2009-10: Development of policy, finance and governance tools, analysis of pilot sites
Spring/summer 2010: Pilot site implementation