Author name: Northern Section

Net Zero Energy and Net Zero Water buildings have rapidly captured the public imagination, and are transforming expectations for the pace of change in the built environment. The Living Building Challenge™ expands Net Zero concepts in ways that look far into the future, consider the endgame and shape our efforts to create productive, thriving communities. […]

See the featured Urban Greenprint project, other resources, and the conference link below for a quick glimpse of an inspiring range of innovative, leading-edge, regenerative/ecological/biomimicry-based urban planning projects. This range of initiatives may be useful for planners in further defining the goal, domain, and methods of sustainability planning (the profession or an individual department).  These

Plan-it Sustainably Column Web Post (Northern News, Dec 2013, p 9, slightly expanded).  A media product of Northern Section’s Sustainability Committee, Excerpted by Scott T. Edmondson, AICP, from a post by Timothy Beatley, October 2, 2013. (See links at end of article.) “Too often,” notes University of Virginia Professor Timothy Beatley, “urban greening efforts focus on

Have you been curious about The Natural Step’s powerful whole systems strategic sustainability planning method but unable to find a workshop? Paul Horton, longtime Natural Step Associate, is bringing the Level 1 training to five US cities for the first time in a few years in October/November 2013. The San Francisco training is scheduled for

The Northern Section was proud to sponsor and organize a series of four free Planning Commissioner Training Workshops in Spring 2013. The workshops were well attended and taught by experienced professional planners. Planning Commissioners can view the workshop PowerPoint presentations at https://norcalapa.org/programs/planning-commissioners/. We hope to offer another workshop series in 2014.