Imagining my Green Neighbourhood Twenty Years From Now
Today, June 21, 2042, it has been ten years since my household achieved net zero carbon emissions. Even better, many of my neighbours have done the same thing or are close to doing so. Impressively, that is eight years before Canada will achieve the same target. I say “will” because the federal and provincial governments finally quit messing around and started taking serious steps to achieve the targets they set in the 2020s. This has moved Canada from being a climate change laggard to a leader in reducing emissions (Zimonjic, 2021).
Twenty years ago, people might have asked what it means to be net zero? But as most people now know, it means quitting emitting. That is, no more fossil fuel burning for household heat or transportation, and eliminating, as often as possible, products that require fossil fuels for their production. Also, it means no more methane-producing garbage or eating animals that create high emissions (Milman, 2021). Cow burps producing methane are just part of the problem.
How to get rid of emissions
For any emissions I create in a year, or when I build or renovate, I offset them with the excess clean electricity I put into the grid (more on that later) and what is growing in my yard. If more offsets are required to achieve net zero for the year, that is achieved by planting trees (Allen, 2021). As it stands now, there is no room left in my yard for trees. It is full! Fortunately, many First Nations have been able to sell carbon offsets because of the sequestered carbon in the forests they manage (Coastal First Nations, 2010). This helps us get to net zero and provides the First Nations with revenue from conservation.
As pleased as I am to be net zero, I could not have done this alone. Nor would I have wanted to. Achieving a goal like this is only meaningful and possible if others work toward the same purpose. That includes my neighbours, governments, corporations, and even the power-hungry plutocrats (Monbiot, 2022). When the neighbourhood decided to do this as a collective, we had more influence in getting help from the politicians and local businesses. Other neighbourhoods were also inspired and started their own green collectives. Renters got landlords to support tree planting and community gardens so that they could also benefit from the shade and access to fresh food.
At first, it was a challenge to change our homes and transportation methods, as well as to think about what we buy and how it is disposed of. Thankfully forward-thinking governments provided policies and incentives to help. Good governments that work for the people do make a difference. We all took advantage of and benefited from the federal government’s Greener Homes program, the provincial government’s CleanBC program, and the City of Nanaimo’s 2022 ReImagine Nanaimo City Plan. Over time the governments built on these plans to help citizens transition to greener living.
Greening the neighbourhood made us healthier
We found that greenhouse gas emissions were like a nasty virus that kept cropping up in different things and was often part of the mix of pollutants harmful to our health and planet (Chaisson, 2019). As it was when our neighbourhood collective started on the path to net zero, we did not know how much our health would benefit from our efforts (Kingsley, 2019). According to government statistics, our neighbourhood has fewer mental health problems, higher physical fitness rates, better cognitive function, and less overall sickness. We are happy, get along with each other and most importantly, look out for each other. Apparently, this has helped us to live longer.
Not surprisingly, these neighbourhood statistics have caught the interest of researchers. Unfortunately, other communities have seen a decline in health. Most are the ones that continued with the old high emissions lifestyle (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 2022) and relied on the fossil fuel industries’ claims about technology to remove the emissions from the atmosphere. Sadly, the health and social problems overwhelm their health care, mental health, and social support systems. Our neighbourhood’s healthy lifestyle has the researchers calling our neighbourhood the Green Zone. That is a nod to the Blue Zones communities researchers studied in the early 2000s, where people live healthily and happily beyond 100 years of age (Buettner & Skemp, 2016). They want to find out what we have done so it can be replicated in other neighbourhoods.
Plants and gardens are more than pretty to look at
What got the collective started, I think, was growing pumpkins in the front yard. Aside from being a great way to keep the soil cool with all the foliage and providing food for fall and winter, growing pumpkins is a great conversation starter. Neighbours and passersby would stop and ask about the pumpkins, and toddlers would pat them. They then started to notice the blueberry hedge and the garlic tucked in amongst the lavender and asters. Other keen neighbourhood gardeners ditched their grass lawns for shrubs, pollinator flowers, fruit and nut trees, edible plants, and berries. Soon the bees were buzzing and birds flocking to the welcoming environment. To the delight of all there were surpluses resulting in a neighbourhood veggie stand and a seed saver library. People loved the fresh, healthy food and benefited from getting their hands in the soil. Researchers have shown what gardeners have always known: it makes us happier (Tenenbaum, 2020). Gardening also helps to reduce depression, anxiety, and body mass index (Soga et al., 2017), just one more contributing factor to our Green Zone.
Micro Forests for cooling, storing carbon, and clean air
When we started to get serious about emissions reductions, many of us used parts or all our yards to create micro forests using the Miyawaki Method, which was developed in Japan. The idea is to create optimal conditions to grow mature biodiverse micro forests quickly. This provided incredible climatic benefits to the neighbourhood, sequestering more carbon than trees planted alone, thereby helping us achieve net zero (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2022). We also benefited from the cooling effect forests provide during hot weather, improved soil health from developing an underground fungal network, and habitat for birds and pollinators (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2022). Micro forests also help to filter the air from pollutants that blow in from distant forest fires. Our yards have become thriving green spaces. But up until recently, all the greenery stopped at people’s driveways and the paved street.
Paved streets too hot to live by
Before making changes, the streets got very hot during the extended high heat events (warping and cracking the asphalt pavement), and the storm drainage could not keep up with the long and intense rainstorms. BC Hydro’s overhead wires and poles also were aging rapidly from the extreme weather. The City of Nanaimo introduced a program to use green infrastructure to help soak up stormwater and prevent flooding due to the increased rain (City of Nanaimo, 2022). When the city redid our neighbourhood streets, they replaced failed paved surfaces and overhead services with a smooth, impervious surface but only the center strip. Below-ground services, rain gardens and permeable paving make up either side. Wheeled vehicles (motorized or people-powered) and those needing a smooth surface to wheel walkers or use tactile devices for navigation shared the centre strip. Where cars used to park along the side of the street was replaced with permeable paving with low-growing native plants in the spaces.
Paving that absorbs rain
Permeable paving allows rain to absorb into the soil below and provides a cushion for walking from the low-growing vegetation. Rain gardens were added to the curb to help further slow the rush of surface rainwater down the street. This also helped to filter and decrease the rush of stormwater into the Millstone river, hopefully helping the spawning salmon. We find that stormwater soaking into the ground through the permeable paving and the moisture absorbed by the rain gardens helps to recharge the groundwater and reduce some of the impacts during extended drought periods keeping water available for trees and deep-rooted plants (Capital Regional District, n.d.).
Rain gardens and permeable paving are different esthetic, and some neighbours were not sure about this. But all welcomed the further greening from the additional trees and native plants, thereby helping to cool the street. Now walking or rolling up the road on a hot day is as pleasurable as stepping into the cool forest protecting us from the extreme heat.
Tax credits to get rid of paved driveways
The permeable pavement was such a benefit the city started giving tax credits to residents to replace their paved driveways with porous green surfaces (more carbon sequestration). Some neighbours found they did not need a multi-car driveway and went even further by putting in natural ponds and rain gardens to help store water and provide protection from drought. It is pleasing to look at, and one of the neighbours lets the kids swim in their pond. Others put in a small area of permeable paving and added tiny homes to what was once their large driveway, which has helped create diverse housing for our community.
Intergenerational living makes our neighbourhood vibrant
The ReImagine City Plan from 2022 focused on growing within the city limits rather than expanding outward. But the city still needed places for people to live as the population increased—this required planning flexibility for the layout and types of buildings on a typical city lot. People have created suites within their homes, built two homes on one lot, or added tiny dwellings up to two per lot. What this has done in my neighbourhood is allow for intergenerational living.
Aging parents or young adults live in smaller dwellings or accessible suites. In my case, it is all three. Many of my neighbours have their young adult children in tiny homes. Since most of us also want to generate as much food and energy from our properties as possible, most of the dwelling’s surfaces are either green and growing or covered in solar panels.
The extra people living within the neighbourhood have made for a supportive, lively community. The street, once the domain of the gas-fired car, now supports socialization (one neighbour has even set up a coffee kiosk for delicious plant-based baking and drinks), exercise (who wouldn’t want to walk around and visit the gardens, the vegetable stand, or the adjacent park?), and multiple modes of transportation (all have the right of way over the cars which keeps car speeds lower and safer).
Transit, active transportation and EVs transformed how we get around
Transit has become so convenient and much less troublesome than owning a car. People have turned their vehicles in for active transportation, including walking, running, mobility aids, e-bikes, electric kick scooters, and electric skateboards. Depending on the nature of the trip, they can bring their active transport device on the bus with them or store them in the secure storage lockers provided at the bus stops. Self-driving electric vehicle car share apps have allowed people to put their parked EV cars up for others to use when they are not using them. The car drives on its own to pick up the passengers.
EV car share apps are essential for people who cannot participate in active transportation and still need to get around but do not own a car. BC Transit also has cars available on the apps for similar purposes. It is a convenient service as the car picks you up at the appointed time and drops you off at the door of wherever you need to go. There is no need to find parking. The vehicle will wait for you if it is a quick in and out trip. The rest of us have lost weight, feel much happier and enjoy better health from moving our bodies to get around. Plus, the city has exceeded its target to reduce car trips and has all sorts of extra space freed up from where all the cars used to park to build homes, neighbourhood markets, community gardens or micro forests.
Solar panels on everyone’s home
As mentioned above, our neighbourhood produces most of its energy requirements with solar panels on the roof or walls of the various dwellings on their property. We took advantage of the federal government’s interest-free loans and incentives starting in 2022 to install solar on our roofs. Then BC Hydro removed the restriction that we could not produce more power than we used in a year if we had battery storage so that the grid could draw on it when needed. This helped BC Hydro to avoid having to use fossil fuel-fired generation when hydro generation could not meet demand and meant we could offset our unavoidable emissions. Battery backup also helps during power outages. Spent EV car batteries have a second life as our backup battery storage systems, thereby minimizing the environmental impact of storage (Hive Power, 2022).
Recently other neighbours installed a new generation of panels that produce electricity from solar, rain and wind (Zheng et al., 2015). I might add some of those soon as well. Once we started saving money on our energy bills, that helped, along with incentives to pay for additional upgrades. For my house, we added insulation to the roof and attic to get protection from the searing hot sun and the sometimes cold winters. The great thing about solar panels, aside from the free electricity, is they shade the roof’s surface and extend its life span. All this clean energy has reduced the air pollution from gas-fired appliances and gas-powered cars. Many of us noticed a reduction in respiratory illnesses from cleaner air (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 2022). Unfortunately, wildfire smoke still moves into the area, which always happens during the hottest weather.
Heat pumps really help
When this happens, all we can do is shelter inside our homes that thanks to the government programs, have helped us all move to heat pumps and high-efficiency filtration on the air supply system, so we are comfortable and safe. Our trees and green growing yards also help. As the micro forests and mature forested parks filter the air, some of us will don our air cleaning respirators to still get out for shorter walks.
What I have noticed about the heat pump is that it is much quieter than my old high-efficiency gas furnace, and my house is always at a comfortable temperature. The air cleaning filter has meant fewer asthma attacks for most of us that suffer (thanks to the various respiratory pandemics of the 2020s and out-of-control wildfire smoke, many more people have problems breathing) and less use of the rescue puffer (Bottrell, 2019). The household energy costs are significantly reduced, and clean energy was an essential step to being net zero.
***
I open my eyes and blink. The sun is already hot and streaming in through the dusty glass. I take my first conscious breath of the morning and detect the smell of forest fire smoke that has been lingering in the air for days. I blink a few more times, frown, and my heart sinks as I quickly try to force myself back to sleep and capture a few more minutes of the lovely green dream. That was a more elaborate dream than usual. Maybe to counteract the grim heat dome and forest fire season that has replaced what we used to call summer. It is not all terrible, but it is challenging. Especially now that there are shortages and an increasing threat of conquest (the Americans want Canada’s water).
I will have to tell my granddaughter, Ruby, about the dream at breakfast. She loves to listen to stories and is a wise soul currently learning Hul’q’umin’um’, an opportunity gifted to all school children from the Snuneymuxw First Nation. She will ask why we didn’t achieve our goals (Monbiot, 2022). Why couldn’t we stop our need for more, more, more? We have all been forced to do with less now but have caused much more damage to ourselves and the environment. It was like being told we had stage 3 liver and lung cancer and continued smoking, drinking, and refusing treatment. What made people want to live foolishly beyond the planet’s capacity to provide for them? I will gaze out the window at the old oak that shades our yard and sigh and say well, Ruby, that is another story.
***
Bibliography and Sources
Allen, M. (2021). Does planting trees in your yard help fight climate change? The Garden Continuum. https://www.thegardencontinuum.com/blog/does-planting-trees-in-your-yard-help-fight-climate-change
Bottrell, J. (2019, July 31.). Are Air Conditioners Good for Asthma? Asthma.Net. https://asthma.net/living/air-conditioning-help
BC Center for Disease Control (2017). Fact sheet: Supporting equity through the built environment. http://www.bccdc.ca/resource-gallery/Documents/Educational%20Materials/EH/BCCDC_equity-fact-sheet_web.pdf
Buettner, D., & Skemp, S. (2016). Blue Zones. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 10(5), 318–321. https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827616637066
Capital Regional District. (n.d.). What is a Rain Garden? https://www.crd.bc.ca/education/stormwater-wastewater-septic/green-stormwater-infrastructure/rain-gardens
Chaisson, C. (2021, February 19.). Fossil Fuel Air Pollution Kills One in Five People. NRDC. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/fossil-fuel-air-pollution-kills-one-five-people
Chelsea Green Publishing. (2022). Imagining a Mini-Forest’s Potential: The Miyawaki Method [Review of the book Mini-Forest Revolution, by H. Lewis]. https://www.chelseagreen.com/2022/the-miyawaki-method/
City of Nanaimo (2022, May). City Plan – Nanaimo Reimagined, Executive Summary. https://www.nanaimo.ca/docs/projects/city-plan—executive-summary—2022.06.03.pdf
City of Nanaimo (2022, May). City Plan – Nanaimo Reimagined. https://pub-nanaimo.escribemeetings.com/FileStream.ashx?DocumentId=42277
Coastal First Nations. (2010). Forest Carbon Credits – Economic Revenue for Forest Conservation. https://coastalfirstnations.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/CFN-Carbon-Credit-info-brochure-.pdf
Gavurova, B., Rigelsky, M., & Ivankova, V. (2021). Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Health in the Countries of the European Union. Frontiers in Public Health, 9. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.756652
Hive Power. (2022, February 14). Is Repurposing EV Batteries for Grid Energy Storage a Sustainable Plan? https://www.hivepower.tech//blog/is-recycling-ev-batteries-for-grid-energy-storage-a-sustainable-plan
Hunter, R. F., Cleland, C., Cleary, A., Droomers, M., Wheeler, B. W., Sinnett, D., Nieuwenhuijsen, M. J., & Braubach, M. (2019). Environmental, health, wellbeing, social and equity effects of urban green space interventions: A meta-narrative evidence synthesis. Environment International, 130, 104923. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2019.104923
Kingsley, M. & EcoHealth Ontario. (2019). Commentary – Climate change, health and green space co-benefits. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada: Research, Policy and Practice, 39(4), 131-135. https://doi.org/10.24095/hpcdp.39.4.0
Lee, M., Li, B., Maxwell, S. & Shulman, T. (2021). A Zero Waste Agenda for BC. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives BC and Zero Waste BC. https://policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/BC%20Office/2021/10/ccpa-bc_Zero-Waste_2021_full.pdf
Lusk, A. C., da Silva Filho, D. F., & Dobbert, L. (2020). Pedestrian and cyclist preferences for tree locations by sidewalks and cycle tracks and associated benefits: Worldwide implications from a study in Boston, MA. Cities, 106, 102111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2018.06.024
Milman, O. (2021, September 13). Meat accounts for nearly 60% of all greenhouse gases from food production, study finds. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/13/meat-greenhouses-gases-food-production-study
Monbiot, G. (2022, July 6). It’s democracy v plutocracy – this is the endgame for our planet. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/06/power-wealthy-earth-politics-democracy-plutocracy
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. (2022). Air Pollution and Your Health. https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/air-pollution/index.cfm
Soga, M., Gaston, K. J., & Yamaura, Y. (2017). Gardening is beneficial for health: A meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine Reports, 5, 92–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2016.11.007
Tenenbaum, L. (2020, January 29). Digging In The Dirt Really Does Make People Happier. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lauratenenbaum/2020/01/29/digging-in-the-dirt-really-does-make-people-happier/
Zheng, L., Cheng, G., Chen, J., Lin, L., Wang, J., Liu, Y., Li, H., & Wang, Z. L. (2015). A Hybridized Power Panel to Simultaneously Generate Electricity from Sunlight, Raindrops, and Wind around the Clock. Advanced Energy Materials, 5(21), 1501152. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201501152
Zimonjic, P. (2021, November 25). Canada’s climate change efforts going from “failure to failure,” says commissioner’s report | CBC News. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/environment-commissioner-report-failure-to-failure-1.6262523
Imagining my Green Neighbourhood Twenty Years From Now Read More »
