Ensuring Sustainability in Brownfield Revitalisation as PDF

Participation in
Sustainability Evaluation
A case study from the workshop on 'Targets and Indicators for
Sustainable Development' – Stuttgart.
In October 2005 more than 100 people attended a
planning workshop entitled, 'Guidelines and Targets for
Sustainable Development'. This took place in an
Introduction
historical building, the future city archive of Stuttgart,
in the immediate neighbourhood of the goods station
area. The purpose of the workshop was to evaluate
existing concepts for the sustainable development of
the proposed development area, in cooperation with political decisionmakers,
stakeholders and interested parties, and to describe these
concepts with the aid of 'targets and indicators for sustainable
development'. While targets were defined in rather general terms (e.g.
'conservation of fossil energies'), indicators (e.g. '30% below the regulatory
energy-conservation standard') provided a way of setting, measuring,
monitoring and controlling these sustainable development targets.
The public workshop was attended by town planners, architects, investors,
housing contractors, project developers, business and civil-organisation
representatives, district and town councillors, administrators, and
interested citizens. The result was a first draft for ‘10 key-principles for
sustainable development’ in the REVIT area. This paper is now the basis for
further policy discussion and is likely to be adopted by the local council for
urban development and purchase contracts. It will also provide the
foundation for further participation in the ongoing planning process.
Most public events and participation processes dealing
with issues of urban development in Stuttgart are
usually conducted in conformance with relevant legal
Background regulations and requirements laid down in the Building
Code. For this reason, events such as the REVIT
Planning Workshop do not normally form part of the
administrative routine, so that any official who
endorses them is a pioneer in the field.
How to implement Environmental Profile Process
and GPR in Stuttgart - internal discussion round
Thus, it was all the more important to obtain political backing for the goals
and contents of the REVIT Planning Workshop before it was carried out.
Most importantly, top-flight administrators, such as department and
office directors and mayors, had to be involved in relevant considerations
from the start and convinced that a public dialogue can contribute towards the
qualification of a plan. The backing given by senior administrators to the
Stuttgart process was evident from the fact that the invitation to the
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