Greenest City Junkie (CityStudio #7)

This week we were graced with the presence of Sean Pander, the Assistant Director for the Sustainability group with the City of Vancouver. We typically pair our guests to balance and broaden perspectives, but this guest did not need any accompaniment. The first ninety minutes passed without him missing a beat, thoroughly filling the air with inspiration and all things related to making this city live up to the expectations my classmates and l each have for it.

As part of the discussion, he gave each group pointed and inspired feedback regarding their ideas. When it came time to discuss our project, now the synthesis of two previously separate ideas, Mr. Pander struggled. His inability to visualize it had much to do with how we presented the idea to him. Each member in our group felt compelled to supplement the initial description. Such clarification would not have been needed if we had our elevator speech nailed and our spokesperson anointed beforehand.

In a way, however, our inability to deliver conciseness forced Mr. Pander to question us with more of a critical disposition. Discouragement could have been received as a result of his struggle with envisioning Water Table: A Long Table Event, but since four of the five members of my group are designers, we all welcomed it. After all, a strong critique most often leads to great leaps in the growth of ideas.

As with any public event, Mr. pander explained how the city learned to always "go to the public" rather than "expect the public to come to them." Furthermore, "water is not sexy," he stated and explained how it might be more difficult to rally people around that topic than it was around, say, food. Lastly, "behavior change never happens in information rich environments." Rather, people need need simplicity and to not be overburdened with data...and after they are behind the singular idea, they need to take the next step on their own soon after, or the idea has a strong chance of being lost on them.

My group took each comment and each criticism to heart, and we are now galvanized in a way that should drive us through to the end. I feel confident about where we are headed. Likewise, my confidence regarding where I might be headed in the year or so beyond this course is also growing. After our discussion with Sean Pander, a few of us had a moment to chat with him as he prepared to head home by bicycle to his young family for dinner. I thanked him for gracing us with his presence and as a response, he looked at me with recognition from one of the few times prior to this where I had met him and said, "you are becoming a bit of a Greenest City junkie, aren't you?" He knew me as the graduate student who worked with Jennifer Bailey and the topic of water conservation this summer as a Greenest City Scholar. Perhaps he will eventually also come to know me as the Vancouver water guru who helped bring about a sea change around the reverence to water. Maybe I will even figure out how to make it sexy.