Metro Vancouver Sustainability Principles

In 2002, Metro Vancouver adopted the Sustainable Region Initiative (SRI) as its framework for decision making as well as the mechanism by which sustainability principles are moved from ideas into action. The SRI has been driven by the following overarching principles which state that decision making must:
• have regard for both local and global consequences, and long term impacts;
• recognize and reflect the interconnectedness and interdependence of systems;
• be collaborative

These provide the foundation for the three sets of operating principles that guide Metro Vancouver: conserve and develop natural, economic and social capital.

1. PROTECT & ENHANCE THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
a) protect, restore and enhance natural ecosystems; exercise extraordinary care with ecosystems that contain species which are rare or endangered or are critical to living systems;
b) allow extraneous material to be introduced to ecosystems only in such forms and quantities as can be absorbed by the receiving systems without material harm;
c) use renewable resources at no greater rate than they can be replenished;
d) use non-renewable resources only in ways that permit their beneficial re-use or at rates no faster than the rate of creation of renewable substitutes.

2. PROVIDE FOR ONGOING PROSPERITY
a) develop and efficiently use those activities and physical infrastructure that are critical to the long term economic health and creative strength of the region;
b) use pricing mechanisms (‘full pricing’) which account for economic, environmental and social, short and long term, and local and global costs and benefits;
c) ensure decisions and actions are affordable and do not accumulate liabilities for future generations;
d) ensure the economic benefits and capacities are adequately distributed so as to avoid the development of concentrations of persistent economic hardship.

3. BUILD COMMUNITY CAPACITY & SOCIAL COHESION
a) develop and apply decision making processes which are transparent, inclusive and respectful of the interests of all affected parties;
b) identify the determinants of physical and mental health and encourage measures which promote long term health;
c) foster a culture of learning so that successive generations can absorb and build on the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of prior generations;
d) foster social cohesion through an appreciation of and involvement in the civic and cultural life of the community, emphasizing the involvement of young people and those who, through reasons of culture, or economic or physical circumstance, might not be engaged.