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REVIEW OF WOLVERHAMPTON SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY & IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Goodyear is finally going to call off their tire production unit in Wolverhampton. It will cost around 700 jobs to a city with a population of two hundred fifty thousand individuals. When a person check this move on the merit of sustainability of the city then he can say that luckily, it is only a dent on the economy of the city where Jaguar and Range Rover are also manufacturing their cars, Wolverhampton is lucky because it is not under any severe threat of climate change or pollution levels.
(Desk, 2016)
In the year, 2013 authorities launched a Wolverhampton sustainability strategy and implementation plan (2013-2018) ( WSSIP) in order to derive a self-sustainable path for the city. In the terms of civic history, Wolverhampton is a city, which is on the verge of regeneration. It means that they are redeveloping the major part of the city in accordance with the need of increased population.
An individual might have seen many examples where a one-sided development of cities created havoc in all the three spheres of activity. These spheres are Economy, society, and environment. They cannot be compromised because it deals with "our common future" very strongly.
(ONGO, 1985-86)
In the history of UN, 1972 and 1979 are the landmark years when issues like the climate of the world and health of an individual took the front seat. UN guidelines created a framework for a sustainable growth and WSSIP follows these norms at the level of planning and implementation.
Current critique is an attempt to weight various aspects of this much coveted “Wolverhampton Sustainability strategy and implementation plan ( 2013-2018) under the framework of these three keywords.
(Authorties, 2013-18)
Definition
Any sustainable structure of development stands with the support of three pillars, these three P's or pillars are People, profit, and Planet. There are five major theories that contribute to the framework of a sustainability strategy.
The People in the current structure refer to a human index, health index and social well-being index of a society. Planet refers to phenomenon like carbon gas emission levels, the presence of green belt in the area and the overall carrying capacity of the city. Profit naturally refers to the economic activity taking place in the city.
People living in Shanghai are earning good but they are compromising their health against increasing pollution levels and traffic jams. This is not a sustainable scenario and they need to focus more on two other Ps of People and planet.
(Friedman, 2014)
International Perspective
In the year 1987, the think tank of United Nations described sustainable development as the process of development where a society can meet its current needs and leave enough resources for the future generations so that they can meet the ends with the environment and their economic needs along with a healthy social life and healthy body.
The international perspective over the issue simply talks in the terms of holistic management, it means that all the three aspects of development should be given equal importance while deriving an implementation plan. Check this simple example. Hindustan Zinc Limited owns Zinc mine in a desert area of India. The mining of Zinc was threatening the environment of the desert even further. HZL quite prudently converted offloaded mining sites into manmade reservoirs. The international prototype of sustainable development wants this type of industrious examples. This example also justifies the concerns and recommendations of the Rio Earth summit 1992.
(HZL, 2007)
European Perspective
Shift your focus on the European perspective of sustainable development, the dictum was just the same as it was for any other developed country of the world. In the year 1997, Kyoto protocol instructed European countries to keep a check on the emission norms. In the year 2002 Johannesburg summit over the same issue also cleared a few things where they introduced eight millennial goals for sustainable development. In the year, 2008 European countries came up with a CARE (Climate Action and Renewable Energy) package. According to this treaty all the countries of the European Union should come up with mechanisms where they can produce 20 percent of their energy needs from renewable sources by the year 2020.
(Grubb, 1999)
National Perspective
Home energy conservation act of 1995 was the first attempt in the direction of sustainable development. It was an act where it became mandatory to produce annual energy conservation report for the country. In the year 2008, a climate change act was also introduced, it was aimed to bring down the emission of the greenhouse down by 80 percent by the year 2050.
The focus was on the planet aspect because rest of the two aspects was performing well. As one can see that targets were set for 2020 and 2050, this shows a harmony with the international perspective of sustainable development that connects the future with the present.
(Bass, 2014)
Regional Perspective
The region of West Midland took a serious note of sustainability strategy in the year 2006 when this publication “Sustainable future for midlands” came in existence. The main emphasis was on four issues.
Sustainable consumption and production
Energy production and climate change
Enhancement of environment while protecting the natural resources
Development of sustainable communities
They extended the same policy in 2007 and during 2010, the focus area shifted towards "opportunities in the low carbon economy.” This step was in harmony with the declaration of Kyoto summit. (Bass, 2014)
Local perspective
Emission norms were never an issue with Wolverhampton, neither they are right now in our views. It is a wise decision to introduce and implement few things even well before they can become a danger to the environment. One can easily draw a timeline for the local perspective of Wolverhampton with regard to sustainable development.
In the year 2004, they introduced the principle of sustainability strategy
2006 marked the introduction of Wolverhampton declaration on climate change
In the year 2009, Wolverhampton environment Strategy came into existence
A plan was laid down for the tenure of (2008-2026), however, it was replaced with the current sustainability strategy (2013-18).
In an accordance with the commitment against carbon footprints, authorities at Wolverhampton also followed the footsteps of national policies and they come up with effective resolutions to cut down the carbon emission and encouraged the use of renewable sources of energy from time to time.
(Authorties, 2013-18)
Environmental Management Box
The principle of prevention is better than cure; it is the best way to describe the environmental concerns of Wolverhampton. It is true that sustainability strategy demands an equal focus on all the three aspects of people, economy, and environment. However, one should not forget that environment is one aspect where most of the damages are irreversible. People can complain about human index because they have a voice; systems have bodies calculating the impact of various things on the economy. The environment, on the other hand, is a silent and lone survivor; authorities come to know about environmental impacts at a time when it starts hitting us back.
(Mitchell, 2014)
Take the example of New Delhi, the capital of India, this city was quite known for its fog during the winter season. It was being said that fog adds a romance in the city. At the turn of this century, the authorities realized that fog is not adding any romance into the city, on the other hand, vehicular pollution of the city is adding sulfur into the fog and converting it into smog.
As a result, first, they threw out all the chemical industries out of the city, secondly, now they are trying to regularize the vehicular pollution. The damage is already done with the health of people; Delhi is not anymore a safe city for the people suffering from respiratory section related diseases. Prior to the case of Wolverhampton, let’s sum up, the case of New Delhi, things failed in New Delhi because authorities never took any sincere steps during the initial stage. They confined their roles to awareness programs and symbolic measures. This lethargic approach ruined the other two prospects very badly.
(Haq, 2012)
Check out certain parts of the WSSIP, you will find that this plan has a far more sensible outlook, it is addressing the right set of problems in a tangible fashion. For instance, during June 2013 a circular from the side of authorities came out where they demanded to access the waste recycling rates at all the major civic centers of the city. One can easily see that the city is regenerating itself all over again. Any civic center is a densely populated area on any given day. Waste recycling is a very important thing because waste disposal can emerge as a big headache once the population of the city will increase. One can benchmark it with the example of New Delhi, Delhi did not pay any attention to effective public transport facility, and this increased the number of private vehicles and increased the levels of pollution in the air.
(Haq, 2012)
The move of authorities under the guidelines of WSSIP can be considered as a welcome move because in absence of real problem they are trying to check the rate of waste management. This is a wise approach, if you have done your mathematics correctly then you are ready to avoid an unpleasant situation that can arise and destroy the sustainability of your system.
This initiative of WSSIP also gives us a very smart lesson, if you want to spread awareness then an implementation is the best way. At the turn of this century, the authorities in Delhi came up with a decision where they forced all the public transportation vehicles to apply green color on their bodies; the idea was to spread awareness. Within a year, the cabs of the city turned their colors into green. Still, nobody was aware that it is more important to go for a pollution control check on a regular basis in order to keep his or her city green.
(Authorties, 2013-18)
WSSIP, on the other hand, came up with a pilot project where Waste recycle management became an essential part of a building maintenance. It is a futuristic move; it will bring in an infrastructure in place. Since the authorities are collecting data with the operations, it will also give them an insight about how they can handle these conditions in future.
Any sustainability strategy should follow the approach of an ant instead of a grasshopper; it means to prepare for the days of trouble in advance. Carbon waste management or recycling of the waste is one such topic. It looks very insignificant from a distance. It is an insignificant issue with respect to the current situation in Wolverhampton, however, it is a peril, because once the load of the population will increase in the city, the things are going break down.
The climate of the world is changing; the world is already facing the heat of global warming at a macro level. Regular monsoon patterns are changing because breezes and powerful cyclones are clueless about the temperature of the earth. Metropolitan cities of the world are already feeling the heat. Carbon footprints are making the things worse. During the days of innocence, Mother Nature was ruling on us, she was bestowing her wealth on us and giving us this chance to survive; now humankind is ruling over Mother Nature. Mother Nature is revolting against the practices of humankind and everyone is facing the music.
(Leary, 2008)
In the previous section of this critique, you studied the case of New Delhi, how the absence of public transport system changed the climate of the city. Wolverhampton is not a metropolitan city. Things are far more under control here. However, WSSIP is worried about its future big time. In the case of Wolverhampton the closest example will be of London, if one wishes to draw any parallels related to the Wolverhampton then it will be closer to London. London has its own structure of being a Metropolitan city.
Let us first check the rankings of the city of the London among the UN list of the cities, which are arranged in the order of the implementation of sustainable strategies. London ranks five in the list of the leading cities that are scoring well in the terms of sustainable strategy. Compare London with other cities in the list then cities like Seoul and Sao Paulo are faring much better with the regards to environmental concerns. When it comes to the concern related to the planet, Seoul earns 27 points for the head of the planet and Sao Paulo earns 30 points. London on the same scale earns only 9 points; London is among top five cities still it can be considered as a dismal performance because you are competing in the big league.
(Habitat, 2012)
Things can go very bitter for a place like Wolverhampton because it is an upcoming town. Upcoming towns often fall for the trap of industrialization. The index of sustainable development never says that industrialization is bad, however, it clearly says that industrialization without proper other facilities is bad. In order to maintain a sustainable approach, every authority should understand this simple fundamental rule of coming up with some changes where they are inflicting some positive changes in the lifestyle of an individual. Industries are not just catering to our needs; they are generating the needs of a different kind of lifestyles. In order to counter their impacts on the environment, authorities should come up with some means to bring in some positive lifestyle traits in their life.
(Authorties, 2013-18)
The authorities of Wolverhampton in the light of WSSIP came up with a nice vision and decent implementation where they are tackling this trouble with the help of an elaborate transport plan under the heading Transport Plan 3, 2011-2026. Besides low carbon emissions, this plan also deals with certain challenges like reducing congestion and improving accessibility.
If you think that this plan is concerned with low carbon emission or climate change alone then it is a misconception, no such plan can survive if it is not answering certain strategic questions like how it is improving connectivity, how it is reducing the travel time. How it is helping the cause of road safety and traffic management. How it is handling the problem of freight corridors and heavy vehicles. One cannot deny these questions. It is true that currently, Wolverhampton is not facing these questions, however, in the near future, it could happen and by the year 2026, it is a mathematical certainty that it will happen.
(Grubb, 1999)
Places like London and Wolverhampton are promoting bicycle corridors. They are designing these bicycle corridors under two conditions, first, it will cut down the distance between two places, means the construction of shortest possible route, second they are making sure that a cyclist can attain the speed of 32 kilometers per hour while traveling. Let us check out other positive impacts of the program you will find that it also helps people in maintaining a good health as well. WSSIP is an advanced program, handling carbon emissions and reducing carbon footprints is an important task for controlling the climate change, regional and national stakeholders are focusing more on things like coming up with low emission engines etc. On the other hand, WSSIP is cutting the quarters by implementing certain programs where then will be able to handle the carrying capacity of the transport systems in a much more sensible way and lead the locality towards a sustainable phase of development.
(Council, 2014)
In our views, “3-Pillar sustainability model” can serve as the optimum best model for the city of Wolverhampton. Methods like circular metabolism are too complex for a simple city like Wolverhampton. The approach of WSSIP is quite right since they have a plan designed for the stipulated period of (13-18) 3-pillar sustainability structure is the best structure, during the time of 2018, when anyone will review the role of sustainability model then one can switch to complex models like Circular model or Cardiff model.
In our views industries should be promoted in Wolverhampton so that this city can find a space in the industrial map of UK, one can compare Wolverhampton with Cambridge here, when it comes to population, both the cities are same. Still, Cambridge is a well-known place because it is an education hub; this same education is also serving as the main industry of the city. Wolverhampton, on the other hand, is sincerely lacking in this regard because one cannot name any steady source of industry, which is contributing to the economy of the city. The density of the population is increasing; the lack of employment opportunity can bring in social problems like the migration of the population etc. in near future.
(Onishi, 2009)
Economy contributes to infrastructure and maintenance of infrastructure commands some regulatory means where authorities are required to introduce some means that can contribute to the cause of a sustainable environment. The current focus of 3-pillar sustainability model should be more on the economy and social impacts. When plans like WSSIP are already in place and with a passage of time; they are gathering enough data in order to take the control of future proceedings.
Economy and social concerns directly challenge the carrying capacity of the various systems of the city. New Delhi lost the battle because they never paid any attention towards increasing the carrying capacities of certain areas like transportation system etc. Currently, numbers are supporting Wolverhampton, there are no bottlenecks, this town is on a verge of regeneration and it should be regenerated with a view of industrial and economic growth. Initiatives like WSSIP should check this process of industrialization and come up with necessary notes to introduce environment protection practices, one can take the example of Seoul, this South Korean city saw a change in its infrastructure because of the Olympics. While they were doing so, they never forget to increase the green belt of the city.
(Baker, 2015)
Sustainability strategy never says that individuals should start treating our cities as buffer zones attached to some national parks or the parks where biodiversity is protected, it never says that development should be stopped and humans should go back to stone age. No, if it happens then again it is a failure for the economy of the city. Take the example of Sydney here, in the terms of real estate; Sydney always makes it in the list of first 20 cities. It is a city, which is on the verge of vertical expansion. At the turn of this century planners of the city were in a fix, they were fidgeting with two options, they should allow a vertical expansion of the city or they should try to develop proper transportation corridors to expand the city in the horizontal direction. They came up with a sustainability program where they allowed the residential facilities of the city to expand horizontally and tried to create industrial hubs and parks for commercial establishments near the city.
(OECD, 2016)
Now ten years down the line, Sydney as a center of trade activity is flourishing big time, the commercial real estate is surviving on a vertical expansion. Residential areas are out of the main city. They are promoting public transport in the city and connecting it to suburban places. Thus, they are increasing the carrying capacity of the city. City dwellers are living in bigger houses and the human index is very high. The presence of parks and amusement centers is also allowing them to have better health and recreation. This is a classical example of sustainable development. Most of the Australian authorities are following the same order. You might be thinking that how anyone can discuss this example under the section of climate change.
The primary reason behind the climate change can be dubbed as the inability to humankind to recycle the carbon and other fossil fuels, which are coming out of the crest. In the case of a horizontal expansion, you cut down the dense bubbles of fossil fuels. If your city is dense then this bubble of fossil fuel can contribute to the climate change and play havoc with the help of the residents. The total sum of these carbon footprints is actually affecting us on two levels, first it is polluting the air and second, it is pressing the sea levels. Cities like Wolverhampton are small pockets contributing in this menace of climate change, right not their contribution is negligible but the absence of tools like WSSIP can speed it up because industrialization is seeking asylum next to small cities of the world.
(Roaf, 2012)
At the culmination point of this critique, anyone can put down some points very effectively.
Programs like WSSIP are the need of the hour for small cities and upcoming towns. They are essential for civic planning of any upcoming city.
The city should be planned in such a fashion where health and happiness should never take a backseat. The inclusion of cycling routes in Transportation plan 3, is a great example of it. Here they are cutting down the vehicular emission, maintaining the travel time, congestion related worries.
Programs like WSSIP should have this agenda to take regular notes of perils that can cause an environmental threat in coming future. It should be treated like a disaster management planning.
Health and happiness are also dependent on the local economy of the place; they should never take a backseat during the course of environmental concern.
WSSIP is an ideal plan, which is in sync with the national, International and UC concerns related to the sustainable development. They have laid down equal importance on the execution and implementation part of the programs as well.
The starting point of this critique on a note where the news that Goodyear is closing down its manufacturing unit in Wolverhampton was flashed. It was deliberate because, according to the three-pillar structure, the economy of the Wolverhampton city is the weakest part right now. Plans like WSSIP should encourage economic activity in cities. WSSIP lacks in this area, some more provisions to encourage industry should be introduced, it should have a clear demarcation for industrial corridors and manufacturing hubs as well.
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Council, W. (2014). Transport Planning. Wolverhampton: http://www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/article/3499/Transport-planning.
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