Who?
What?
A guide for local governments to explore the benefits of considering waste as a resource and natural systems as valuable community assets, compiled by the Community Energy Association (CEA), a Canadian non-profit society.
How?
Integrating resource and energy recovery with municipal and community infrastructure requires a new way of thinking about waste and resources. Their six guiding principles for regenerative infrastructure are:
- Follow the pollution prevention hierarchy
- View every waste as a potential resource
- Use each resource for its highest value
- Use each resource more than once
- Integrate system boundaries
- Consider the entire system life cycle
Outcomes/Example Projects
- Prince George, BC, Canada, Woodfibre Downtown District Energy System: Waste heat from a local sawmill is recovered and distributed to several buildings in the downtown core through a district energy system.
- Nanaimo, BC, Canada, Reservoir No.1 Energy Recovery from Drinking Water: The construction of a new reservoir presented an opportunity to integrate energy recovery by using hydroelectric turbines instead of pressure reducing valves to dissipate excess energy and sell it back to the grid.
- Saanich, BC, Canada, Saanich Peninsula Wastewater Treatment Plant Heat Recovery: A heat recovery system added to the existing wastewater treatment plant captures waste heat from wastewater that is used to heat water at the recreation centre pool.
“The definition of waste extends beyond solid waste, or garbage. Waste is any potential resource that is not currently reused, recycled, or recovered”
Regenerative Principles
Rooted in place/ context
Living systems thrive within a place, and natural ecosystems are open but contained within a context. So for regenerative business, connection to place and community matters. There is no “one size fits all” approach – it’s about working with local and regional ecosystems.
Interconnectivity
Interconnectedness often leads to unexpected non-linear changes because of many different feedback loops in the system. These relationships are the heart of regeneration.
Dynamic
Regenerative systems are Dynamic, as is nature. Change is a given: seasons cause growth, blossoming and decay. Regeneration is not something you can “solve for” once and then ignore. It’s about recognising that change is a constant and developing the capacity to continually adapt.
Design Principles
Learning from Nature
Best illustrated through the concept of biomimicry, ‘mimicking’ nature. Most well known in the world of design and architecture, the core idea behind it is widely applicable. It’s essentially about recognising that nature has a 3.8 billion year headstart on us when it comes to learning how to adapt, survive and thrive, and so we’d be foolish not to see it as a model to learn from and be inspired by. As Janine Benyus, Founder of the Biomimicry Institute puts it: “Life creates the conditions that are conducive to life.”
Circularity
The principle of designing waste out of the system, recovering water, waste materials and energy through production, usage and recreation processes to generate more materials and energy.
Aligning Inner and Outer
A crucial principle is integrity, or alignment of inner and outer. You can’t be regenerative on the outside without also being regenerative on the inside.
