I was out plotting again with some pals the other evening, all senior regeneration practitioners (for which read: "old") of one sort or another and, admittedly, a glass or two of wine had been taken.
We got onto discussing whether "sustainability is the new regeneration" in terms of being the new emerging exciting industry to be part of, for the Noughties and the Tens, in the same way as regeneration was the party-to-be-at for the Eighties and the Nineties. And our verdict was: well, yes!
The parallels are all there. Environmental jobs are created on the fringe and (at least in the general perception) are still not mainstream. Despite a pretty coherent case, environmentalists still seem to be outsiders, banging on the door of the establishment. Those who choose the environment industry tend to be as messianic and passionate, as pointy-headed, as we were when we "invented" urban regeneration, in London Docklands (among other places) all those years ago.
Environmental projects tend to need the same skills that we deploy in urban regeneration - partnership working, building alliances and coalitions, an ability to manage cocktail funding, a forensic understanding of risk management capacity in both the public and private sectors. All this coupled with excellent technical grasp of one's subject and the patience of a saint! What's the betting that all this sounds very familiar to anyone in a so-called "green job"?
So, as BURA launches itself at MIPIM into the next 20 years, as a "learning organisation" we are (as you all know) naturally looking at what worked and what didn't, and, as I advised the environment industry only the other day in some august journal, it may be salutary for those guys to pick up any "read across" from our experiences in regeneration.
One of the things we didn't always get right is routing projects - thoroughly - through our local communities and it is the projects that managed to effect this that have been the most successful (and this was never achieved 100%, although people cite Brindley Place or Paddington or Castleford as having elements of best practice; those that are worthy of copying).
In an analogous drive to improve the sustainability of our built environment, there is now a strong focus on communities - especially communities in which people can work, shop, learn and play near their homes, and not have to drive miles from residential areas to distant business districts, shopping centres, schools and other facilities.
I believe that the environmental agenda and the regeneration sector are closely aligned, if not exactly the same! It may not be flavour of the month right now, but I reckon it is inescapable. As some other old trout once said: "There is no alternative".
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