City basks in Docklands’ reflected glory

The City of Melbourne has become a world environmental leader, largely thanks to the sustainability of Docklands.

In March Docklands hosted 17 “C40” cities for an international workshop on “Sustainable Communities: Collaborating, Planning, Delivering”.

Victoria Harbour’s sustainability qualities were show-cased to the group of cities, including Beijing, Copenhagen and London.

By the time the event had finished, Melbourne had emerged as the chair of a new global Network on Sustainable Urban Development.

To be chaired by Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, the network will engage other global cities with an interest in sustainable communities.

Lend Lease’s Victoria Harbour project manager Claire Johnson said her organisation learned a lot by being involved in the two-day C40 workshop.

“Having the world’s cutting-edge thinkers from a wide spectrum of industries in the one room to debate, argue and challenge the status quo has been invaluable to us and the Victoria Harbour project,” Ms Johnston said.

“As well as providing a great discussion forum it gave Lend Lease, the City of Melbourne and Places Victoria the opportunity to showcase Victoria Harbour as a landmark sustainable precinct.”

The workshop, she said, has resulted in a range of tangible “next steps”.

“We’ve made the commitment, along with our partners, to explore precinct-wide sustainability initiatives, including co-generation and blackwater treatment technologies.”

“While complex in their nature, getting such initiatives right will foster leadership in large scale urban renewal projects, both in Australia and internationally.”

The workshop kicked off with a panel discussion involving Lend Lease’s development managing director David Rolls, City of Melbourne CEO Kathy Alexander and Places Victoria CEO Sam Sangster.

“The session was highly insightful and prompted constructive dialogue emphasising  the importance of a partnership approach. As well as partnerships other key ingredients identified were long term views and commitment to excellence. These were all deemed critical for delivering successful, sustainable communities of the scale of Victoria Harbour,” Ms Johnston said.

“We also congratulate the City of Melbourne’s leadership with the launch of the Sustainable Urban Development network. This will provide a valuable platform for cities to work together on common challenges as well as engage local stakeholders to deliver practical solutions.”