Sustainability & Smart growth in Hive communities

Sustainability, or sustainable development, is the ability to achieve continuing economic prosperity while protecting the natural systems of the planet and providing a high quality of life for its people. Smart growth is a new concept being touted as a new approach that can resolve problems that have long been endemic to urban growth and development in Africa. Some of the problems are urban sprawl, loss of open space and farmland, growing traffic congestion, absence of a sense of place, poor and crowded schools, air pollution, unemployment, etc. Smart growth is development that serves the economy, the community, and the environment by supporting healthy communities while creating economic development and jobs

Buildings influence our quality of life, the deployment of infrastructures and transport networks. Bad land management practices often lead to inefficient use of land, which generates higher energy consumption and increased travel time. This can also result in a loss of productivity, the discharge of polluted run-off water into surface water storage and wastewater treatment networks, the loss of farmland, the fragmentation of habitats and financial pressure for local authorities.

A comprehensive planning and policy approach that identifies smart locations for development design of mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods, and green building strategies will have the broadest impact on creating economically viable and sustainable development patterns in our country. Sustainable development requires that we see the world as a system- a system that connects space, time, and all elements of communities (environment, economy and society). It advocates a development pattern that economic growth and social advancement should be within the carrying capacity of the planet, so that the future generations will enjoy no less earth’s provision than the current one.

Hive believes in these five dimensions of sustainable development in Ghana.

1. Needs of the future must not be sacrificed to the demands of the present.

2. Humanity’s economic future is linked to the integrity of natural systems.

3. The present world system is not sustainable because it is not meeting the needs of many, especially the poor.

4. Protecting the environment is impossible unless we improve the economic prospects of the earth’s poorest peoples.

5. We must act to preserve as many options as possible for future generations since they have the right to determine their own needs for themselves.