SQA Online Resource Center

Mission

To build Santa Cruz for the needs of the 21st century by advancing the level of knowledge necessary generate alternative and complementary solutions that will create a healthy, wealthy, vibrant way of life within the Santa Cruz and Monterey bioregion.

Objectives

The goals of the SQA workshops are to establish the creation of a living document that defines and establishes the development of a sustainable, innovative community as covered by three main areas of interest:

	Economic Viability: Defining and managing our economic structure to realize a balanced healthy, wealthy communities within the region.
	Ecological Stewardship: Recognizing our interdependence on all life systems and generating a greater respect and care for our environments, their use, and our relationship to the biosytem.
	Social Responsibility: Generating an openness to collaborative learning and realizing the benefit of differences across status, race, and capabilities while realizing the need for individuality and diversity for building integrated whole communities.

Strategy

Within these 3 areas are 14 categories of emphasis. Twelve categories are based on the Santa Cruz Local Agenda 21 framework which define the needs of emerging 21st century sustainable communities. Two additional categories have been added to account for limitations in the Agenda 21 framework:

Nutrition - Food, and Agriculture, Sustainable farming, urban agriculture and landscaping to create healthy, vibrant living.

Ecosystem - Management and Preservation and restoration of organic-based environments
including Land, Water, & Air Life Systems, Bio-diversity, Natural Relation To
Human-made Systems.

Education and Learning
Systemic Methodologies, Value Systems, Responsibility & Empowerment,
Accessibility, Innovation & Creativity

Energy
Creation and Usage of Energy & Fuel Systems, Usage Efficiency

Habitat
Natural and Built Integration and Development. Family Housing & Commercial
Building & Design, Land Use, Community Needs Assessments

Population and Growth
Growth Rates, Family Planning, Social Stability, biological modeling

Community Health and Wellness
Quality Of Life, Biological Integrity, Complementary medicine, Dietary
Requirements

Planetary Resource Usage
Materials Availability, Extraction, Conservation, Use & Reuse, Recycling

Social Justice and Governance
Method of Governance, Policy Making, managing Social Concerns

Waste Management
Management and clean up of toxic substances, elimination of waste via
manufacturing and other development activities

Transportation
Alternatives and complementary mobility systems Complementary Transportation
Systems For Local & Global Mobility

Business and Development
Balanced Business Practices, Economic Stability, Meaningful Work

Cultural Expression
Spirituality, Human Value Systems, Culture, Art, Mythology, appropriate
technologies

Science and Physics
Modeling of our Reality and how we see ourselves in relation to the Universe

Process

1-Each category will be represented by 14 team members during the design
workshop.

2-During the event each member will also engage in two additional categories
which will then be shared in the development of the living document.

3-Each team will be responsible for creating principles, guidelines, and
action items for their category as described on the following page that
describes the workshop process.

Definitions

Sustainability: Taking care of today's needs while positively impacting the
needs of tomorrow's generations

Learning: Understanding our place in the universe while changing mundane
events into miraculous occasions

Communities: Aligning diverse paths of people to create a wholistic
participative celebration of life