Thank you to John Horn for writing a fantastic article based on The Natural Step's ABCD process. The Most Sustainable Balcony in Vancouver article is featured on The Daily Gumboot.  

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The Most Sustainable Balcony in Vancouver

John Horn

Part 1 – Preamble

As previously written on this superawesome blog, I’m taking a sustainability class at UBC – it’s offered by Continuing Studies and taught by the outstanding Sarah Northcott. Our final assignment is to create a map – using The Natural Step ‘ABCD analysis’ (Awareness, Baseline, Compelling Measures, Down to Business) – that reflects our ability to strategically plan from a systems perspective. For my plan, I will be addressing the sustainability of Michelle Burtnyk-Horn and my balcony at 288 E. 14th Avenue in Vancouver, BC.

[Editor's Note: none of these pictures are actually of my balcony, as it is empty and also behind the lock and key of a condo that we do not officially "own" until February 21, 2011 at 12:01am].

Vision

I will create the most sustainable balcony in the Metro Vancouver Region. This deck will be a model for sustainable-apartment-living from Bowen Island to Surrey and back again. Long story short: this balcony will be 36′ x 5’7″ of sustainable awesomeness.

Sharing in this vision will be the following fine folks: first and most importantly, my wife Michelle; second, the Strata Council of my building; third, my neighbours (within the building as well as the ones who will be looking at the balcony); fourth, the Daily Gumboot community, who will share in the successes and failures of this project.

Here is my “backcasted” painted picture of this project:

It is a warm Fall evening. Michelle and I are sitting in patio chairs made from harvested pine-beetle-killed-wood (possibly crafted by General Andrew Frank) and sharing a bottle of Red Mountain syrah (brewed and bottled by The Fermented Grape). Some delicious local and happy chicken is cooking on the barbecue and it smells terrific (we got the recipe from Mike Worth, after all) – we will compost all organic scraps from our meal in the container near the barbecue. Our two Biggest Little Gardens in Town yield a modest bounty of lettuces, broccoli, tomatoes, and a few root vegetables. Pots of herbs, flowers and native plants are tastefully arranged around the balcony. And the brilliant Sunshine is nicely shaded by some privacy-producing cedar hedges. Our baby girl, Fog McSpadden, is sound asleep in her room. And we’re all smiles.

So, this is where we’re going.

Core Purpose

The purpose is simple. We have been blessed with a huge, friggin’ outdoor space that has the potential to not only entertain and inspire our community, but also to yield food, process waste and contribute to the beauty of the alley between E. 14th and 15th Avenues. Most importantly, the purpose of this project is to create and sustain a really, really, really good story that visitors will tell their friends.

“Hey, do you have a minute? I’ve gotta tell you about this amazing balcony that I just came from in East Vancouver…”

That’s what they’ll say.

Core Values

I come from a proud, deck-rearing family. To this day, my family and I discuss important life decisions during conversations on the deck that my dad and I built* 12 years ago. It will always be important for me to have a vibrant, fresh, as-natural-as-possible, reflective, outdoor space for personal deep-thinking as well as community-minded hosting.

Community is our foundation. We feel that we have a responsibility – a duty – to make gorgeous use of this high-potential space. Passion for nature, for green things and for hosting fun parties with outdoor-indoor potential will be our drivers. Collaborative compromise amongst all stakeholders (especially Michelle) are our guideposts. We are The Bornk!s and this is our balcony!

Next Steps

Stay tuned for three more posts – parts B, C and D – that will fully unveil my balcony-building plan.

*really, I was kinda just “there” – El Heffe did the building!

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Thank you again to John Horn for writing about The Natural Step and the ABCD process. To read The Most Sustainable Balcony in Vancouver article on the Daily Gumboot, please click here.