Mark graduated from SCARP in 1999. He has maintained a connection with the School in a variety of ways since then. Mark is the principal of HB Lanarc Consultants and was recognized in 2010 with the Planner of The Year award by PIBC.
Watch his interview to learn from his perspectives on being a student in the late 1990s; moving on to his career as a planner; and concluding with some interesting thoughts on the challenges facing planning education in the future.
His biography:
Mark Holland is a LEED accredited planner who holds professional degrees in Landscape Architecture and Community and Regional Planning.
Mr. Holland‘s consulting work at HB Lanarc Consultants Inc. focuses largely on integrating sustainability principles into the mainstream development industry, with an eye to developing competitive advantage for his clients and their projects. He frequently works closely with development teams to find cost-effective ways of developing in a more sustainable manner, including projects from small infill to large-scale master-planned communities, in both rural and urban contexts.
Mr. Holland also works extensively with the public sector, including serving as the City of Vancouver’s first Manager of its Sustainability Office, with a focus on strategic planning and greenhouse gas management. He has also worked with the City of Vancouver, both as a rezoning planner and as the sustainable development planner and project coordinator for the policy phase of the Southeast False Creek model sustainable urban development project.
Mr. Holland is credited with developing planning concepts and frameworks such as the 8 Pillars of a Sustainable Community, and the acclaimed Resilient Cities Manifesto in 2009. He coauthored a book on an innovative approach to sustainable food systems in cities called Agricultural Urbanism (Green Frigate Books). His concept of Experience-Driven Planning when applied to the Town of Ladysmith won the Canadian Institute of Planner’s top award for small town planning in Canada in 2009.
He has served on numerous Boards and has taught at both Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia, and has lectured on a wide range of issues. He was selected as one of Vancouver’s top 40 under 40 in 2004 by Business in Vancouver Magazine. In 2009, Mr. Holland was appointed to the City of Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Team alongside such leaders as Dr. David Suzuki and former BC Premier Mr. Mike Harcourt. In 2010, he was awarded the “Planner of the Year”, the highest recognition by the Planning Institute of British Columbia.
An acclaimed speaker, Mr. Holland is widely known for his ability to “make sense of sustainability” in a pragmatic way that leads to action.
