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FOUR ELEMENTS
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FOUR ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF GS COMPANIES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT The GS Companies create all communities based on four essential elements whether the community consists of sixty acres or six thousand acres. These essential elements are Education, Wellness, Technology and Environment. To the casual observer, community development consists of roads, entrances, landscaping and amenities, but to the community development creator it is not only the “hardscape” but the “softscape” which combine to make a “place” a living/breathing community versus a typical subdivision. The GS Companies define these Four Essential Elements in the following manner when creating and developing a future community:
Education is the process of training and developing the knowledge, skill, mind and character by formal schooling, teaching and training. Education is a cornerstone in everyone’s future success and well-planned communities should have access to both public and private education facilities as well as continual education through community activities. GS communities are located in excellent educational systems for both K-12 and college/universities and as such, it is imperative to work closely with both public and private sources to facilitate education in our communities whether it is through donating land for school sites, financial commitments to schools or providing educational opportunities within the community.
Technology is defined as “the science or study of the practical or industrial arts,
applied sciences. The system by which a society provides its members with those
things needed or desired”.. In community development, the technology element is
aimed at providing access to the technology to add to one’s existence in synthesis
with the other essential elements. Technology must be an aid to man and not its
master. Technology should embrace not only band-width but health resources,
education resources and resources that make life enjoyable and memorable.
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Wellness (Health) is defined as “satisfactory with regard to health. Physical and
mental well being, freedom from disease, pain or defect. Condition of body or
mind:. Healthy implies “normal physical and mental vigor and freed from disease,
weakness or disorder”. A community should provide both fitness activities through
amenities, trail ways systems, and exercise programs as well as the capability to
access health facilities and create an environment of well-being. A sense of safety
and membership in a larger social community are all part of these essential
elements in GS Communities.
The Environment is defined as “all the conditions, circumstances and influence
surrounding and affecting the development of an organism or group of organisms.”
This element not only includes the “environment” from the perspective of an
environmental steward of the land and its resources but a critical focus point for all
of the essential elements to create that “place” where one can develop and grow.
GS Companies is proud of its “green” principle in community planning but also of
the total surroundings in creating that special place that one can call home. The
synthesis of all the essential elements provide both the physical environment as
well as the setting for the spiritual and mental environment.