JUNE UPDATE 

Ecocity World Summit 2011

The 9th International Ecocity Conference convenes August 22-26th in Montreal Canada   

SUMMIT SURPASSES 600 REGISTRATIONS!

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DETAILED PROGRAM »»»

MOBILE WORKSHOPS

BIKEABLE MONTRAEL - WHAT MAKES MONTREAL UNIQUE? 

MEGAPROJECTS AND THE RIGHT TO THE CITY 

TOUR OF THE CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 

MILTON-PARC SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT LABORATORY 

GREENING THE CITY WITH URBAN AGRICULTURE 

WALKABOUT QUARTERS DOWNTOWN MONTRAEL   

The Ecocity World Summit program is organized around six interconnecting themes that explore leading edge research and showcase practical solutions that contribute to the development and management of ecocities. All speakers will present lessons from their specific area of expertise and explain how their work relates to the broad range of issues-social, economic, and biophysical-that are integrally related in the ecocity concept.

Special crosscutting panels have also been developed that focus on the interconnections between several themes to offer a holistic view of Ecocity principles. Examples include: design of living buildings in sustainable communities; new technology for eco-infrastructure such as waste to energy facilities; planning solutions for ecomobility; economic strategies to sustain ecocities; and citizen commitment and empowerment.

Our goal: a shared agenda for building ecocities. Conference participants will have the opportunity to expand their networks, to learn from innovative research and experiences from many place in the world, to contribute to the evolution of ecocity thought and the ecocity movement, and to leave the conference with new knowledge, tools, and approaches that they can use in their own cities and countries.

Ecocity 2011 Themes:

Climate Change and the ecocity

Ecomobility, Urban Planning, Public Space

Governance and Democracy in the Ecocity

Economics of the Ecocity

Health and the Built Environment

Biodiversity and Urban Agriculture

Conference Website 

It all became much more clear to me after my trip to Iowa and getting the announcement of another IPCC report the day I returned to Oakland. The IPCC, as most of you know, is the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Last week, taking a break from teaching classes and discussing many things sustainable at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, I found myself in a pleasantly relaxed state perusing the shelves of a cozy bookstore in the town center. Revelations was one of those extra friendly, well ordered bookshops of small rooms meandering about a larger building, up and down stairs, complete with small alcoves for quite meetings, of happily scanning and murmuring customers of coffee and various snacks and a mix of musty, moist (raining outside) and fresh baked goods good smells. As befits the host small town (population 15,000) for Maharishi U just one mile away, there were many shelves on religion, philosophy - and over in the corner, one thin tall shelf labeled anthropology.

My eyes fell magnetically on a title I'd lost track of in my teenage years. I didn't notice a single other book. I snapped it up and headed straight for the cashier. I wondered where I'd lost it more than three quarters of my life ago and now here it was again with its image of a mysterious ancient cliff painting on the cover. Dark almost flickering as if lit by a flashlight, shadows of a man and woman, lost for a thousand years in the Hoggar Mountains of the Saraha. The words in bold script read, In Search of Adam, subtitled, The story of man's quest for the truth about his earliest ancestors. Inside it had the date 1956, from Boston, Houghton Mifflin, author, Herbert Wendt. I read about a quarter of it on the planes and sitting in the airports on my way home and I'm finishing it up right about now.

Invisible cities

Futurist friend Jerry Glenn sent me notice the day I arrived. The IPCC had just announced the Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN). I admit it was a press release but reading it - though not the whole report, which will by published shortly. The basic content was nonetheless revealed. And once again, it was all supply side, suggesting ways to provide more energy but from better sources while the human economic enterprise continues careening and growing onward.

The press release said: "Over 160 Scenarios on the Potential of six Renewable Energy Technologies Reviewed by Global Team of Technological Experts and Scientists," and continued: "The findings, from over 120 researchers working with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), also indicate that the rising penetration of renewable energies could lead to cumulative greenhouse gas savings equivalent to 220 to 560 Gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (GtC02eq) between 2010 and 2050," and continued still farther with a quote from Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC, "The IPCC brought together the most relevant and best available information to provide the world with this scientific assessment of the potential of renewable energy sources to mitigate climate change. The Special Report can serve as a sound knowledge basis for policymakers to take on this major challenge of the 21st century."

Well, that all sounds very thorough and impressive but why never any mention from climate change solutions circles about the largest creations of our species, largest cause of the problem: cities and the way we design, lay them out and build them? Again! It's my broken record lament that has been going on for many years now. Actually, more like three decades. What's wrong with these guys? Will they never learn or am I the fool? It looked like the report had good information on the relative potential of various renewable energy sources and technologies. But why the continued ignoring of the engine of demand that leads to massive energy use in the first place? No one advocates supply of food way beyond what you can eat at dinner, even when suggesting one kind of food is more nutritious than another - on the demand side it is as crucial to understand the health of energy systems in relation to quantity as it is understanding that stuffing yourself with ever more if better food is a nonsense proposition. Staying within energy limits on the planet (demand side) is like understanding food limits for your own stomach and the consequences of over stuffing.

Wouldn't it make more sense to chose the best most healthy technologies for energy and at the same time reduce demand by whatever means appropriate, since obviously with climate change and other disasters we've gone far too far, especially when it comes to something as gigantic and heavy in negative impacts as the currently ascendant car-based design of cities? With many European cities running on a third the energy and taking up a third the land area of many of America's car dependent miasmas, why wouldn't saving 66% of all that right off the top be at least mentioned? Are they blind to the obvious or obstinately unwilling to even think about the subject?

Galileo with his telescope

The book In Search of Adam provided the deeper insights needed to understand the problem of the climate scientists in failing to get at the larger solutions. The more obvious reasons included some of the following:

  Read on  

Car Free Journey

By Steve Atlas

Duluth Minnesota

Weekend getaways don't need to be limited to major cities and metropolitan areas. Frequently, smaller cities and vacation spots can be enjoyed without driving. For example, this month's weekend getaway is Duluth, Minnesota, located on Lake Superior-largest of the Great Lakes.

Gene Shaw, from Visit Duluth (the city's visitor center) is our guide to a car free weekend in Duluth.Tom Elwell, from Duluth Transit, has tips about how to enjoy your weekend by bus, walking, and bicycle.

The most affordable way to reach Duluth is to fly into Minneapolis Airport (served by several low cost airlines), and then take a bus to Duluth. From Minneapolis Airport to Duluth International Airport, Jefferson Bus Line offers daily "Rocket Rider" with a one way ticket of $26. Go to www.jeffesonlines.com for more information.  Skyline Shuttle also provides daily service between the Minneapolis Airport and Duluth - with stops at downtown hotels (www.skylineshuttle.com).

If convenience is more important than price, you can fly directly into Duluth International Airport.Allegiant Air has two non-stop weekly flights to Duluth from Las Vegas and Orlando. Delta Airlines offers daily non-stop flights to Duluth from Minneapolis and Detroit and United Express offers daily non-stop flights to Duluth from Chicago O'Hare.

Visitors coming to and from Duluth International Airport can use the Duluth Transit Authority (DTA) bus service to reach downtown Duluth. Route #5 buses provide hourly service from the Airport, seven days a week, to the Miller Hill Mall Bus Hub for a transfer to Route #10 buses en route to downtown Duluth. Schedule information is available at www.duluthtransit.com.

For those traveling to Duluth by bus, the DTA provides frequent service from the Greyhound Bus Station to downtown Duluth.  The bus trip downtown takes 10 minutes.

Read On

Professor Carole Despres

Professor of Architecture and Co-ordinator of the Interdisciplinary research group on suburbs, Laval University, Québec City, Canada

Carole Després is Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at Laval University in Québec City, Canada since 1989. She holds Ph.D. in Environment-Behavior Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is head of Laval University multidisciplinary Planning and Development Research Center (CRAD) until 2010.   

She is the co-founder of the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Suburbs (GIRBa) whose mission is to understand, imagine and act on aging suburbs in relationship with limited demographic growth, ongoing urban sprawl, car dependency and the necessity of sustainable development. Her research and teaching deal with residential environments and behaviours in relationship to both research and design aimed at bridging the gap between knowledge and practice, namely through consensus-building and participatory design.

Ms. Fatimata Dia Touré

Director, Institut de l'énergie et de l'environnement de la francophonie

Senegal native Fatimata Dia Touré is Director of the Institut de l'énergie et de l'environnement de la Francophonie (IEPF), a subsidiary body of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, headquartered in Québec, since September of 2007. Educated in environmental law, she spent 27 years in the service of Senegal's ministère de l'Environnement et de la Protection de la nature, where she oversaw the portfolios of Nature Protection and Classified Institutions.

She is also on the Board of Directors for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and her country's representative on the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). She has been called upon to act as an expert negotiator for Senegal in the negotiations of several multilateral accords, including those on climate change, chemical products and desertification. Mrs. Dia Touré moreover served on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.

Ms. Debra Efroymson

Regional director for HealthBridge Canada in Bangladesh and South-to-South Ecocity Alliance  

Debra Efroymson is Southeast Asia Regional Director for HealthBridge, a Canadian NGO working on health and health equity, including Liveable Cities. Debra has lived and worked in Asia since 1994, and has been working on ecocities since 2004. She has given many talks and written numerous articles and four books on ecocities, liveable cities, public spaces, climate change, economics, urban transport, carfree cities and related subjects. Based in Dhaka, she works in other countries in Asia as well, supporting local NGOs working on policies and programs to make cities more equitable and liveable.

Debra is also a Core Adviser to the International Ecocity Standards project of Ecocity Builders. She speaks five languages in addition to her native English, and has worked and traveled in Latin America and Africa. Her most recent focus is on economics: specifically how to overcome the myths that suggest that we must sacrifice the environment and people's health and wellbeing in order to achieve economic growth.

Ms. Kirstin Miller

Executive Director, Ecocity Builders; Facilitator, International Ecocity Framework and Standards

Kirstin has been with Ecocity Builders since 1997 and currently serves as Executive Director. She is a frequent speaker locally, nationally and internationally on the Ecocity topic. She works closely with Ecocity Builders' President Richard Register in the development of the organization's "toolbox" of strategies, such as car free by contract housing, environmental restoration transfer of development rights, ecological demonstration projects and ecological zoning overlay mapping. In addition to serving as Executive Director for Ecocity Builders, Kirstin is Lead Facilitator of the International Ecocity Framework and Standards, an international guide to help cities and citizens analyze and evaluate their city in an integrated framework that supports systemic thinking and solutions. She additionally teaches a class on The Ecological City Structure at the University of California, Berkeley Extension in San Francisco and is a Member of the International Ecocity Conference Series Steering Committee. Her articles and essays on ecocities, urban ecology and the environment have appeared in a number of publications, including Orion Afield, Ecotecture and Wilderness and Human Communities, The Spirit of the 21st Century.

Ms. Jennie Moore

Director, Sustainable Development and Environmental Stewardship, British Columbia Institute of Technology

Jennie Moore is Director, Sustainable Development and Environmental Stewardship at the British
Columbia Institute of Technology. She facilitates development of new educational programs to
meet the needs of BC's emerging green economy and helps transform BCIT's campuses to
become living laboratories of sustainability.
Jennie's work has received local, national and international acclaim including a national award of
Environmental Citizenship. She is a LEED Accredited Professional and member of the Canadian Institute of Planners. She has a Masters of Arts in Natural Resources Planning specializing in ecological sustainability and urban systems, and she participated in the UBC Task Group for
Planning Healthy and Sustainable Communities while the Ecological Footprint was being
developed.

Ms. Janice Perlman                                   Founder and President of the Mega-Cities Project

Janice Perlman is an independent consultant, writer and researcher. Her book FAVELA: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro is based on a study of four generations of migrants and squatters in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. For this work Dr. Perlman received a Guggenheim Award and a Fulbright Award.

In 1987 Dr. Perlman founded The Mega-Cities Project, a global non-profit organization based in New York, with teams in 21 of the world's largest cities. Its mission is to shorten the lag time between ideas and implementation in urban problem-solving. The organization has brokered over 40 transfers of grassroots urban innovations across boundaries of geography, ethnicity and nationality.

Prior to The Mega-Cities Project, Perlman was a tenured professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She also taught at Columbia University, New York University, CUNY, Trinity College and several Brazilian universities. Outside of academia, Perlman has served as Coordinator of an Inter-Agency Task Force on National Urban Policy; Executive Director of Strategic Planning for the NYC Partnership; Director of Science, Technology and Public Policy at the New York Academy of Sciences; External Evaluator for CHF International / Gates Foundation and NY Academy of Medicine / Kellogg Foundation; Advisor to the World Bank's Urban Projects Department; and as a consultant for many NGOs.

Priscilla Phelps

Senior Shelter Advisor to the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission

Priscilla Phelps is a Senior Shelter Advisor to the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission helping government develop an operational strategy for housing and community reconstruction following the 2010 earthquake. She managed the development of a book published by the World Bank in 2010 entitled Safer Homes, Stronger Communities: A Handbook for Reconstruction After Natural Disasters, which proposed a community-based approach to reconstruction. She worked as a Loan Officer for the Low Income Investment Fund in San Francisco, and serves on the Board of Directors of Habitat for Humanity in Oakland, California. She also participated in founding the Center for Local Food and Agriculture in Ithaca, New York, and served on the Board of Directors of the Alternatives Federal Credit Union. She has an MBA in Finance from Cornell University.

Sustainable Cities Platform 

Siemens looks at what makes a sustainable city  

More and more, companies are working harder to foster a culture of environmental responsibility in everything they do. That culture includes reducing the carbon footprint of business operations and developing innovative products, services and solutions that reduce environmental impact.  

Click here for more information on Siemens' work on improved transportation, energy efficient buildings, water conservation and reuse and smart grid infrastructure -- technologies helping to make cities more sustainable.