The Call for Abstracts for EWS 2015 is only open a few more weeks

Jay OwenGreen Prosperity, SRI/ESG News, Sustainability News


 

Greetings,

When people first began talking about ecocities they were often dismissed as impractical visionaries and utopians. But what sounded so idealistic back then is probably our best and most practical chance to avoid collapse now.

We’re entering an era as different from the industrial era as the industrial was from medieval times. Some call it the Ecozoic, a term coined by the late ecotheologin Thomas Berry to describe the time when we must learn to live in a mutually enhancing relationship with nature.

What might this look like on the ground? In general, our resource hogging cities and urban areas will need to transform into places that operate on much smaller land, energy and resource footprints. Urban centers will continue to become denser and serve as residential centers as well as work and retail centers. Parking lots, lawns and strip malls will give way to food producing land, parks and greenways.

Suburbs will become small, compact towns in their own right and neighborhood centers will become villages of varying sizes, each with its own character. Single family homes, by and large, will be replaced by multi-unit dwellings, and cars will be replaced by bicycles, walkable streets, streetcars, and other low impact forms of transportation.

Rooftop gardens, multi-story solar greenhouses and bridges connecting buildings will become more common. Cities and neighborhoods will be powered by renewable energy and supplied by close-in organic agriculture.

Ecocity-like places are already rising up in bits and pieces. Our global movement today is focused on supporting the transition – through demonstration projects, educational programs and initiatives, policies, technologies, and through our own practice and individual actions.

If you have an ecocity solution to share with the world, a “Call for Abstracts” for Ecocity World Summit has been raised. The call is available on www.ecocityworldsummit.com/call-for-action. The Summit will be hosted by AGEDI/Abu Dhabi on October 2015 and we hope you’ll consider joining us.

As we build, so shall we live, 

 

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Kirstin Miller, Executive Director

Keeper of the International Ecocity Conference Series, Ecocity Builders is a non-profit organization dedicated to reshaping cities, towns and villages for long-term health of human and natural systems.

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Ecocity Builders 

339 15th Street, Suite 208

Oakland CA 94612 USA

Ecocity World Summit 2015  

Abstracts Due April 15  

 

The Call for Abstracts for EWS 2015 is only open a few more weeks. Visit

www.ecocityworldsummit.com to learn more about how to submit your ideas for actions, innovations, papers, and presentations at the October conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

    • Conference registration fees waived for successful applicants.
  • Those selected for full paper presentation will be published in the conference proceedings journal curated by the Center for Environment & Development for the Arab Region & Europe (CEDARE).
    • Discounted hotel accommodations.
  • Access to Main Program, Academic Sessions, Innovations Track
  • Field trips, gala dinner, networking opportunities. 
  • Academic Review Committee: Cairo University, Egypt; Mundiapolis University, Morocco; British Columbia Institute of Technology, Canada; Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. 
  • Innovations track curated by Masdar Institute.

Venice, or, How to be an Ecocity without even trying


by Sven Eberlein

On my way to the Ecocity World Summit in Istanbul back in 2009 I decided to detour through Italy. My parents were living in Vicenza at the time, providing the perfect excuse for a day trip to nearby Venice. While I’m aware that Venice is a unique city with a fair share of its own problems – from garbage and sewage issues due to the volume of tourists each year to flooding caused by a combination of natural cycles, a sinking foundation and rising sea levels due to climate change – being there felt like I had already arrived in the ultimate ecocity before ever getting to the conference.

 

ECOCITY INSIGHTS

Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient

by Jennie Moore, Director, Sustainable Development and Environmental Stewardship, British Colombia Institute of Technology

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According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) there are ten essential attributes of cites that help make them resilient. These attributes comprise a checklist as follows (UNISDR 2015a):

1.     Organization and coordination.

2.     Assigned budget.

3.     Up to date risk data incorporated in land use plans.

4.     Critical infrastructure that reduce risk (e.g. good drainage systems).

5.     Safe schools and hospitals.

6.     Realistic, risk-compliant building regulations and land use planning principles.

7.     Education and training programs on community-based disaster risk reduction.

8.     Protection of natural ecosystems and buffers.

9.     Early warning systems and emergency management capacity development programs.

10.  Affected populations placed at the centre of reconstruction efforts.

UNISDR will work with Toronto-based World Council on City Data (WCCD) to incorporate these ten attributes within the ISO 31720 standard for resilient and sustainable cities (UNISDR 2015b). The standard incorporates 100 indicators measuring city services and quality of life.

 

Of particular interest with regard to ecocity standards (www.ecocitystandards.org) is the eighth attribute which recognizes protection of natural ecosystems and buffers as essential to helping make cities resilient. The International Ecocity Framework and Standards (IEFS) inherently align with the protection of natural ecosystems by virtue of reducing the demand of cities on nature’s services. Each of the fifteen ecocity attributes dealing with urban design, bio-geophysical features, socio-cultural features, and ecological services contribute to the protection of natural ecosystems, and in turn support the resilience of the city itself.

 

To learn more about the work of UNISDR and the ten essential attributes of resilient cities visit: http://www.unisdr.org/campaign/resilientcities/. To learn more about the International Ecocity Framework and Standards visit: www.ecocitystandards.org. To submit an abstract or poster on the topic of resilience and ecocities for the upcoming Ecocity World Summit 2015 visit: http://www.ecocityworldsummit.com/ and select submission under the theme of “Urban Systems, Footprints and Metabolism.”

 

UNISDR. 2015a.The Ten Essentials of Making Cities Resilient. Online resource: http://www.unisdr.org/campaign/resilientcities/assets/documents/ten-essentials.pdf (Accessed March 31, 2015).

UNISDR. 2015b. ISO Standard to Disaster-Proof Cities Announced at UN Conference. Press Release, 13 March, 2015-UNISDR 2015/08.

 

British Colombia Institute of Technology School of Construction and the Environment is a Lead Sponsor of the International Ecocity Framework and Standards Initiative.

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Baku, Azerbaijan –  A good Place for a “New Paradigm” conference

By Richard Register, Founder, Ecocity Builders

 

The current dominant world paradigm is all about hyper mobility, scattered development almost everywhere, oil to power mobility and the production/consumption machine – and fighting over it. The new paradigm is about not doing all that but instead learning how human cultures can become healthy among us people and as part of nature. Actually, it goes much deeper than that into the ways our consciousness and consciences manage our information and our lives, all animals in varying degrees, by instinct and by learning, nature and nurture. But after the more physical lead in, we will get to the more cerebral later in this writing.

An often-overlooked location on the surface of the Earth at the source of much of the old paradigm, in those physical terms I mention, is where a new paradigm will be considered at a conference in late April where I will be speaking: Baku, Azerbaijan.

The “New Paradigm in Human Development Conference” is being organized by the World Academy of Art and Science, of which I am a Fellow. It will be in a place remarkable for hosting such an event for it was the first real and long running Capital of the Age of oil.

So Briefly, first Baku, then on to what “a new paradigm” has to do with it.

Farmers Market Metrics: Tools, Resources and Data May Be Coming to Your Town

 

by Darlene Wolnik, Researcher and Consultant for the Farmers Market Coalition

 

From June 2014 to 2016, the University of Wisconsin-Madison will be conducting applied research on these questions at nine market sites in three regions and share those results with their project partner, the national farmers market membership organization, Farmers Market Coalition (FMC). FMC will use the research as a basis to build a series of trainings and ultimately, an online database for markets to select metrics, proper collection protocols and then upload the data, which is then downloaded into reports, also supplied. The focus of this research will be to uncover the barriers and challenges that keep markets from collecting and using data as well as refining metrics for market communities to begin to make their case on the potential multiple benefits of markets.

 

Forty-plus years after the farmers market revival began, most of the more than 8,000 markets listed with the USDA expect to have many impacts: curating local agriculture sales, acting as the town square, encouraging knowledge transfer, expanding new businesses and new initiatives, and offering healthier options for all, including for at-risk citizens. Markets often have other less universal goals too, such as welcoming immigrant communities or supporting non-market initiatives. However, reports that show the multiple benefits of markets, and the unique market characteristics that deliver those benefits, are often only anecdotal if they exist at all.

 

Keep reading 

Car Free Journey: Part II of Tampa, Florida
By Steve Atlas


 

Last month, we began exploring Tampa, Florida. We included a brief introduction to Tampa, plus how to get there, best areas to stay, and how to get around without a car. (You can find this information in the March issue of Ecocities Emerging.) Now, let’s begin exploring Tampa.  

Tip 1: Purchase Tampa City Pass and See the Top Attractions

 

These include: Busch Gardens, Florida Aquarium, Clearwater Aquarium (this will be covered in our upcoming column about St. Petersburg and Clearwater), Lowry Park Zoo, and a choice of either the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) or the Chihuly Collection (the Chihuly Collection will also be covered in our upcoming column about St. Petersburg and Clearwater).

This is a great choice if you want to focus on the top destinations and save money.

 

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