How Smaller Cities are Taking the Lead in Sustainability Innovation
Big cities get all the attention – but smaller, more agile towns are turning out to be innovators in their own right.

Solar panels at FortZED, the country’s first net-zero energy district. Photo courtesy City of Fort Collins, CO.

This article is based on the recently released Powering the New Energy Future from the Ground Up report that chronicles how cities across the U.S. with populations under 250,000 are establishing themselves as leaders in pioneering clean energy solutions and addressing greenhouse gas emissions. From innovative financing and ambitious requirements for new construction to creative community outreach and partnerships with existing institutions, the report offers the first comprehensive look at the diverse and creative ways America’s smaller cities are reducing fossil fuel dependency while also creating jobs.

A few weeks ago I got to join a tele-briefing on city-led clean-energy and efficiency innovations that included the authors of the report and representatives from 4 of the cities featured in it. Considering that I too tend to write mostly about big cities’ efforts in becoming more sustainable it was very heartening to hear how much amazing work is being done in these smaller communities around the country. And yes, how critical the federal stimulus money has been in driving some of these groundbreaking projects. Check it out!

This short story has recently been included in the revised AP Spanish Literature and Culture reading list and is now available in a number of anthologies, complete with comprehension and analysis questions.    As the title indicates, the experience of the narrator resonates on many different levels.    I won’t attempt to re-hash what has already been written, but here are some ideas for adding a sustainability dimension to class discussions.

The Asociación de Peatones de Quito, creators of Peatónman (see other posts on this blog) also produced the following video of politically-oriented cartoons depicting our relationship with cars and its impact on individuals, communities and the environment.  ¿Qué dibujo (o dibujos) te llama la atención más?  ¿Por qué?  ¿Qué dibujo (o dibujos) corresponde más a las ideas expresadas en el cuento corto Como La Vida Misma?  ¿Qué dibujo corresponde más a la realidad, según tu propia experiencia?  ¿Qué dibujo no (o menos) corresponde a la realidad?  (etc.)  ¿Cuál es lo bueno y lo malo de tener un coche?  ¿Has escuchado el lema “It’s not just a car, it’s a freedom”?  Comenta.

Trends towards urbanization have caused cities to swell.  In older cities cars often overwhelm a built environment not designed for them.  In other places neighborhoods and roads have been designed to facilitate the movement of cars to the exclusion of other factors.  Quality of life and human relationships within these communities have been prone to the same stress and degradation as the infrastructure itself.

Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, initiated a program to reduce the numbers of cars  and increase the number of pedestrians on the streets in order to improve the quality of life of the citizens.  A 2007 documentary in English, “Bogotá:  Building a Sustainable City” traces these efforts.  It’s part of PBS’ series “e2 design,” and can be purchased digitally on the internet.  Students can also research Bogotá’s Día Sin Carro, which takes place every February, and read the strong reactions–both pro and con–from ordinary participants through their commentary on the articles.

Other resources include Embarq México, a part of a network of organizations in diverse countries dedicated to sustainable public transportation and making urban spaces safe for pedestrians.  A video related to the short story can be found by searching on the above web site for the article “Por la calidad de vida de 90 millones de mexicanos.”  The video includes short interviews with commuters who report the time they spend in transit each day.  The Spanish web site Ecomovilidad supports sustainable transportation (including bicycles) in the cities of Granada, Madrid and Barcelona.

Finally, for those seeking further evidence, the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development-of which the U.S. and Spain are participating members) produced this report in 2011 detailing the wide-ranging benefits of walkable cities and sustainable transportation.  (I’ve attached the Spanish language version).

¿Cómo reaccionaría el narrador de Como La Vida Misma a las ideas del transporte sostenible?  ¿Por qué?  Apoya tus ideas con evidencia del cuento.  ¿Es el transporte sostenible posible o un sueño imposible?  ¿Por qué dicen que el transporte sostenible puede mejorar la calidad de vida?  ¿Tienen razón?  ¿Cuál es tu forma de movilización preferida?  ¿Por qué?  Describe un barrio ideal de una ciudad grande.  ¿Qué hay?  ¿Qué no hay?  ¿Cómo se moviliza la gente?  ¿Por qué?  ¿Cómo se comunica la gente?  ¿Por qué?

(The ”PaveGen” pavement slabs. Image taken from http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/13/tech/innovation/pavegen-kinetic-pavements/index.html)

A rather new technology, the green sidewalk, came to my attention recently through our French interns, with the new invention found on sidewalks that are equipped with special slabs and a sensor located underneath. When a pedestrian walks on the slab it sinks a little, creating energy which is collected by the sensor; furthermore, if the slabs are set up in a concentrated pedestrian area, there is the potential to generate a substantial amount of energy. Apparently, each step produces enough energy to light a LED lamp for 30 seconds, and with the average person taking 150 million steps in their lifetime, the ‘green sidewalk’ could really make a big difference.

According to our interns, the slabs are already a common sight in some French cities, such as Toulouse. Intrigued by this almost sci-fi technology, I did a quick Google search on the green sidewalk. Interestingly, the slabs are a British invention and they have been installed between the Olympic Stadium and Westfield Stratford shopping centre. With more than 2 million people flooding into the city for the Olympics, imagine the amount of ‘free energy’ that could be generated this summer.

La Ciudad, Tox Town

“¿Sabe usted qué riesgos para la salud ambiental existen en su comunidad?”  The National Library of Medicine has produced a Spanish-language version of Tox Town, an interactive web site created for children to learn about health hazards in their environment.  By clicking on categories such as “la ciudad,” “la granja,” “el puerto,” “la escuela,” “la oficina” and even “regiones fronterizas de los EEUU,” you will be taken to an interactive map.  Dragging an arrow across places on the map gives you the name in Spanish, a sound effect and, on the right side, a list of possible health hazards.  While the chemical information can be quite technical, some students may be able to draw upon their science knowledge to make connections.  The

La Granja, Tox Town

cartoon-style maps are easy to interpret and can be used for vocabulary reinforcement and  story-telling.  Before checking the maps, students can also speculate about what environmental hazards one might encounter in each place and strategies that communities use to minimize these health risks.  Who is responsible for making a community safe?  What role does each member or constituency in a community play?  The web site offers resources for teachers and classroom activities in English that can be converted for use with Spanish-language learners.  There is also a “Tox Town Mystery” interactive game available on a cd in Spanish and English, although I have not seen it yet.

It’s at this height and view that one is inspired to sing songs to the city. Problems of the city are so down there and seemingly trivial, from the strategic top. They don’t touch you at this height. If it’s only possible I would never want to go down from this view.

The gap between the wonderful city view at the top and the chaotic realities on the ground is the distance city dwellers need to close or narrow down in order to establish a consistent view of their city.

(Station Velib’. Image prise sur http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/02/12/reports-of-velibs-demise-greatly-exaggerated/)

Il y a à peu près 18,000 vélos et 1,200 stations de locations dans tout Paris, avec dans chaque station une douzaine de vélos. Pour accéder à ce service, vous avez besoin de vous abonner, profitant ensuite d’un nombre illimité de locations durant votre abonnement. Les vélib’s aillant un succès phénoménal et se développant très vite, fut  alors lancé en décembre un système semblable avec des voiture, nommé autolib’. Grace à la technologie ; autolib’ est à la fois respectueux de l’environnement et pratique. C’est une voiture électrique qui est disponible à toute personnes âgé d’au moins 18 ans et possédant le permis de conduire. Chose importante pour les personnes vivant à l’extérieur de Paris, la voiture possède un GPS , qui vous permet alors de naviguer plus facilement  dans les routes parfois sinueuse de la capitale Française .

Dans un monde de plus en plus à l’écoute de l’environnement, mais qui reste affecté par la crise économique, les Vélib’ et Autolib’ sont à eux seul une révolution urbaine possédant un certain attrait ; économiser de l’argent tout en réduisant l’effet de serre grâce au trois E : Economique, Ecologique, Electrique

Désormais avec les voitures 100% électrique ; Autolib’, tout le monde peut voyager sans émettre de gaz carbonique dans l’atmosphère et sans faire de bruit. De plus la France a pris un engagement à réduire son émission de gaz carbonique de 20% d’ici à 2020, avec ces nouveaux moyens de transports chacun peut maintenant contribuer à atteindre cette objectif. Nous pensons que c’est une bonne première étape pour un monde plus perdurable et cela se raccorde parfaitement avec la raison d’être de Carbon Voyage, qui est de rendre les transports plus efficace avec le partage de véhicule pour faire de la terre un monde meilleur. Paris est un lieu dans lequel nous aimerions bien offrir nos services dans un futur proche .

(Autolib’ entrain de recharger ses batteries. Image prise sur http://www.auto-buzz.com/autolib-debuts-officiels-540191.html)

*Cette article a été écrit par un actuelle stagiaire chez Carbon Voyage

(Velib rental station. Image taken from http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/02/12/reports-of-velibs-demise-greatly-exaggerated/)

There are about 18,000 bicycles and 1,200 rental stations located across Paris, with each Velib’ rental station consisting of a dozen bicycles. To access them you need to sign up for a subscription, which allows an unlimited number of rentals. The Velib’ rental station was such a success that it expanded really quickly. In December 2011, a similar system called Autolib’ was lauched, but this time it was for cars. Thanks to the technology, Autolib’ is environmentally friendly and convenient at the same time. In fact, it’s an electric car which is available to anyone aged over 18 and is in possession of a French driving license. Importantly for non-Parisians, each car has a GPS on board which allows you to navigate the sometimes daunting streets of the French capital with ease.

In a world that is becoming more environmentally conscious, but also still affected by the economic crisis, Velib’ and Autolib’ are an urban revolution with great appeal, saving money and reducing the greenhouse effect via the 3 Es : Economic, Ecologic, and Electric. With the 100% electric cars of Autolib’, everybody can now drive without producing any carbon emission or pollution in the atmosphere, and without making any noise. Interestingly, France has made a commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 2020, and with these new transport systems, everybody can now contribute to this great goal. We think it’s a real step to a more sustainable and better world and ties in nicely with Carbon Voyage’s raison d’être to make transport more efficient through sharing vehicles to make the earth a better place to live in. Paris, watch this space as we’d like to roll out Carbon Voyage’s services across the channel in the not too distant future.

(Autolib charge car. Image taken from http://www.auto-buzz.com/autolib-debuts-officiels-540191.html)

*This post is written by Carbon Voyage’s current intern from France.

Huerto Urbano de Sagrada Familia de Barcelona
Foto de Proyecto Casandra

El movimiento del huerto urbano.  Urban gardening can refer to reclaiming abandoned or underutilized public spaces for the common good, or dedicating a balcony or other part of one’s dwelling to cultivation for personal use.  Two resources from Spain capture the positive impact of urban gardens on the community.  Red de Huertos Urbanos de Madrid includes a map, photos, resources and an extensive biblioteca where you and your students can download pdf files and power points covering the whys and hows.  Although Huertos Urbanos Barcelona  is an older blog, it describes a project that includes videos, striking photographs and “una análisis de la experiencia de huertos urbanos como formas de intervención social y ambiental.”  For more “how to” information, students can visit Horturbá or El Balcón Verde (both also from Spain) and Huerto de Urbano (from Chile).  Also check out Sembradores Urbanos (from Mexico D.F.).  Their video below describes the origin of the organization and gives some examples of urban gardening strategies for small spaces.

Curricular connections.  Here’s a few ideas.

Give your students a scenario and let them work in teams to create a design for an urban garden, including companion planting, watering needs, and space and material requirements (all relevant information is available in the above web sites).  Teams can display their designs and vote on the best, the most economic, the easiest to take care of, the most nutritious, etc.

Students can incorporate urban gardening into a larger project about cities.  Would you include an urban garden in a “sustainable” house, apartment or city design?  How?  Why?  Where?  What would you grow?  Who would take care of it?

If you live in an urban area, students can research the benefits and challenges of creating urban gardens, then interview Spanish-speaking participants.  If it’s not possible to do so locally, you could contact one of the above organizations and conduct an interview over Skype or by e-mail.  What did they grow?  How?  Why?  Was it successful?  (This could be a good chance to discover choices shaped by culture and climate.)

You or your students could create an urban garden.  Here’s a simple version:  At the beginning of the next school year I’m going to grow some herbs in the window of my classroom from the Huerto de Urbano site above.  When my Spanish 2s get to the unit on “health,” maybe we’ll try some of the infusions.  When we cover cooking, we might find recipes that use some of the herbs.  If the school garden still has calabazas, we may even go out and pick some so we can try our hand at sopaipillas.  (To be continued next fall and winter!)

Of course there’s lots more to explore about urban gardens, including vertical gardens, rooftop gardens and public gardens designed to be aesthetically pleasing.

Being green & sustainable means living in dense, well-planned cities

SINGAPORE: Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said being green and sustainable in the future is about living in dense, well-planned, well-implemented cities.

Dr Vivian added that these cities are where political, economic and social goods can be distributed fairly and cost-effectively.

Dr Vivian noted that this insight by the UN Habitat was remarkably apt for Singapore.

Dr Vivian, who is attending the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio De Janeiro, made this point at a Global Town Hall discussion. The session discussed the future sustainability of urban environments.

Dr Vivian cited Singapore’s experience in converting strategic constraints like water shortage into a strategic opportunity. Singapore companies now go all over the world to sell our technologies and implement systems for water recycling and desalination.

On another point, the United Nations has estimated that by 2050, 80 per cent of the world’s population will be urbanised. Dr Vivian noted that the balance of power will lie in the cities and said that there are great opportunities there.

Dr Vivian cited several critical ingredients for this to happen.

Firstly, honest competent governments. The political system, he stressed, has to work, have legitimacy and have support from people.

Second, a long-term perspective is needed as almost every worthwhile project cannot be completed in one electoral term.

Dr Vivian said there needs to be a political system and politicians that are able to look beyond one cycle, up to 50 years down the road. Without that perspective, vision cannot be translated into reality.

The third ingredient is money. Dr Vivian said if plans are well made, there are ways to raise funds from the private sector to invest in projects that make commercial sense rather than having them funded entirely out of government taxation.

Lastly, focussing on the politics of opportunity rather the politics of envy. Dr Vivian noted that any successful city will create a certain amount of inequality. He said the real issues are access to fairness and justice, equality in the eyes of the law, access to clean air and safe water, access to education and jobs, and social mobility.

Sharing Singapore’s experience, Dr Vivian said there is no subsidy for consumption. Everyone pays the full price but the less well-off receive targeted assistance. Fossil fuels and water are not subsidised.

The exception is subsidising the ownership of assets. He explained that everyone would have a chance to buy a flat because that is an asset.

Image by IanBrowne

Walkability

And to address this very issue, the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) organized a “Walkability Forum” yesterday on 22nd June, that I was fortunate to be a part of. It brought together key government and development agencies, research institutes and civil society that have an interest in improving walkability in India. The highlight of the forum was the launch of their website http://walkabilityasia.org/, which is step forward in engaging with people on improving walkability in our cities.

A few thoughts

Satyendra Garg,  Joint Commissioner Police (Traffic) Delhi said – “Pedestrians account for 50% of road accidents and 80% of the accidents are avoidable”.

Parthaa Bosu, India Representative of CAI-Asia said, “There has been nearly 10% – 30% reduction in walking mode across Indian cities. This would add to a huge number in the city vehicular traffic.”

Prof. Rajan, Head of Humanities/Social Sciences department and currently working on Effects on motorization on Climate Change, at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, said, “If we design for the poor, the rest will automatically take care of itself…with a trickle up effect, rather than trickle down.” He also stressed the need of decoupling development with motorization.

Sam Miller, the author of book, “Delhi: Adventures in a Mega-city” said, “Walking is like an adventure in Delhi and it is essential that we improve walking as it improves social interactions”

Christopher Kost, Director of Research from ITDP talked about the essentials of a good street design.

Here is a shocking statistic -

In Delhi, car penetration is 18%, 2 wheeler penetration is 38% and the about 50% of Delhites either cycle or walk.

Now, why would you want to build a city that caters to only 18% – 35% of the populace? The reason is that people who cycle or walk to work are the poor, who are quitely pushed out of the equation in a “growing economy”. And this is where Prof. Rajan’s point comes in – Design for the poor!

Some Ideas…

There is a common consesus that walkability needs to be improved in the cities, and streets need to be designed in a way that enhances and encourgaes people coming out on streets as social places, rather than a place to quickly pass by. Some of the suggestions that were thrown to this effect:

• Discourage people to take their cars by increasing parking fee
• Remove parking spaces in front of Metro train stations
• Build a robust “Last mile connectivity” infrastructure
• Reduce the time taken to travel using public transport than cars
• Promote “ActiveEdge” program – acitivities planned alongside the sidewalks (vendors/shops/art etc.)

Missing in Action

These points are valid to an extent, but I believe bringing behavior change of the motorists is by far the biggest factor in promoting walkability. And this behavior change can only be brought by the companies selling those cars – The Automobile industry and the car manufacturers. Period. Just to drive home the point, I attended “Urban Mobility Conference” last year, and attended this “Walkability Forum” – and I didn’t see the car makers, when they are the important piece of the puzzle. Why?

When we talk of sustainable transport or making cities for people or walkability, car makers are a big big part of the mix. Without their support, no infrastructure, no policy level framework will encourage change in culture and behavior. You can force changes and disincent the car owners from using cars, but that will only go so far…until it doesn’t hurt the pockets.

Behavior Change

Real , sustainable and long lasting change comes from behavior change. A driver will want to let the pedestrian pass by before his car does, a motorist will want to respect the pedestrian walking on the side of the road. An office goer will want to walk on the street, because he feels safe and will not get run over, a lady will want to go out walking to the market just 200 meters away for groceries because she knows, she won’t be harrassed or mugged and motorists will respect her.

Motorists need to understand that they too are pedestrians and pedestrians are motorists too. This mutual understanding will bring walkability by default. But it won’t happen unless car companies who sell dreams, aspirations and pride of owning a car, change. The best would be to change their business models all together – lease instead of sell. But that’s a far cry.

Until now the safety of the passengers has been the priority in designing cars – why not make pedestrians a priority and see what design changes happen. At least they can begin by:

• Making the buyer aware of not only the comfort/economy/safety of the passengers and different widgets of the car, but also of the risks associated of driving irresponsibly. Won’t it be great, if they add this line – “This is a machine that can kill other people. You have the power to kill. Use wisely.”
• Make obtaining a Driver’s License with standard procedures across all cities of India
• Following rules of driving – what yellow line stands for, what dashed line means, what the solid white line means – in short pratice lane driving giving precedence to pedestrians

It is not co-incidence that our behavior on roads translates exactly to our behavior in our lives. I have lived in Japan for 7 years and the internal roads are extremely narrow. But motorists follow rules and this automatically ensures the safety of pedestrians – they feel safe walking – not on the sidewalk but on the side of the road itself (side of the white line, where no motorists are allowed). I enjoyed my walks everyday to the train station (4 kms to and fro). I took in the smells, the sights, the sounds of the streets. I made social connections. I felt connected – really connected. I have been in Delhi, India for 31 years and my entire adult life I haven’t made the connection to the streets - why – because I stopped venturing on my 2 fores (which was extremely inconvenient) and got on the 4 wheels.

Cities that encourage walking are the ones that retain their culture or rather remake their culture - rest become the so-called engines of growth driving their economies by building transport infrastructure for cars. Wasn’t balance the age-old key…?

Related reads

• The why and how of walkable cities
• 3 organizations that are making our cities walkable
• “The Car is the problem!”
• 5 Things That Make Your Town Walkable (aarp.org)
• Why We Pay More for Walkable Neighborhoods (theatlanticcities.com)
• Clean Air Portal
• Walkability
• Institute of Transportation and Development Policy

The papers are freely available online both here and below.

Energy

Patrick Bond (2012) Emissions Trading, New Enclosures and Eco-Social Contestation. Antipode 44(3): 684-701

Emily Boyd, Maxwell Boykoff and Peter Newell (2011) The ‘New’ Carbon Economy: What’s New? Antipode 43(3):601-611

David Hess (2011) Electricity Transformed: Neoliberalism and Local Energy in the United States. Antipode 43(4): 1056-1077

Sustainable cities

Katharina Manderscheid (2012) Planning Sustainability: Intergenerational and Intragenerational Justice in Spatial Planning Strategies. Antipode 44(1):197-216

Kelvin Mason and Mark Whitehead (2012) Transition Urbanism and the Contested Politics of Ethical Place Making. Antipode 44(2):493-516

Marcus Power (2012) Angola 2025: The Future of the ‘World’s Richest Poor Country’ as Seen through a Chinese Rear-View Mirror. Antipode 44(3):993-1014

Food security and sustainable agriculture

Ryan Galt (2012) From Homo Economicus to Complex Subjectivities: Reconceptualizing Farmers as Pesticide Users. Antipode DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2012.01000.x

Andreas Malm and Shora Esmailian (2012) Ways In and Out of Vulnerability to Climate Change: Abandoning the Mubarak Project in the Northern Nile Delta, Egypt. Antipode DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2012.01007.x

Becky Mansfield (2011) Is Fish Health Food or Poison? Farmed Fish and the Material Production of Un/Healthy Nature. Antipode 43(2):413-434

Water

Antonio Augusto Rossotto Ioris (2012) Applying the Strategic-Relational Approach to Urban Political Ecology: The Water Management Problems of the Baixada Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Antipode 44(1):122-150

Oriol Mirosa and Leila Harris (2012) Human Right to Water: Contemporary Challenges and Contours of a Global Debate. Antipode 44(3):932-949

Fiona Nash (2012) Participation and Passive Revolution: The Reproduction of Neoliberal Water Governance Mechanisms in Durban, South Africa. Antipode DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2012.00994.x

Denver was ranked fourth out of 54 of the nation’s largest cities.

“I am honored we have been nationally recognized two years in a row for our city’s sustainability efforts,” Mayor Michael Hancock said in a statement. “The ranking is well-deserved as our Greenprint Office and other city agencies work tirelessly everyday to assist city government, residents and businesses to make our great city greener and more sustainable.”

Our Green Cities is a nonprofit based in Massachusetts that is dedicated to advancing best practices, partnerships and leadership in sustainability with political leaders in cities across the nation.

LINKS: Our Green Cities  |  Greenprint Denver

Now that we’ve rationalized their existence, it makes sense to ask – what is happening to cities? The answer, in short, is that cities growing in size and number. The UN predicts that the world’s urban population of 3.6 billion in 2011 will grow by 72% by 2050. And cities in less-developed economies will grow faster than cities in developed countries. China alone has 90 cities with over a million people. Those 90 cities contain 20% of China’s population.

This is the urban context in which numerous international declarations have been made regarding the fostering of sustainable cities throughout the world. The Rio+20 Issue Brief 5 describes those commitments that are time bound and actionable, according to its definitions. Some of them are very general, such as “achieve by the year 2000 substantial improvements in the efficiency of government services.” Others are slightly more concrete, such as ones focusing on access to drinking water for the urban slumdwellers.

This brief, like most briefs produced in preparation for the Rio+20 conference, is written in a detached technical tone that contains hints of criticism of the international agenda. When reviewing international agreements that pertain to urbanization, Brief 5 notes that many agreement clauses contain no time frame and no actionable set of items. It chooses to omit those clauses from its analysis. Its message is clear.

On the one hand, this brief serves as a conversation starter for the Rio+20 conference. On the other hand, the conference Secretary General, Mr. Sha Zukang, writes on his blog that his team is pushing to prepare before the conference 90% of the text of the political document that he plans to present as The Document that capstones the conference. At 90%, one wonders if the Brief should omit even the timely and actionable items on its list and focus on the biggest pain points of urbanization.

And what are those biggest pain points? If the international community could discuss and resolve only one item for its sustainable city agenda, what should it choose?

Perhaps the most important topic for urbanization – most of which is happening in cities that are in developing, rather than developed, countries – is how to learn the lessons of past urbanization and avoid those mistakes. How do we tap cheap labor without compromising on child labor laws and human dignity? How do we industrialize without polluting? How do we attract hardworking people from the countryside without creating slum-like conditions?

This may look like an agenda that expands the set of topics under discussion, rather than focusing it. But I think one orienting mechanism can be a focus on lessons from past mistakes – both the mistakes and the lessons are plentiful. And what better map for the future than a look at the past?

Michael Belinsky is a 2012 graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Master in Public Policy Program.

Ecocity Builders and the United Nations NGO Major Group’s proposal ‘Global Standards of Sustainability for Cities’ has advanced to the final round of the Rio+20 Dialogues. Please support us so that the proposal can be delivered directly to Heads of State at Rio+20. Everyone can vote directly from the link.

1. Go to http://vote.riodialogues.org
2. Click on ‘Your Vote’
3. Scroll to : Sustainable Cities and Innovation
4. Vote for: Promote global standards of sustainability for cities.
5. Share!

As the Earth’s ecosystem and climate is rapidly reaching a “tipping point” it’s becoming increasingly clear that we humans all have to pull together to turn the mothership around. Luckily, the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio (Rio+20) from June 20-22 (and the weeks leading up to it starting right now) is offering many great opportunities for people from all over the world to come together, build bridges, and draft a common path upon which all residents of this breathtakingly beautiful planet we call home can journey towards a sustainable and equitable future.

Over the last few months I’ve been peripherally involved in the sometimes hopeful, sometimes frustrating, but always interesting process of midwifing the elusive and almost mythical outcome document that is supposed to become the collectively agreed upon blueprint for a prosperous, secure and sustainable future for people and planet. For the first time ever, rather than just leaving it to high level diplomats and heads of state to duke it out over how to solve the world’s many interconnected problems, the UN decided to ask representatives from all areas of civil society, aka major groups, to participate in the process.

As such, Ecocity Builders, the organization I’ve been dreaming up cities that function like natural ecosystems with for many years, was invited to participate and chime in as part of the NGO Major Group cluster.

As some of you already know, I got to go to New York and look dapper in my Jerry Garcia tie, but since that is such a rare sight and as a little treat for voting for the ‘Global Standards of Sustainability for Cities’ at http://vote.riodialogues.org, a big thank you smile:

But really, for Ecocity Builders this process started three years ago when the groundwork was laid for a standards system that would measure and quantify the progress cities were making towards becoming more holistic in their approach to planning, The International Ecocity Framework and Standards initiative. A sort of a LEED ratings system for cities, this was something that everyone who knew how big of a role cities will have to play (70% of the world’s population, poverty, huge CO2 emissions) in accomplishing anything resembling global sustainable development was clamoring for. In a nutshell, without some sort of a comprehensive methodology by which cities’ progress toward becoming ecocities could be objectively assessed we would all just call ourselves “green” cities and the last sprawling seas of suburbia with a few solar roofs and a marketing budget turn the lights off on the planet.

When it became clear that the UN was finally going to get serious about cities and human settlements, including this paragraph in the zero draft…

We commit to promote an integrated and holistic approach to planning and building sustainable cities through support to local authorities, efficient transportation and communication networks, greener buildings and an efficient human settlements and service delivery system, improved air and water quality, reduced waste, improved disaster preparedness and response and increased climate resilience.

…we knew that we had just what they needed to actually follow through on establishing a set of concrete guidelines to building whole systems cities, should the nations of the world commit to that in the final outcome document. So we weren’t just at these “informal informal” meetings in New York to talk about the change we wish to see, we had the goods to make those changes happen and we wanted the big fish to use them.

But it wasn’t as easy as just walking up to Ban Ki-moon and saying “yo bro, let’s get this ecocity standards thing going.” Instead, the UN is more like a labyrinth with all the exits blocked, you’re just wandering and feeling your way around, bumping into the same people over and over, yet slowly but surely you begin to understand the flow, and then random lifelines seem to pop out of nowhere, and you just grab whatever you can get your hands on.

Kirstin and I in New York.

The real heroine here is Ecocity Builders’ ED Kirstin Miller, whose godlike patience and dogged determination led her to become the master of the labyrinth (the Zen UN Maze Master?) and in the process unearthed some of the right clues and accidentally hit some of the right buttons to the secret vaults of UNirvana.

So, somehow our global standards of sustainability for cities made it onto the Rio+20 Dialogues online platform, survived the first rounds of voting, and now is in the Final 10 of the Sustainable Cities & Innovation category. If we’re selected, our proposal can be delivered directly to Heads of State at Rio+20.

I know that many folks aren’t very optimistic about the whole UN process. Yes, there’s skepticism. Yes, there’s even cynicism. Yes, the United Nations is flawed. But think about it, that’s why it’s the best and only entity that realistically represents each and every one of us, with all our own flaws and internal struggles. Simply speaking, on a global, planetary level, the United Nations is all we’ve got, and it can only be as good as we make it. Not unlike our national and local governments, despite all our frustrations and misgivings, it represents not only how far (or not far) we have come collectively but gives us a platform on which to evolve together, ever so slowly.

When people think of the UN, they have an image of dry negotiations by people in suits that nobody but themselves can understand.

Delegates during the negotiations, Photo Earth Negotiation Bulletin

That, of course, is part of it. But another and I think rapidly growing part is regular people from all over the world getting together, sharing ideas, taking initiative, and creating a movement of the people that sets the tone and agenda and can no longer be (completely) ignored.

John Matuszak, Division Chief for Sustainable Development and Multilateral Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, meets with NGOs, photo Earth Negotiation Bulletin

Just the process of getting there has connected people from all over, both locally and globally. For example, we’ve become part of local Bay Area and global Wiser Rio+20 networking groups.

For Ecocity Builders it was clear from the get go that we wouldn’t go to Rio to sit in large conference halls to watch the important people haggle over verbiage on a piece of paper. What we wanted to do instead is work with local communities on the ground to actually show in real life terms how we can make our communities more healthy, sustainable and vibrant if the people in them are stakeholders and get involved in shaping them. Any settlement is only as good as the people who live in it, so if you want to have an ecocity you need to find your ecocitizens and give them the tools to improve their communities.

The idea we had was to create an ecocitizen census, a crowdmap where people from all over the world could share first hand the things that are going right and the things that need work in their community, based on the 15 categories in the Ecocity Framework, ranging from access to transit, clean water and energy to air and soil quality, biodiversity, education, economic and cultural opportunities. We wanted to have something going for Rio, where conference attendees could see data coming in from all over the world, and people everywhere would have a chance to be part of the Rio+20 process. We also wanted to see local communities in Rio participate and map out their neighborhoods, giving a live, on the ground example of ecocitizens shaping and sharing their experiences.

Thanks to all the great people and organizations we met in the process we just launched our Ecocitizen World Map. While we weren’t able to get an individual census going in time for Rio+20, we created this social mapping project in conjunction with open source mapping pioneers Ushahidi as a way to bring light to the amazing projects that people are working on to make their local communities more sustainable. You can add your own projects or projects you know of in your neighborhood by clicking on the map. Go ahead, try it!

The Santa Teresa neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro has taken the lead in mapping their diverse community and entering reports on the map. We met them through an amazing organization called Catalytic Communities who we were introduced to by the great folks at Wiser. But it doesn’t end there. Once we have enough data and projects, data company Esri will use GIS mapping software to integrate all the information into a three-dimensional map that will give a complete picture of all the data, so that we can all learn from it.

So, as much as people think of Rio+20 as our last big chance to get the big breakthrough treaty signed by the big guns, it is also the beginning of a powerful bottom up movement that I think will change the way we look at finding solutions for the big problems we face. If the ecocity concept and its growing popularity among many of the big stakeholders is any indication, then we are entering a more collaborative, ecozoic era, simply because hierarchical structures are inherently anathema to the ecocity essence. Just as you cannot subjugate entire parts of the natural ecosystem for extended periods without negative feedback loops, you cannot build sustainable cities and economies without the inclusion of all stakeholders, human and natural.

So please, make your community be counted on the Ecocitizen World Map and your voice heard for building quantifiable sustainable human settlements. And of course, while you’re on the Rio Dialogues page, make sure to vote for any other proposals that you think would make the world a better and healthier place to live in.

1. Go to http://vote.riodialogues.org
2. Click on ‘Your Vote’
3. Scroll to : Sustainable Cities and Innovation
4. Vote for: Promote global standards of sustainability for cities.
5. Share!

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If you’re going to be in Rio…

Rio+20 WITH ECOCITY BUILDERS

Mon Jun 18, 2012
Time: 12:30pm – 2pm Rio+20 Side Event
Title: Citizen Participation + GeoDesign = Sustainable and Resilient Ecocities
Where: US Center Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development
Description: Ecocity Builders, in partnership with the US Department of State, Esri, Ushahidi and the Association of American Geographers. The workshop will demonstrate how ecocity principles and geodesign, tied to citizen participation and multidisciplinary sustainable development frameworks and networks, can produce quantifiable benefits to cities and citizens.
Organizer: Ecocity Builders; hosted by the US Government at the US Center/Rio+20

Mon Jun 18, 2012
Time: 5:30pm – 8:30pm
Title: Global Forum on Human Settlements Special Event
Where: Espace Cultural Eletrobras Furnas, Rua Real Grandeza 219, Botafago, Rio de Janeiro
Description: Special Session Evening Conference and Award Ceremony
Organizers: Global Forum on Human Settlements, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UN Human Settlements Program
Awards: Richard Register, Ecocity Builders; Lin Xuefeng, Director, Tianjin Eco-City, China

Tue June 19, 2012
Time: 4pm – 6:30pm
Title: Women Leading the Way
Where: Room UN2 Barra Arena (Barra da Arena) Avenida Embaixador Abelardo Bueno, 3401 – Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro
Description: Kirstin Miller to speak at this side event organized by the Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus (WECC) with Vandana Shiva, Marina Silva, Rose Marie Muraro, Ted Turner. No UN credentials required to attend.

Tue Jun 19, 2012
Time: 7:30pm – 9pm Rio+20 Side Event
Title: Building Ecocities – GeoDesign and Citizen Participation
Where: P3-B, RioCentro, UNCSD
Description: Ecocity Builders, Esri, US Dept of State, Asoc of American Geographers, Ushahidi, Mozilla, Nicholas de Monchaux, UC Berkeley and Kirstin Miller for Ecocity Builders. VIP speakers: Joseph Alcamo, Chief Scientist, UNEP and Ronan Dantec, City of Nantes, France
Organizer: UN Conference on Sustainable Development – Rio+20

Thurs June 21, 2012
Time: 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Title: Ecocities Session, Global Town Hall Forum
Where: Global Town Hall, State of Rio de Janeiro Pavilion, Athlete’s Park, UNCSD
Description: A session on ecocity initiatives hosted by ICLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability. Richard Register to speak for Ecocity Builders.
Organizer: ICLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability

Fri June 22, 2012
Time: 10am – 11am
Title: Rio Pavilion Cities Day Panel
Where: Rio Convention Pavilion, Rio+20
Description: Richard Register will speak as part of a high level panel on cities.

Really? A report published in 2006 by Grain, a highly-respected ‘non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems’, gives a strikingly different perspective on the matter. There is actually very little firm evidence connecting backyard poultry with avian flu, although there is rather a lot of evidence which points the finger at intensive factory farming of poultry as being the root of the problem. Whilst surrounding countries, six or more years ago, suffered widespread outbreaks of avian flu, Laos had hardly any. Why? Well, the vast majority of backyard poultry was raised, sold and consumed locally, with very little contact between these farmers and commercial enterprises. Of the 45 cases of avian flu in the country, 42 were on commercial enterprises, with the remainder occurring on farms which were close to enterprises where outbreaks had occurred.

All of the outbreaks in Laos were in enterprises that received their chicks from Asia’s largest supplier of poultry and poultry feed, Charoen Pokphand (CP), of Thailand. The same was true of Burma. In Thailand itself CP totally dominates the whole industry, and it seems that there were strong links between CP and the outbreaks in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Turkey. However, CP would not allow their premises to be inspected by the government unless they agreed to follow procedures laid down by the company. Can you believe that! Big Biz decides what the government can and can’t do even when there is the fear of a pandemic taking off. Actually, it’s all too believable these days. Big Biz and its profits are sacrosanct, and mustn’t be interfered with.

Factory farming provides the ideal breeding ground for pathogens, and the Grain report shows very clearly that we should be worried about these large-scale enterprises rather than backyard poultry farmers. Indeed, as the report says, Backyard poultry is a solution, not the problem. Being able to keep three or four chickens would not only provide meat and eggs for families, but also a small income, and the manure could be composted and used to improve the soil in which vegetables could be grown. They can eat kitchen waste, and they keep down the number of harmful bugs in the garden. Read the whole of the Grain report:

http://www.grain.org/article/entries/22-fowl-play-the-poultry-industry-s-central-role-in-the-bird-flu-crisis

More recently, according to the Worldwatch Institute, there has been an upsurge in the number of people in the US who have flouted the law and started keeping chickens in their yards. This is in line with the tremendous growth in urban farming across the country. Some cities, such as Madison, Wisconsin, have repealed the law preventing people having backyard poultry, whilst New York has at least 30 community gardens raising poultry, mostly for eggs. These outbreaks of sanity are quite unprecedented, and I know I’m not alone in thinking this is precisely what needs to happen in Hong Kong. We need to ring the city with small-scale organic farms, replete with a handful of chickens, which would go a long way towards making HK more resilient as we face a future of highly unstable weather conditions and drastic shortages of cheap oil. These factors make it essential that the city drastically reduces its dependence on fossil fuels, and this means growing what we can locally instead of transporting everything in from the Mainland and further afield. Maybe it’s time to give this issue a fresh airing, and see if we can get a bit of sanity into this city too.

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5900

According to Eduardo Paes, mayor of Rio de Janeiro, a city of the future has to:

1. Be environmentally friendly.

2. Deal with mobility and integration.

3. Be socially integrated.

4. Use technology to be present.

Questions:

Which commandment most resonates with you?

How can you contribute to any of these commandments?

Are there any you would add?

So I just moved to London from a rural village in Holland to work for Carbon Voyage, and one of the things I have a hard time getting past is the air pollution. From dust in my apartment to soot on my clothes, it seems impossible to get away from it. I really notice it after a hard workout outside, or when I am in and out of Earls Court Olympia (one of Carbon Voyages’ partner sites). Funny enough, one of my friends even has a theory that it’s healthier to not exercise in central London (and thus not breathe to heavy) than to exercise.

Guess what? At times, that may be sound advice. Last march, pollutant levels reached levels not seen since measurements began in 2008. The Guardian reported that  “Health advice from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says that adults and children with lung problems, adults with heart problems and all older people should not take any “strenuous physical activity” while pollution is at the recorded levels. The general population is advised to reduce exercise too.”

Clean Air for London, says that levels of NO2 (which comes mainly from combustible engines) are the worst in Europe and are comparable, if not exceeding, those of Beijing. Worse, the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, say that pollutants in central London could be cutting the life spans of vulnerable population members by up to nine years and causing the premature deaths of up to 50,000 individuals.

Check out this interactive pollution map from London Air, which can give you a real time idea of just how bad the air is. The red and green dots represent places where common air quality objectives (like levels of NO2 and CO2 being released) are being met. You might want to use it to plan that next run route!

Now that I know just how bad the air here is, I cringe every time I see an empty van or exhaust-belching truck on the road. Certainly reducing CO2 emissions to help prevent global warming is important, but reducing air pollution is one of the main reasons I began working for Carbon Voyage. One of the best ways we can make cities like London healthier is to help reduce the pollution related to inefficient transportation. Applying the ideas of collaborative consumption to the transportation industry is one of many ways to do this.

How do places shape our sense of self and community? How does where we live impact us and how do we impact where we live?

A Spanish teacher where I work found this fascinating contest from Quito, Ecuador.  Entrants each wrote a story of no more than 100 words anchored in some way to the city of Quito.  Students can explore the stories, delving into the diversity of writers, themes and tone, and compare them with each other and their own experiences.  They can vote for their favorites or use the stories as a model for personal place-based reflections.  The class could even collect their reflections or stories about a particular place and share or exchange them with others.

In addition to the stories, Microquito is filled with photographs and artwork.  A few categories in the book echo the categories found in the Mapa Verde icons and could add an interesting dimension to the discussion about quality of life in the city and the local environment.

It appears the contest was discontinued, however enjoy the most recent entries below.

The Green Map system (available in five languages) provides a set of internationally recognized icons to map the places in a city that make it sustainable, inclusive and healthy or that, conversely, detract from these goals.

A few ideas:

Map where you live.  One way to use the Green Map icons is to map the community where you live or even map your school campus.  Students choose the icons most important to them, create maps and then place the icons on the map.  Students can make up their own icons or come up with a plan to improve the community.  As a model, you can take a look at the “open” maps on the web site.  Another resource is Santiago de Chile’s Ciudad Viva.  They’ve mapped their city and continue to work to make Santiago a more sustainable, healthy, inclusive place.  One interesting detail included in their map is that air quality tends to be lower in economically depressed neighborhoods.  A good question to explore locally!  See also the pages on this blog about strategies of sustainable cities in the Tunza magazine and Getting Around in the City.

Invent a City.  Once I asked students to draw a map of the ideal city, without disregarding challenges such as sanitation services, transportation, etc.  Students can include innovative strategies currently employed by cities (such as vertical and/or rooftop gardens).  As an oral assessment students describe the map or give advice about where to go.

Un Proyecto-Mi Vida Virtual en la Ciudad:  Instead of assigning the usual project to research a “visit” to a Latin American city, I asked my intermediate students (level 3) to imagine what it might authentically be like to live there.  To do so required some background work.

First I showed them some characteristics of Latin American cities, such as plazas, avenidas and comunas.

We also talked about quality of life:  ¿Qué necesitas para vivir bien?  ¿Es posible que todos en una ciudad vivan bien?  In addition to the Green Map icons, advanced or particularly curious classes can explore the differences among indicadores de calidad de vida,  such as GDP, HDI (Human Development Index) and GPI (Genuine Progress Indicators).

Next we brainstormed as a class all the things you might want to know about a city before you move there.  Then we formed groups of five to research a Latin American city.  All groups were responsible for researching the top five brainstormed topics (for example:  a map, the transportation system, the economy, housing, food availability and customs).   Each group added five more research topics of personal interest to them (sports, culture, air quality, public spaces or parks, climate etc.).  While students listened to each group’s presentation they marked on a chart whether or not the city being presented included the elements most important to them.  At that point students could select a city to “virtually” live in for the next couple weeks.

In this activity students were “themselves”-American students.  Some of the tasks I assigned included looking for an apartment, going shopping and making a meal, participating in recreation of some sort and imagining a “problem” and how it was resolved (getting lost, losing a passport, having a health crisis, looking for a job).  Here’s the twist:  I decided to research income levels in each city and I randomly assigned the students “living” in the city an income.  So students had to create some sort of budget and those without a lot of money had to figure out strategies for making ends meet (Can you afford to rent a house?  an apartment?  a room?  How many room mates do you need?  What’s it like?)  Students had to assume that getting another job or moving in with their rich cousin was not possible.  In the end they wrote a journal reflection about their experience and what they learned.