If you’ve ever tried to grow anything in your garden you’ve probably had your share of unrealized visions. In your rookie year perhaps the tomatoes never turned red or the strawberries got munched by bugs. If those mishaps didn't deflate you enough to replace the...
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):Organization and coordination. Assigned budget. Up to date risk data incorporated in land use plans. Critical infrastructure...
The “New Paradigm in Human Development Conference,” organized by the World Academy of Art and Science, 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....
Editor’s Note:Today’s multi-dimensional crises require the social sciences to think outside their individual boxes and work toward a more inclusive, integrated and comprehensive “science of society.” So argue three authors (Garry Jacobs, Winston Nagan, and Alberto Zucconi) in a paper entitled “Unification in the Social...
The International Ecocities Framework and Standards (IEFS) identifies human wellbeing and quality of life as an essential social feature. Specifically, "residents report satisfaction with their quality of life including employment, the built, natural and landscaped environment, physical and mental health, education, safety, recreation and leisure,...
A while back I visited Montreal to attend the Ecocity World Summit, a biannual gathering of visionaries from around the globe....
Ecocity Builders brought the Ecocitizen World Map Project (EWM) to the UNFCCC’s COP20 conference....
Uneven access to healthy and nutritious food is a global phenomenon – witness: many North Americans’ struggle with obesity while many Africans’ starve. Food often comprises the largest component of a city’s ecological footprint (COV 2011), and agriculture contributes 10-12 percent of global greenhouse gas...
by Richard Register, Founder, Ecocity BuildersThis is something of a continuation of my last article, with a whole new perspective.You may remember I wrote about a book called Extracted – How the Quest for Mineral Wealth Is Pillaging the Planet. Since then I’ve “met” The...
by Jennie Moore, Director, Sustainable Development and Environmental Stewardship, British Colombia Institute of TechnologyA socio-cultural feature of ecocities is that they support a healthy and equitable economy. The International Ecocity Framework and Standards (IEFS) identifies that the city’s economy “consistently favors economic activities that reduce...