Link: FCM Sustainable Communities Conference and Trade Show 2008
he FCM Sustainable Communities Conference and Trade Show 2008 will take place February 14 - 16, 2008 in Ottawa, Ontario at the Fairmont Château Laurier and Government Conference Centre.
The conference theme of “Moving Innovation into Practice” will focus on building municipal capacity in the areas of social, economic, and environmental sustainability.
A preliminary program is now available for the pre-eminent event in Canada for municipal governments and their partners to network and learn about sustainable community development.
News: keynote address from Sheila Watt-Cloutier, internationally renowned climate change activist and Nobel peace prize nominee.
- Participate in interactive training workshops
- Learn from recognized leaders in sustainability
- Explore ideas in thought-provoking seminars
- Network with municipal leaders from across the country
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Link: The Natural Step News and Events
The Natural Step is excited to announce that we will be holding a series of workshops as well as a networking dinner on February 13th, 2008, to coincide with the upcoming FCM Sustainable Communities conference to be held in Ottawa February 14th to the 16th.
We would like to invite you to participate in both of these activities, which promise to be inspiring, thought-provoking and are designed to provide you with practical experience, tools and examples of sustainable community planning.
Networking Dinner: Gourmet regional and organic cuisine served in an elegant heritage building, a wealth of experience amongst your fellow diners, and an opportunity to network with other municipal change-makers from across the country promises to be a winning combination! This event will provide the venue for municipal sustainability practitioners who are using the TNS Framework and other tools and approaches to share their recent activities and learn from each other. It will also provide an opportunity for organizations from different sectors using The Natural Step Framework to share their stories.
Where: Chelsea Club, 236 Metcalf Street, Ottawa
When: February 13th, 2007, time: 6:30 pm
Who: People who are interested in sustainable community planning and who want to network with peers who are using The Natural Step Framework.
Cost: $65 per person, receipts available
How to register: Fill out a registration form hereWorkshops: The Natural Step Canada will also be offering two workshops on February 13th (cost: $75 each, location: TBA)
Workshop 1: Strategic Sustainability Planning (8:30am – 12:00pm)
This half day workshop will provide participants with an introduction on The Natural Step Framework and how communities are using it to help inform their planning and decision-making, as well as how they are translating it into day to day actions. This session also includes an overview of organizational change and three weeks of access to The Natural Step eLearning course (Sustainability 101), which must be completed prior to the workshop.Workshop 2: Integrated Community Sustainability Planning, A Step-wise Approach (1:00 - 5:00 pm)
This half day workshop is a continuation of the morning session or can be taken on its own for those who are already familiar with The Natural Step Framework. This session will provide participants with a flexible step wise approach to building internal capacity, conducting an internal sustainability analysis, engaging the public through community visioning, and carrying out and completing an ICSP. Participants will receive an ICSP binder with additional resource materials.To attend any of these events, register here. To learn more please contact, jlandmurphy@naturalstep.ca or (613) 748-3001 ext. 228.
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TreeHugger did an article on Aquaponics - The Urban Food Revolution, the combination of aquaculture and hyrophonics where the later uses and purifies the waste from the fish-raising part of the operation. The process is "closed-loop" and therefore uses 10% of the water required for traditional farming. The article includes a number of links for additional information:
::Urban Aquaponics, ::S & S AQUA Farm, ::Backyard Aquaponics, ::Practical Aquaponics
One commenter describes a plan to create an integrated system using a constructed wetland to purify greywater, a fish pond and a hydroponic greenhouse. In addition to dramatically reducing water requirements, the system will enhance the habitat for local animals.
Another commenter pointed out that managing the process requires a degree of skill and time. This sounds like an opportunity to either design in the appropriate checks and balances, or introduce a technological solution that can do the monitoring and management.
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Cameron Sinclair is the co-founder and Executive Director of Architecture for Humanity. He is working on projects ranging from health centers in Sub-Saharan Africa to post-Tsunami reconstruction in South East Asia.
Sinclair is also co-founder of the Open Architecture Network, an online, open source community dedicated to improving living standards around the world. He is the co-editor of Design Like You Give A Damn and a contributing writer for Worldchanging. He was the 2005 Target Emerging Designer of the Year and recipient of the 2006 TED Prize, which honors visionaries from any field who have shown they can “positively impact life on this planet”.
6:30pm, Wednesday January 9, 2008
Auditorium, 100 McCaul St.
Note: this is a public post.WBCSD: German ship fights climate change with high-tech kite
"two fast-growing German companies have worked together developing a high-tech kite system to pull enormous ships across the oceans -- and save enormous amounts of money.
The 132 metre (433 ft) long MV "Beluga SkySails" will make its maiden voyage in January across the Atlantic to Venezuela, up to Boston and back to Europe. It will be pulled by a giant computer-guided 500,000-euro ($725,000) kite tethered to a 15-metre high mast. ...
To latch onto the powerful winds prevailing well above the surface, the kite attached to the high-tech steerage unit flies up to 300 metres high to tug the 10,000-tonne ship forward, supporting its diesel engines and cutting fuel consumption.
Under favourable wind conditions, the 160-square metre kite shaped like a paraglider is expected to reduce fuel costs by up to 20 percent or more ($1,600 per day) and cut, by a similarly significant amount, its carbon dioxide emissions."
SkySails is planning a 320 square metre version for 2009, with a 600 square metre kite after that. These larger kites could reduce fuel consumption from 30 to 50 percent. The separation of the kite from the ship and the aerodynamics of the kite allow the ship to obtain benefit from the wind even if the ship is heading at 50 degrees into the wind. The deployment, operation and retrieval is fully automated, and all equipment can be stowed in a remarkably small space when in port or passing through constrained waterways. The technology is intended both for new ships as well as retrofits on existing ships. The target is 1,500 ships by 2015.
The SkySails site includes a number of still images and a video clip. Although the focus is on cargo and commercial vessels as well as yachts, this technology might also be
of interest to cruise ships, given the rising price of fuel and the
'greening' of the industry. The parasail-type kite would definitely make a statement.
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The November 8th issue of TIME included the article Need to Weed Your Roof? that described the different types of green roofs and referenced a BioScience paper which reported 50% reduction in building heat loss, a 25% reduction in air-condition and a 2 degree Celsius lowering of the 'urban heat island' effect. The November 7th Epoch Times (Australia) article The Benefits of Greening Urban Buildings also listed extended roof life, water capture (reducing run-off), sound insulation and potential air quality benefits.
The primary article Green Roofs as Urban Ecosystems: Ecological Structures, Functions, and Services is available in the November 2007 issue of BioScience. It describes the history of green roofs, green roof vegetation, data on benefits measured in Ottawa and Toronto (listed above), and future research directions.
TVO is running a second set of design episodes of the PBS e2 series: the economies of being environmentally conscious. For information on purchasing DVDs (all three series) or downloading the first season of design:e2, see my comment to design:e2.
At the moment, TVO has not posted the details of the December episoides.
- The Druk White Lotus School - Ladakh Ladakh, India, is one of the most remote regions on earth. The Druk
White Lotus School intends to equip Ladakhi children for living in the
modern world while simultaneously embracing Buddhist traditions.
Designed by Jonathan Rose, the school features sustainable technologies
that suit the altitude, and landscape and cultural climate.
- Greening the Federal Government Government
buildings are not historically associated with sustainability or
exquisite design. But Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne's San
Francisco Federal Building aims to be the prototype for tomorrow's
workplace.
- Bogotá: Building a Sustainable City One of the world's most chaotic cities has been transformed into a
model of civic-minded and sustainable urban planning with public
transportation, greenways, mega libraries and the longest stretch of
bike-only lanes in the world, but only with tremendous opposition from
the people it was designed to help.
- Affordable Green Housing New York City's public housing developments often ignore the social and
cultural characteristics of the communities who live in them.
Third-generation developer Jonathan Rose is putting sustainability
within reach of public housing residents in Irvington, Harlem and the
Bronx.
- Adaptive Reuse in the Netherlands Dutch planners tap into their innate design sensibility and the
industrial landscape to create a sustainable development in Amsterdam's
abandoned dockyards. An alternative to urban sprawl, the development
maximizes space while maintaining privacy, and uses the vast waterways
as core landscape design elements.
- Architecture 2030 Buildings are responsible for almost half of all greenhouse gas
emissions in the United States. Architect-turned-activist Ed Mazria
aims to avert a climate change crisis through policy change and
education. His Architecture 2030 organization is galvanizing commitment
to a carbon-neutral building sector by the year 2030.
Where: Gardiner Museum, Terrace Room, 111 Queen’s Park (at Museum subway station), Toronto
When: Monday, November 26, 2007 at 6:30 pm
ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY TORONTO, in collaboration with the Gardiner Museum, is pleased to present a free public education lecture, “Green Building in an Urban Setting”, presented by Dr. David Moses of Equilibrium Consulting. Moses, whose work includes innovative commercial, residential and community-based projects, proposes the question “Why can't we all live and work in green buildings, right now?” He will examine the challenges faced by designers in North America when entertaining sustainable alternatives to standard building practice, including the biggest challenges of convincing clients, building officials, builders and even other designers of the long term benefits of sustainable design.
ABOUT DR DAVID MOSES
David Moses is a structural engineer specializing in timber engineering. After joining Equilibrium Consulting Inc. in Vancouver in 1999, he moved to Toronto to open an Ontario office for Equilibrium. A growing number of his projects involve green design, where timber is often the material of choice. David received his PhD in structural engineering from UBC in 2000 and has published research articles on timber design and wood composites. He has contributed general interest articles to Wood/Le Bois and Wood Design & Building magazines and sits on a number of CSA committees.
ABOUT ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY TORONTO
Architecture for Humanity Toronto (AFHTo) is a volunteer organization that provides support for architectural and design solutions to social and environmental problems. Using advocacy and public education, we strive to build a sustainable and socially equitable living and working environment in Toronto. AFHTo is a local Canadian chapter of Architecture for Humanity International, a non-profit organization, founded in 1999 to foster architectural solutions to global, social and humanitarian crises.
For more information, see www.architectureforhumanity.ca or write to info@architectureforhumanity.ca.
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From Sustainable Buildings Canada:
The City of Toronto is planning to redevelop the North St Lawrence Market.
Join a green team of architects, energy and environmental engineers and other design professionals at this sustainable building Design Charrette. Apply your experience and technical know-how to the proposed new north St Lawrence market complex in Toronto.
Date: Dec 4 (lunch) and Dec 5 (8:30-4:30), 2007.
A limited number of spaces are available. There is no cost but selection will be primarily based on the expertise needed by the charrette- ESPECIALLY electrical engineering, building envelope and structural.
The invite is available for download it in word format .
If interested, return the completed invite to: ponessa@sympatico.ca
Tom Ponessa, M Arch
Director of Programs
Sustainable Buildings Canada
t: 416 530 4796 x 301
Thanks to Melissa Ferrato for the pointer!
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CEOs for Cities is launching a 'kidsincities' program to "break the traditional pattern of family migration to the suburbs." They charged the Institute of Design to research 'urban pioneers' who chose to raise their children in cities as well as 'tentative urbanites' and 'discontented suburbanites' who were not satisfied with their current environment. The full report (6MB PDF) attempts to portray a realistic picture of the concerns, the potential of urban life and specific actions that cities can take.
Concerns about city living included safety, space and schools. Many cities have made significant improvement in these areas. Urban parents also find ways to address these issues locally. CEOs for Cities is launching a Learning Networks initiative with leaders from New York, Chicago, Portland and Akron to convert the findings of the research into local action.
Original reference from Treehugger: Is it Even Possible to Turn Tide of Migration Towards Cities for Young Families?
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