Author Archive
The Sustainable Cities Network and VEIL wish you a Happy Christmas and a fantastic New Year!
Posted in Visions by fedwards on December 24th, 2008
The Sustainable Cities Network and the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab would like to wish you a Happy Christmas and a fantastic New Year! The Sustainable Cities Network will be on hold from 25 December to 12 January. We look forward to working with you all to achieve significant sustainable change in 2009!
Best,
Ferne Edwards
Sustainable Cities Network moderator
Tags: Christmas greetings
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Green Cities 09 Conference, 1-3 March, Brisbane, Australia!
Posted in Events by fedwards on December 1st, 2008
Green Cities 09 is Australia’s premier conference for sustainability in the built environment. A joint initiative of the Green Building Council of Australia and the Property Council of Australia, the theme for Green Cities 09 is “Valuable, Affordable, Sustainable“. Green building innovators will gather in Brisbane from 1-3 March, 2009 to launch new products and technologies, and explore new ideas in sustainable building.
The 2008 event attracted more than 1300 delegates and 30 exhibitors, and Green Cities 09 is shaping up to be bigger and better. Be part of Australia’s leading green building conference. Showcase your sustainability products, services and solutions at THE sustainability event of the year!
For further details visit the Green Building Council of Australia website.
Tags: conference, gbca, green architecture, green buildings, Urban Design and Built Form
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Audio files available of Roberto Perez, Cuban permaculturalist
Posted in Models by fedwards on November 28th, 2008
Roberto Perez, Cuban permaculturalist (featured in the documentary The Power of Community), travelled to Australia recently to speak about Cuba, food and fossil fuels - see the post “Event - Organic Cuba: Abandoning Fossil Fuels - Public meeting featuring Roberto Perez - 5 April“. A popular guest, Perez gave an inspiring talk at London Food Link’s Big Autumn Do in September 2008. He focused on how Cuba responded to peak oil and its transition to a more sustainable model of agriculture which included thriving urban agriculture projects throughout Havana.
His presentation was recorded and can be accessed at:
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Tags: Cuba, Food, fossil fuels, Models, peak oil, permaculture
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Launch of the online toolkit Greening Grocery: Strategies for Sustainable Food Retailing
Posted in Models by fedwards on November 27th, 2008
The Food Trust has recently launched their online toolkit Greening Grocery: Strategies for Sustainable Food Retailing, a valuable resource for grocery store operators and policy makers who want to harness the financial benefits of sustainable building practices in order to increase the availability of fresh food in communities. The toolkit is available at www.greeninggrocery.org.
Tags: Food, greening grocery, Models, supermarkets
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A different way of viewing cities - paper on simulated urbanism
Posted in Research by fedwards on November 26th, 2008
Not necessarily linked to sustainability as such, this research paper discusses the interesting aspect of exploring cities through online games, such as Grand Theft Auto. This alternative viewpoint does get raised in sustainability as a new perspective regarding urban planning as a way to redesign the city to become more sustainable. This abstract was recently listed on Australian Policy Online. To view the full text click here.
Simulated urbanism and its effects on the negotiation of hyperreal cities
Rowland Atkinson and Paul Willis / Housing and Community Research Unit, University of Tasmania
Urban spaces have become blended even more seamlessly with their portrayal. Such representations are generated via a broad range of media which both influence and sculpt our sense of their constitution so that our sense of what the urban ‘is’ is inflected by a range of interpretations, atmospheres, inherited viewpoints, dialogues and scenarios derived from these media.
Tags: city planning, games, Grand Theft Auto, Models, online gaming, Research, simulated urbanism, urban planning
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Call for Proposals - “The Integration of Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in the Context of Climate Change, the Energy Crisis and Food Insecurity”
Posted in Events by fedwards on November 24th, 2008
What: This Conference is aimed at independent research organizations, universities, government agencies, policy-makers, public policy advocates, nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and corporate representatives from developing and developed countries. All of these stakeholders are interested in looking critically at the ways in which research is - and can be - used to create change worldwide. This Scientific Meeting will endeavor not only to share research results, but also to identify future research prospects, challenges, issues and concerns. Moreover, the organizers of this Meeting would like to generate innovative thinking in agricultural and rural development and to identify elements of a longer term research agenda to fill critical gaps in knowledge on these issues - through rigorous, defensible data collection, analysis interpretation and communication. They also would like to develop research projects and networks in these fields involving researchers from both developed and developing countries: believing that partnerships among researchers are critical components of any meaningful effort to develop synergistic research and change agendas.
When: November 12-14, 2009
Where: Agadir (Morocco)
For more information: http://2009-international-conference.synthasite.com
Deadline for abstracts is January 15, 2009.
Tags: call for proposals, conference, Morrocco, Research, seeking papers, sustainable agriculture
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Research paper on Climate change, vulnerability and adaptation for south west Western Australia
Posted in Research by fedwards on November 24th, 2008
This abstract was recently listed on Australian Policy Online. To read the full text click here.
Climate change, vulnerability and adaptation for south west Western Australia from 1975 to the present, by Luke Morgan / Climate Change Adaptation, RMIT Global Cities Institute.
Luke Morgan, Senior Policy Officer at the Western Australian Department of Agriculture and Food, writes, ‘Awareness and adaptation to climate change during the past 30 years has been emerging, with most sectors only responding in the last five to 10 years. Most past responses focused on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, but as the inevitability of climate change becomes clearer and world-wide attention shifts to adaptation, so too SWWA’s sectors are considering how to adapt.’
To read the full text click here.
Tags: adaptation, climate change, Research, western Australia
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Call for Contributors: Universities and Climate Change
Posted in Research by fedwards on November 21st, 2008
Climate change is a matter of global concern and specific sectors of society such as universities need to engage and be active in the search for regional and local solutions for what is a global problem. Despite the fact that many universities all around the world are undertaking remarkable efforts in tackling the challenges posed by climate change, few of such works are widely documented and disseminated. The book Universities and Climate Change will address this gap. It will be the world’s leading publication in the field and follow-up on “Climate 2008“.
The book will pursue three aims. Firstly, it will present a review of the approaches and methods to inform, communicate and educate university students and the public on climate change being used by universities around the world. Secondly, it will introduce initiatives, projects and communication strategies undertaken by universities with a view to informing different stakeholders and raising awareness on matters related to climate change. Finally, the book will document, promote and disseminate some of the on-going initiatives today all around the world, with an emphasis on replicable and inspiring projects being undertaken at and by
universities, aimed at encouraging a better understanding and a stronger personal involvement in climate change issues and inspiring more works in this field.
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Tags: call for contributors, climate change, education, environment, sustainability, universities
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Research on climate change policy in The Journal of Environment & Development
Posted in Research by fedwards on November 19th, 2008
A new issue of The Journal of Environment & Development has recently been published and is available online: 1 December 2008; Vol. 17, No. 4. Topics include a range of research based on climate change politics in places such as Germany, China, California and Japan. Click here to access the table of contents.
Tags: climate change, development, environmental policies, policy, Research
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MARE Conference - People and the Sea V: living with uncertainty and adapting to change
Posted in Events by fedwards on November 17th, 2008
When: 9 - 11 July 2009
Where: Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Call for Papers
The Centre for Maritime Research (MARE) at the University of Amsterdam announces its fifth biennial conference, People and the Sea V: living with uncertainty and adapting to change’. Since its inception in 2001, the international MARE People and the Sea conference has established itself as one of the leading interdisciplinary forums for debate and learning in the realm of maritime and coastal research and policy. The 2009 conference is the fifth in the series and builds on previous conference outcomes that have clearly placed the capabilities of social sciences on the agenda of wider maritime interests. This conference bridges several debates on coastal change and questions how people, around the globe, are tackling the challenge of living with uncertain futures and adapting, or not, to a myriad of changes.
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Tags: call for papers, coastal change, conference, environmental refugees, Events, MARE, Research
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