This is to reminder that you are welcome to post your sustainable-city related events, initiatives, research & even questions & ideas for free DIRECTLY on SustainableCitiesNet.com!

SustainableCitiesNet.com is a communications hub as “a portal to the future of cities” that are ecologically, socially and culturally sustainable. It serves as a network and communication system to deliver information, to connect people and projects, to accelerate the city’s transformation across the world. For more information about this site please visit “About“.

To contribute a post click here and follow the instructions. If you have any problems posting your data please contact either:
Ferne Edwards, Project co-ordinator & site moderator, at fedwards @unimelb.edu.au or
Simon DAlfonso, Technical support, at dals @unimelb.edu.au.

SustainableMelbourne.com and the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab in association with the University of Melbourne’s Entrepreneurs Week would like to invite you to:

The Sustainable Cities Round Table on Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Tuesday 12 August night, 6 – 8pm
Copeland Theatre, Economics & Commerce Building
University of Melbourne
RSVP now to save your seat at rsvp @sustainablemelbourne.com

The challenge of climate change presents many opportunities for new sustainable ventures. Entrepreneurs working in this space are able to creatively develop innovative solutions that have environmental, social and economic benefits, yet like all entrepreneurial ventures it is not without risks. At this Sustainable Cities Round Table we will showcase examples of proactive entrepreneurs who have taken this step and bravely gone where no mainstream business has gone before!

The evening will feature a series of short presentations, musical interludes, networking opportunities and more!

Speakers include:
Nick Savaidis, Etiko Fair Trade;
Mitch O’Sullivan, Waterwall Solutions;
Samantha Parsons, Family of Sam design;
Alexi Lynch, Australia Manager, Cities for Climate Protection, ICLEI & Co-founder, the Environmental Jobs Network;
Cathy Parry, Owner of Ron D Swan: Bags and Cycling Accessories;
Bruce Rowse, Director, CarbonetiX;
Cam Hines, Co-founder & owner, Mountain Goat Brewery;
Elizabeth Boulton, Founder, Logistick – Sustainable Supply Chain Solutns;
Aldo Penbrook, Central Victorian Carbon Auditing Service.

The Sustainable Cities Round Tables are a regular series of events that showcase local environmental initiatives and encourage networking for people working in urban sustainability issues across the government, academic, industry and community sectors. To view footage of previous events visit www.sustainablemelbourne.com/category/sustainable-cities-round-table/.

Please forward this invitation to others who may be interested in attending.

Best,
Ferne

Ferne Edwards
Sustainable Cities Research Officer
Victorian Eco-Innovation Laboratory (VEIL)
Australian Centre for Science, Innovation and Society (ACSIS)

Green TECH 08, www.greentechshow.com.au, is proud to present an international Trade Show and Conference with a core focus on green building, sustainable design and clean technology . GreenTECH 08 special features include SRD ChangeX 08 , Green Inventors Showcase , Eco House of the Future Competition and a Green Living Zone. Please find more information about the event below.

International and Australian authorities will present keynote topics in their respective fields of expertise. Subject categories will include:
Built Environment
Carbon Trading
Climate Change Science
Clean and/or Renewable Energy
Ecological Sustainable Development
Energy and/or Water Security
Energy Efficient Building Design
Water & Energy Conservation
Environmental Engineering
Exhibitor Product Launch
Government Policy
Low Emission Technology
New Inventions
Permaculture Design
Sustainable Cities
Sustainable Product Design

Steps to apply to present a seminar at Green TECH 08:
Email your seminar title, a brief overview and biodata to: info @greentechshow.com.au (include any website details)
On our review and acceptance you will be required to fill in a Confirmation Form.
Submission deadline: September 30, 2008

Review GREX 07 speakers here: http://www.grex.com.au/conferenceinfo.shtml

Keeseh Studio invites students and design enthusiasts to celebrate the pursuit of ecodesign through an international competition to utilize waste material.

A given manufacturing facility creates many copies of a product; therefore they create many copies of their waste material as well. Waste material can be used as raw material for other products or processes; this concept is known as upcycling.

The goal of the competition is to promote upcycling by encouraging the use of wasted materials to generate innovative designs. This competition will provide a stepping stone to help educate viewers of the vast opportunities and future development of environmentally friendly processes, materials, and products.

All entries must be received digitally or by mail no later than October 1st. 3 entries will win media coverage and recognition of their product or process and one will win a cash prize of $1000. Visit www.makesomegreen.otherpeoplespixels.com for more details.

THE FIFTH MAGRANN CONFERENCE
Date: April 16-17, 20091

Location: Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

Climate Change in South Asia: Governance, Equity and Social Justice

Call for Papers
Climate change presents significant challenges for South Asia. While climate change is a global phenomenon, mitigation and adaptation are regional in character. Residents of agricultural and resource dependent areas increasingly face threats to livelihoods due to alterations in precipitation and temperature, such as the disruption of the South Asian monsoon. Concurrently, within South Asia’s dynamic and rapidly growing cities, the increasing frequency and magnitude of extreme climatic events may disrupt economic and social life. Although the effects of climate change on social and environmental systems are likely to be highly uneven (even between communities within South Asia), present trends in mitigation suggest that impoverished regions and populations may bear the brunt of these changes. This discrepancy is also evident in the ability to adapt and respond to climate change. Therefore, addressing climate change within the South Asian context will require new types of social institutions, cooperative responses and new forms of governance. In all cases, efforts to respond, mitigate, or adapt to climate change raise issues of equity and social justice, posing both challenges and opportunities for civil society.

We invite papers that address climate change issues within any country or region of South Asia. Preference will be given in paper selection to those that connect their topic to one or more of the broad conference themes of governance, equity, and social justice. Potential topic areas for papers include but are not limited to:

• Legal, Political, and Economic Frameworks for Responding to Climate Change
• Cultural, Social and Gender Implications of Climate Change
• Natural Resources Management and Land Use Practices Under Climate Change
• Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change in Cities and Urbanizing Regions
• Implications for Agriculture Under Changing Climatic and Hydrologic Regimes
• Technological Responses and Innovations

Papers are solicited from established scholars, as well as recent PhDs and advanced graduate students. Partial support will be available to presenters to defray the costs of travel. Abstracts of 250 words or less should be sent to the conference organizers on or before September 15, 2008. Final papers (approximately 4,000-6,000 words) will be due by March 1, 2009.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

• Conference Email: magrconf@rci.rutgers.edu
• Conference Website: http://magrann-conference.rutgers.edu
• Conf. Organizers: Trevor Birkenholtz; Monalisa Chatterjee; Robin Leichenko; Martin Bunzl; Sumit Guha
• Conference Sponsors: Department of Geography, Initiative on Climate and Social Policy, and Office of International Programs, Rutgers University

As part of its Spring-Summer 2008 series, Re: NY Recycle | Retrofit | Reinvent the City,

The Skyscraper Museum presents:

New Verizons
Date:July 22, 2008
Time: 6:30 PM

Location:
NYPL Donnell Library Auditorium,
20 West 53rd St. between 5th & 6th

“New Verizons” looks at the high-value real estate portfolio of buildings erected for 20th-century telephone technology and how developers, architects, and engineers are retrofitting and re-positioning these properties.

Project teams present two case studies:
375 PEARL STREET

• Rick Cook, Partner, Cook + Fox Architects LLP
• Douglas Winshall, Executive Vice President, Taconic Investment Partners

1095 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS

• Dan Shannon, Partner, Moed de Armas & Shannon Architects
• Douglas Mass, President, Cosentini Associates
• Frank Frankini, Senior Vice President, Equity Office Properties

COST

• FREE Museum & Corporate Members
• $5 Students & Seniors
• $10 Adults

Individual Membership Form

Payment may be made in cash at the door. 1.0 CEUs available. Please contact programs[AT]skyscraper.org or call 212-945-6324 with any questions.

URL: www.skyscraper.org/reny

http://www.climate-l.org

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), in collaboration with the United Nations Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) and the UN Communications Group (UNCG) Task Force on Climate Change, has launched a new tool for climate change policymakers. CLIMATE-L.ORG is a knowledge management project that provides news and information to decision makers on the actions of international organizations in responding to climate change.

In one location (http://www.climate-l.org) users can find the most up-to-date knowledge base on climate-related actions throughout the international community, and specifically with information on United Nations activities provided in cooperation with the UN system agencies, funds and programmes through the UN Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) Secretariat and the UN Communications Group (UNCG) Task Force on Climate Change.

IISD’s Reporting Services team of Issue and Institutional Cluster Experts will provide a constant stream of articles and updates on international climate change activities that are organized and searchable by organization, issue area and the four UNFCCC “building blocks” for a post-2012 climate change regime: mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology. Policymakers following the Bali Roadmap negotiations can use this site to track progress in the various policy formulation streams. The CEB and international organizations will use this database to assist them in coordinating system-wide activities to combat climate change.

The CLIMATE-L.ORG initiative supports the work done by the UN Communications Group Task Force on Climate Change and the UN Department for Public Information to build the UN Gateway to the UN System’s Work on Climate Change http://www.un.org/climatechange/. CLIMATE-L.ORG’s focus is on information for policymakers (rather than the general public), providing more in-depth and policy-oriented materials of a political, technical and scientific nature that will assist the diplomatic and policy communities as they prepare a post-2012 agreement.

The CLIMATE-L list serve, which was launched by IISD in 1998, is celebrating its tenth anniversary as a primary communications mechanism for more than 15,000 professionals in the climate policy community. IISD Reporting Services will use this existing network to distribute a fortnightly electronic newsletter, CLIMATE-L Bulletin, which will contain the key précis and summaries posted to www.CLIMATE-L.org during the previous two weeks, along with guest articles on international climate change activities, written by the heads of UN and other international bodies. IISD will contribute a fortnightly analysis of global activities on climate change, focusing on the inter-governmental negotiations for long-term cooperative action around the areas of adaptation, mitigation, technology and finance.

Phase I (April - June 2008) of the CLIMATE-L.ORG project has been supported by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with special assistance from the CEB Secretariat.

For more information or to find out ways to support Phase II of the CLIMATE-L.ORG project, contact Kimo GOREE at kimo @iisd.org or visit http://www.climate-l.org

Please see the “Call for Nominations” notice below from Climate Change Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities.

We are announcing the 2008 “Call for Nominations” The Better Air Quality (BAQ) - 2008 Young Voices Award on Urban Air Pollution and Climate Change Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) encourages new thinking and approaches to deal with the problems of urban air pollution and climate change in Asia. http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/channel.html

So far, traditional approaches used in dealing with urban air pollution and climate change have not produced enough results nor are seen to create significant impacts in the future. It is therefore important to consult with the next generation of air quality and climate changes policy makers, experts and managers. The 2008 Young Voices Award on Urban Air Pollution and Climate Change (the Young Voices) will be handed out for the first time at the Better Air Quality (BAQ) 2008 workshop, which will be held from 12-14 November 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand (Further details can be found here: BAQ Awards, “Young Voices Award”: http://baq2008.org).

Eligible for the Young Voices award are full/part - time students currently enrolled at Universities or Colleges in an academic degree (undergraduate or advanced degree) program in a subject that is of relevance to urban air pollution and climate change in Asia. The maximum age at the time of BAQ 2008 (12-14 November, 2008) is 25 years. There is no geographical restriction on participation in this competition and students from all over the world can participate. The award committee will however consider the ideas submitted for their relevance for Asia. If applications are submitted on behalf of a group the application form should clearly indicate who the person is who will present at BAQ 2008 if the awards committee selects the submission as one of the winners.

Deadline:
Please send form and attachments (if applicable) to baq2008 @cai-asia.org and cornie.huizenga @cai-asia.org before 15 August 2008. Only electronic applications will be considered.

Please find message below from Permaculture North, Sydney, Australia of the forthcoming lecture regarding transition towns and relocalisation of community to address peak oil and climate change.

Monday, 21st July 7pm for 7.30pm sharp start
Ku-ring-gai Centre for Seniors, 259 Pacific Highway Lindfield

Peak Oil, Climate Change and the Sydney Transition: Permaculture’s Latest or Greatest Challenge?
After decades of debate, challenge scepticism and uncertainty there is now a growing global consensus on the reality of global warming, though still debate about solutions and weak commitment to action in many nations. Peak Oil – though first predicted in 1956 – is a newer debate and is going through a similar cycle. There are still nations and vested interests in denial and plenty of sceptics. There are plenty of others hoping for a ‘techno-fix’ to the Peak Oil issue. The impacts of Peak Oil, however, are starting to bite right now, much earlier than severe climate change effects. Rising fuel prices, rising food prices, airline cost-cutting and price increases, transport industry struggling and even food-riots are current daily news. We may have much less time to adjust to Peak Oil than to Global Warming. No one can know the exact impacts or timing, but the future scenarios all seem to involve both energy and climate volatility and uncertainty.

Transition Sydney has been formed to stimulate and support local action initiatives aimed at building community resilience and planned adjustment to a world where cheap energy is no longer available and our personal and collective carbon footprint must be reduced to save the planet’s climate and biosystems. Such community-driven ‘relocalisation’ initiatives are likely to prove the most important response to the future challenges, particularly if government responses prove ineffective or even dangerous.

In a multi-media and interactive presentation, Peter Driscoll and Andrew Harvey from Transition Sydney will provide key information on Peak Oil and Climate Change and how these two realities might interact. They will examine possible future scenarios and possible solutions. The vulnerability of the Sydney Region – a metropolitan conglomeration of over 4 million people, 40 local government areas and 8 large city hubs will be discussed. They will then focus on the areas of Sydney serviced by Permaculture North’s activities and activism, the actions that can be undertaken and the central role of Permaculture in building localised community resilience. Finally they will discuss the Transition Towns model of community engagement with local councils to develop local energy descent action pathways for their communities.
After the meeting we will have an open discussion and debate about permaculture strategies to transition. Be prepared for a thought provoking and stimulating meeting this Monday that will get you planning for action.

More information can be found at www.permaculturenorth.org.au Phone 1300 887 145, or email info @permaculturenorth.org.au.

See the snapshot below of the website for the Bicycle Film Festival to be held in New York, 9-12 July. Check out the website at http://bicyclefilmfestival.com/index.php.