Please find below some information about the “Australia 2020 Summit: Final Report” which was recently posted on Australian Policy Online . There is also a link to the full article below.

Australia 2020 Summit: Final Report, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Posted: 02-06-2008

“This report is intended to provide a record of the Australia 2020 Summit and recommendations on each of the discussion areas for consideration by the Australian government. It is based on ideas put forward by participants during the summit discussion sessions, outcomes from preliminary summit events and ideas generated from public submissions received prior to the summit.

The report includes an introductory section and ten chapters which can be viewed and/or downloaded separately.
> Read full text”

Agriburbia™ is an innovative and growing design movement that integrates aspects of agrarianism with land development. Agriburbia™ includes characteristics of New Urbanism, modernism and historic preservation, and other environmentally sustainable principles of real estate development.

Agriburbia™ combines the positive social, cultural, physical and financial characteristics from both the urban and rural lifestyles to create an entirely new landuse concept. Agriburbia&trade integrates food production as an integral element in the community design, social network, and financial viability of the neighborhood.

To find out more about this project visit http://www.agriburbia.com/. Any comments – please add below.

The information below was sourced from Tara Garnett at the Food Climate Research Network, Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, www.fcrn.org.uk. This is an excellent resource to receive updates on research and events on an international basis pertaining to sustainable food systems. To join the FCRN mailing list please email Tara at taragarnett @blueyonder.co.uk

Unilever and palm oil
Unilever has announced that it will only be using certified sustainable palm oil in its food and beauty products by 2015. It will start by using certified palm oil as it becomes available in the second half of 2008 and will look to have all the palm oil it uses in Europe fully traceable by 2012.
To read the press release go to:
http://www.unilever.co.uk/ourcompany/newsandmedia/pressreleases/2008/commitment-sustainable-palmoil.asp

You may remember that I recently circulated details of a report (mailing of 22/4/08) by Greenpeace which argued that Unilever’s suppliers are destroying peatland forests and orang-utan habitats to grow palm oil. Greenpeace are obviously very pleased with Unilever’s latest decision – see http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/forests/unilever-agrees-plans-for-palm-oil-moratorium-20080501

The information below was sourced from Tara Garnett at the Food Climate Research Network, Centre for Environmental Strategy University of Surrey, www.fcrn.org.uk. This is an excellent resource to receive updates on research and events on an international basis pertaining to sustainable food systems. To join the FCRN mailing list please email Tara at taragarnett @blueyonder.co.uk

Green supply chain conference - Presentations available
The Food and Drink Federation and the London Technology Network recently held an event entitled: Developing a Greener Supply Chain. There are presentations from Tate & Lyle, Cadbury, United Biscuits, University College London, WRAP and others, all of which can be downloaded here: https://www.fdf.org.uk/speeches_greener_supply_chain.aspx

RELU report - Land to mouth: Exploring the links between sustainable land use and the food we eat’
RELU is a £24 million interdisciplinary research programme into the challenges facing rural areas today, funded by the UK research councils, the Scottish Government and Defra. This report draws on the findings of seven food-chain related RELU projects to examine how a fresh look at land-use could facilitate the production of healthier and safer food. Four key questions are addressed; first, can the way we use land make our food healthier and safer? Secondly, can consumers help the environment? Thirdly, is a healthy and environmentally friendly diet compatible with innovation and sustainable business? Finally, how can policy-makers best respond to these links between sustainable land-use and food quality to deliver effective sustainable farming and food goals? You can download the report here (it’s briefing paper 8): http://www.relu.ac.uk/

Food Ethics Council newsletter
The May issue of the FEC’s newsletter is now available. This one looks at the air freighting of food; at food pricing; and also highlights a new ethics ‘toolkit’ that the FEC have produced. See here: http://www.foodethicscouncil.org/news/newsletter

The section below is from the Relocalise Newsletter May 2008 available at http://www.relocalize.net/newsletter/may08.

Carpooling, Carsharing and Walking School Buses
Transportation is a major focus for planners in cities and municipalities, and while increasing gas prices are being felt across the board, they are much more evident at the pump. Nationwide spending on gas in the US has increased by 26% to 5.2% on average overall. How can one curb spending on gas and all the related costs of car ownership while still getting around? Shelby Tay offers some examples of community activities that can help us make the transition away from our gas guzzling ways. Read more here.

Online Resources
This time of year also brings the start of awareness campaigns around the world, including Bike-to-Work week and car-free festivals that encourage us to be smarter with our travel. May is national bike month across the United States. Check out 50 ways (large PDF) to celebrate Bike Month and browse bike advocacy groups by state to find one near you, courtesy of the League of American Cyclists.

Here are some more resources to give you some ideas:

• Interested in seeing what it takes to organize a carfree day in your neighbourhood?

  Download Sierra Club of Canada: How to Stage a Carfree Day in Your Community.
• Need some graphics to spice up your latest poster or news release?

  Browse the World Carefree Network: Carbusters Graphics Book.
• Want to show a friend a video illustrating how carsharing works?

  Take a peak at the World Carshare Video Library.
• Unsure whether you’re ready to take to the streets on your bike or want to find ways of making streets more bike friendly?

  Read through Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST)’s Guides: Safe Cycling Tips, Street Reclaiming Guide
• Are you an employer and want to encourage your employees to bike to work?

  Consult the London Cycling Campaign: Guide for Employers

To read more about The Relocalisation Networks’ work visit http://www.relocalize.net.

The abstract below was posted on the Planet Ark News list available at http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48292/story.htm.

“Four- and five-year-olds living along the city’s greenest streets were less likely to have asthma than young children living in sparsely planted neighborhoods, Dr. Gina S. Lovasi and colleagues from Columbia University found.

“We think that trees might have a beneficial effect on air quality — affecting air quality right at the street level,” Lovasi told Reuters Health. While the effects were independent of poverty and pollution, the researcher added, its possible street trees may simply be a stand-in for a healthful environment. “We’re not confident that it’s the trees themselves that are what’s driving this.”

Asthma rates have risen sharply in the US since 1980, and inner cities have been hit particularly hard, Lovasi and her colleagues note in their report. Trees could cut asthma risk by cleaning the air and encouraging kids to play outdoors, they add; but the pollen they release could also contribute to asthma attacks. To investigate, the researchers compared a census of New York City’s half-million street trees from 1995 to statistics on asthma prevalence and hospitalisation rates for 1999.””

To read the full article visit http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48292/story.htm.

The abstract below was posted on http://www.urbanmamas.com/activistas/2008/05/the-portland-pl.html.

“Pushing the planning envelope and building its visionary urban design legacy, the City of Portland is taking the lead on sustainable, equitable and economically viable long-range planning. Over the next three years, the Bureau of Planning will be updating its 1980 Comprehensive Plan and the 1988 Central City Plan in an effort called the Portland Plan.

The Portland Plan is an inclusive, citywide effort to guide the physical, economic, social, cultural, and environmental development of Portland over the next 30 years. The plan will build on the work the community did through visionPDX, which captured and fleshed out our shared values of sustainability, equity and accessibility, and community connectedness and distinctiveness.”

To read the full article visit http://www.urbanmamas.com/activistas/2008/05/the-portland-pl.html.

Also from Worldchanging.com is a recent report from Chad Monfreda about the recent conference in Stockholm on “Resilience, Adaptation, and Turbulent Times“. You can read his article here.

Many of the talks from the conference were captured online with Chad’s favourites listed as:
1. Steve Carpenter, University of Wisconsin – Madison, on World-Ending Disasters, coping with uncertainty, and the many-fold uses of scenarios in approaching complex problems in “Scenarios: Imagination for Transformation”.
2. Martin Scheffer, from the Netherland’s Wageningen University, describes ‘tipping points’ in coral reefs, lakes, forests, and society more generally to show how surprise is often the norm in non-linear systems that pack big change in rapid events in his talk on “Critical Transitions”.
3. Will Steffen, Australian National University and former Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), describes how humanity’s Great Acceleration has inaugurated the Anthropocene, and its implications for geo-engineering, the precautionary principle, and other potential solutions in a talk titled “The Earth as a Social-Ecological System?”.

Another great feature to watch inspirational speakers on a variety of topics is to tune in to TED, http://www.ted.com/. TED stands for “Technology, Entertainment, Design” and started out in 1984 as a conference to bring together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes!

A bit closer to home for SustainableCitiesNet.com are the Sustainable Cities Round Tables where key sustainability professionals outline their environmental innitiatives in just 3 minutes!!!!! Scroll down the SustainableMelbourne.com blog to view the wide variety of talent within Melbourne, Australia.

Holly Pearson has recently published an article about the highlights from the 7th EcoCity World Summit on WorldChanging.com and its well worth a read! Find an abstract of her post below followed by a link to the full text.

ABSTRACT:
Highlights from the 7th EcoCity World Summit
HOLLY PEARSON
APRIL 28, 2008 9:48 AM
“In order to transform our cities, we need to move from ego-culture to eco-culture.”
— Rusong Wang, President, Ecological Society of China

The EcoCity World Summit wrapped up on Saturday afternoon in San Francisco. An incredible assemblage of the world’s brightest minds that are working to build greener cities and towns gathered for three and a half days of presentations, discussions, city tours, arts & culture, and celebration. As an urban planner for whom the sustainable cities movement is not only a passion but also a raison d’etre, professionally speaking, I found the conference to be nothing short of mind-blowing.

A vast amount of information and ideas was exchanged, and after letting it all sink in for a day or so I’ve summarized what I thought were some of the most interesting concepts and initiatives presented at EcoCity.

The Big Picture for Saving the Planet: Sustainable Cities
Amazingly, somehow I have worked as a city planner in Oakland, California for almost a year without knowing that right here in my own neighborhood is one of the leading green city advocates in the country, if not the world: Richard Register. Dubbed “EcoCity Master” by his conference co-organizer, Rusong Wang of China, Register is the President of non-profit EcoCity Builders.

Looking critically at the environmental movement, Register asserts that humanity is “winning the battle but losing the war.” Despite lots of successes – stronger environmental legislation, recycling programs in most metropolitan areas in the U.S., and the like – ecological degradation continues and is, in fact, worsening. That’s because, says Register, we’re not paying attention to the big things. And the big things, first and foremost, have to do with the design and functioning of our cities. Urban population is on the rise the world over, and cities are by far the greatest sources of natural resource consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and other pollutants. For this reason, a sustainable global future cannot be achieved without re-thinking and redesigning cities to reduce their ecological impact.

To read the full article visit: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007996.html

The city of Greensburg, Kansas, USA, has witnessed hurricanes and now renewal in their aim to create a sustainable city. Find below an abstract of an article about Greensburg from Business Week, May 5. A link to the full story can be found after the abstract. Greensburg GreenTown forms part of the Sustainable Cities Network. More information about this site can be viewed at http://www.greensburggreentown.org/.

NEWS ABSTRACT:
The Greening of Greensburg
As President Bush pays a visit, all eyes are on a town that’s rebuilding itself after being almost destroyed by a tornado
by David Sokol
INNOVATION & DESIGN

May 4 marks the one-year anniversary of the EF-5 tornado that destroyed most of Greensburg, Kansas. As part of a town-wide green initiative, students from the state’s two architecture schools are lending a hand in helping residents rebuild using sustainable design principles and techniques.

University of Kansas architecture professor Dan Rockhill’s well-known Studio 804 is working with the nonprofit Greensburg Art Center to develop Sustainable Prototype, a versatile prefabricated building that deploys multiple passive and active sustainable design techniques. Meanwhile, a group from Kansas State University is dotting the small city with 10-foot pods—a project called Greensburg Cubed—that promise to educate locals about the ecologically responsible design to which municipal leaders have committed in a variety of high-profile announcements.

The University of Kansas’ contribution was constructed by Studio 804, a design-build program at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning that has a longstanding commitment to teaching economic and ecological sustainability. The 1,600-square-foot facility will contain wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, and other green technologies and could be the first building in Kansas to earn a LEED Platinum rating, according to Rockhill. The building was prefabricated in Lawrence, Kansas, using reclaimed materials from a retired storehouse at the state’s Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant. Modules were then trucked to Greensburg, where class members assembled them over the course of several weeks. In addition to a multipurpose room, kitchen, and office space, the facility will house the town’s new 5.4.7 Art Center, opening May 4. The building was designed to be a community center for the ravaged town, Rockhill says. “These people are victims, they lost everything,” he explains. “We seized the opportunity to contribute.”

To read the full story visit http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2008/id2008055_355693.htm?chan=innovation_architecture_top+stories