Please find some information and a link about the new website, WorldChanging Seattle below. This fantastic site which originated from the very popular WorldChanging site, is based in place at Seattle which reminds me of many other sustainable-city related sites, namely SustainableMelbourne.com and SustainableRotterdam.com. Read on to learn more!

http://www.worldchanging.com/seattle/

Who is Worldchanging?
Worldchanging is a solutions-based online magazine that works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it’s here. We only need to put the pieces together. Informed by that premise, we do our best to bring you the most important and innovative new tools, models and ideas for building a bright green future.

Why Seattle?
Worldchanging is part of a global conversation, but we’re also based in a place. Our headquarters are in Seattle, Washington, and we decided that our hometown was the best possible starting point for trying to bridge the global and local conversations. For many reasons, Seattle is an ideal basecamp for our conversation about how to create a sustainable city. We believe that its wealth of natural resources give Seattle policymakers a unique challenge when it comes to smart management. Seattle’s exploding population (if current rates continue, Washington state may double its population in less than 50 years) presents new challenges: Can we engineer a compact, efficient, appealing urban environment that will attract people into the city and help curb destructive sprawl? Can we create an infrastructure for moving people and goods that puts the needs of pedestrians and public transportation above those of personal vehicles? Can we take Seattle into the future?

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”

Please find below an abstract about the guerrilla gardeners of London below by Kate Kelland as listed on the Planet Ark World News, 1 May 2008.

“LONDON - They work under the cover of night, armed with seed bombs, chemical weapons and pitchforks. Their tactics are anarchistic, their attitude revolutionary. Their aim: to beautify.

An army of self-styled Guerrilla Gardeners is growing across the world, fighting to transform urban wastelands into horticultural havens. To document and encourage their victories, one of the movement’s top generals has written a handbook.
“On Guerrilla Gardening“, by Richard Reynolds, defines the activity as “the illicit cultivation of someone else’s land”.

“Our main enemies are neglect and scarcity of land,” said Reynolds, a 30-year-old former advertising employee who wrote the book after his website guerrillagardening.org became a global focal point for would-be green-fingered activists.

“Land is a finite resource — and yet areas like this are not being used. That seems crazy to me,” Reynolds told Reuters.”

To read the full story visit http://features.us.reuters.com/cover/news/L2921871.html.

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

Below is a list compiled from the Community Food Security email list from a wide variety of contributors about different models outlining what cities are doing are compost and green waste. The final list of all contributions was kindly compiled by Jill Richardson. This is a particularly timely exercise as this week is part of International Compost Awareness Week! You can subscribe to the Community Food Security email list here: https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/comfood. To find out more about International Compost Awareness Week visit: http://www.compostingcouncil.org If you would like to add what your city is doing about food waste please do so by commenting at the bottom of this post!.

California
• San Francisco – gave out compost bins
• Oakland – has green waste composting (http://www.oaklandpw.com/Page300.aspx) collects and composts yard waste and food scraps together in a “Green Cart” recycling program: http://www.oaklandpw.com/Page298.aspx. You can read more about the program and how it applies to food (and suggestions for changes and improvements) here: http://oaklandfoodsystem.pbwiki.com/f/OFSA_WasteRecovery.pdf
• Berkeley - I am fairly certain that it is all run by the Ecology Center here in Berkeley (which handles everything from our farmers markets to the curbside recycling program.) http://www.ecologycenter.org/recycling/about.html. Here’s a page about the relatively new city-wide composting program on the Berkeley city site: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=5606
• Santa Cruz
• Mission Viejo
• Woodland
• Davis
• Modesto - has been collecting yard waste separately for many years and composting it. Then recently they’ve started a kitchen compost collection as well and even provided households with a container to keep in their kitchens to collect the compost before bringing it to the yard waste dumpster.

Canada
Toronto - http://www.toronto.ca/greenbin/index.htm
Jasper, Alberta operates a voluntary residential and commercial compost program.

DC
Also, an entry at The Slow Cook tells of municipal compost in DC:
http://theslowcook.blogspot.com/2008/04/searching-for-dcs-municipal-compost.html

Illinois
http://www.city.urbana.il.us/urbana/public_works/arbor/lrc/Main.asp

Massachusetts
Cambridge, (and Somerville) MA doesn’t collect it from residents but has a pilot program where they give out bins and people can drop it off at the recycling center.

Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI collects yard waste, but not food. The huge composting facility is open to anyone and you can go pick up free compost (byo container). It is a particularly great resource for the community gardens… who I think have connections with the City so they get the compost delivered.

The city is working on developing a commercial/restaurant food waste recycling program.

Minnesota
Duluth – collects institutional/retail food waste
http://www.co.hennepin.mn.us/portal/site/HCInternet/menuitem.3f94db53874f9b6f68ce1e10b1466498/?vgnextoid=a576b70a699fc010VgnVCM1000000f094689RCRD
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/11/01/compost/
http://www.co.hennepin.mn.us/portal/site/HCInternet/menuitem.f25c437125254e89710ece04b1466498/?vgnextoid=ab73ce4c9c116110VgnVCM1000000f094689RCRD

Nebraska
Omaha has a big program and sells its product as “Omagro”
Check out their web site at http://www.omagro.com/

New York
In New York City, the Lower East Side Ecology Center operates the Manhattan branch of the “NYC Compost Project” for the New York City Department of Sanitation. The purpose of the NYC Compost Project is to “encourage residential and institutional composting” via voluntary composting and educational out-reach.
Here are links to the LESEC’s Composting Project and to the NYC Compost Project:
http://www.lesecologycenter.org/composting_MCP.html
http://www.nyccompost.org/program/index.html

The NYC Compost Project collects organic matter people save up from their homes. In Manhattan, the LESEC’s project organizer has a table at Union Square Greenmarket everyday the market is open (Mon, Wed., Fri. and Sat.). The table is set up with educational information on composting, giant Tupperware bins into which people deposit their saved-up organic matter, and soil for sale.

Anecdotally, I have been dropping off my vegetable and fruit remnants at the NYC Compost Project’s Greenmarket table for over 2 years. As a student I found myself with not enough time (and perhaps rotting vegetables) to manage my own compost bin or to cook all of the produce I purchased weekly. Bringing the vegetables, fruit, grain, etc…that I didn’t eat to the Project’s bins helped me to understand how much produce I was wasting each week and to change my shopping habits to buy only as much produce as I will cook that week. What has resulted is that I waste less so I end up having less to donate to the Project.

Oregon
Contact Metro in Portland. They are a regional government agency with an information hotline at 503-234-3000. They have tons of compost information and can answer questions regarding this regions management of compostable materials.

Utah
Salt Lake City - The city recently started offering containers for residents to deposit yard waste, they are picked up just like garbage & recycling.
http://www.slcgov.com/slcwaste/yardrules.htm
http://www.slcgov.com/publicservices/Streets/leaf.htm

Vermont
Burlington

Washington
Seattle has an amazing program through Seattle Public Utilities, see link http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/util/Services/Garbage/For_Commercial_Customers/Commercial_Compost_Collection/index.asp
Bellingham - http://www.ssc-inc.com/index.php

May 4th represents the first day of International Compost Awareness Week, May 4-10, hosted by the US Composting Council, and others in Canada and the UK. To find out more information about this Awareness Week visit: www.compostingcouncil.org.

Research - Launch of Policy Research Report by the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab

The Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab has just released its first policy research report and it’s all about food!

The report, “Sustainable and Secure Food Systems for Victoria: What do we know? What do we need to know?” discusses the environmental challenges relating to the food system, examining:
- how the production and consumption of food impacts on the environment; and
- the risks and vulnerabilities of the food system to environmental change and social responses (such as policy aiming to reduce environmental impacts)

The report considers: direct impacts of climate change; energy, greenhouse emissions and responses to these; resource constraints such as water, land, oil and agricultural inputs and depleted stocks (eg. fish); biodiversity (ecological and agricultural); waste; and health and nutrition.

The report also discusses strategies and innovations that are being employed to manage environmental risks and reduce impacts (including low-input production methods, changing distribution systems such as farmers’ markets, and consumer food choices). It considers the extent of their potential contribution and identifies opportunities for further investigation or support.

The report finds that there are significant and urgent challenges to the security and sustainability of the food system. It also identifies many opportunities for technological and social innovation to reduce exposure to environmental risks and resource constraints.

The full report, and a summary document (containing just the main points and recommendations), can be downloaded from www.ecoinnovationlab.com/pages/library.php.

The article below, “AIA Selects 10 Cities for Sustainability Program“, by Nicholas Tamarin in Interior Design describes how the American Institute of Architects has selected 10 cities from around the USA to participate in the Sustainable Design Assessment Team, a community assistance program through which architects and local stakeholders map out a plan for sustainability. See an abstract below. For the full story visit http://www.interiordesign.net/id_newsarticle/CA6551811.html.

AIA Selects 10 Cities for Sustainability Program
by Nicholas Tamarin
Interior Design · April 15, 2008
“Cities receiving technical assistance under the program include: Detroit; Tampa; New Orleans; Fort Worth; Windsor, California; Morristown, New Jersey; Parma, Ohio; Fellsmere, Florida; Kauai, Hawaii; and Leon Valley, Texas. The SDAT review panel chose the communities based on applications outlining the economic, environmental, and social challenges facing their regions. Detroit, for example, is hoping to address water conservation, land use, affordable housing, and urban decline, while Tampa is working on revitalizing its urban core, a multi-modal transit system, and affordable housing. Other issues facing the various municipalities range from historic preservation and outdated zoning codes to building community parks and pedestrian-friendly corridors.

“The SDAT program is in its third year and continues to help communities address neighborhood revitalization, transportation infrastructure challenges, as well as offer sound strategies to improve air and water quality, and local economic development,” says David Downey, managing director of the AIA Center for Communities by Design.”"

For the full story visit http://www.interiordesign.net/id_newsarticle/CA6551811.html.

Check out this project called, VACANT LOT, started in May 2007 with support from the Shoreditch Trust, Arts Council Groundwork East London. What-if: projects together with local residents of an inner city housing estate in Shoreditch have come up with a novel solution: GROW YOUR GREENS IN A BAG.

A formerly inaccessible and run-down plot of housing estate land has been transformed into a beautiful oasis of green. Seventy 1/2 tonne bags of soil have been arranged to form an allotment space. Within their individual plots, local residents are carefully tending a spectacular array of vegetables, salads, fruit and flowers. A new sense of community has emerged.

For more information visit http://www.what-if.info/VACANT_LOT.html.

The section below is republished with permission from the Going Solar Transport Newsletter #53, 1 April 2008, compiled by Stephen Ingrouille. Going Solar, www.goingsolar.com.au/transport. This newsletter provides an excellent commentary on local sustainable transport issues in Melbourne.

Sustainable Sydney
Sydney’s 10 most important targets for the city to reach by 2030 show how lives would change drastically.
1. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent compared to 1990 levels.
2. At least 132,000 dwellings, 48,000 new dwellings, for an increased household diversity.
3. Of all city housing, 7.5 per cent will be social housing and 7.5 per cent affordable housing.
4. The city to contain at least 465,000 jobs with an increased share of the finance, education, creative industries and tourism sectors.
5. Use of public transport for travel to work increased by 80 per cent.
6. At least 10 per cent of trips made in the city by cycling and 50 per cent by walking.
7. Every resident within a 10 minute or 800m walk to a main street with food markets, childcare, health services and leisure infrastructure.
8. Every resident within a three-minute walk or 250m of continuous green links that connect to the Harbour Foreshore, Harbour Parklands, Moore and Centennial Parks or Sydney Park.
9. The level of community cohesion to increase with more than 45 per cent of people believing their neighbours can be trusted.
10. Have the capacity to meet up to 100 per cent of the city’s energy demand and 10 per cent of its water supply.
Ref: Daily Telegraph 26/3/08