The 2012 TED Prize is awarded to….the City 2.0.

The City 2.0 is the city of the future… a future in which more than ten billion people on planet Earth must somehow live sustainably. The City 2.0 is not a sterile utopian dream, but a real-world upgrade tapping into humanity’s collective wisdom. The City 2.0 promotes innovation, education, culture, and economic opportunity. The City 2.0 reduces the carbon footprint of its occupants, facilitates smaller families, and eases the environmental pressure on the world’s rural areas. The City 2.0 is a place of beauty, wonder, excitement, inclusion, diversity, life. The City 2.0 is the city that works.

The TED Prize grants its winner $100,000 and “one wish to change the world.” How will this prize be accepted on behalf of the City 2.0? Through visionary individuals around the world who are advocating on its behalf. We are listening to them and giving them the opportunity to collectively craft a wish. A wish capable of igniting a massive collaborative project among the members of the global TED community, and indeed all who care about our planet’s future.

Individuals or organizations who wish to contribute their ideas to a TED Prize wish on behalf of The City 2.0 should write to tedprize@ted.com

The wish will be unveiled on February 29, 2012 at the TED Conference in Long Beach, California. On a Leap Year date, we have a chance, collectively, to take a giant leap forward.

http://www.tedprize.org/announcing-the-2012-ted-prize-winner/

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Image: Earth Hour,  The Mirror

Defra , UK (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), wishes to commission a programme of action based research to test innovative approaches for encouraging and in turn potentially catalysing pro-environmental behaviours and sustainable patterns of consumption.

Informed by the available evidence base, the particular emphasis is to move towards influencing behaviour through testing interventions which focus on the internal and/or (where possible) external causes of behaviour.

The findings will inform the design and practical application of policies, communications initiatives and strategies to encourage pro-environmental behaviour.

Projects should focus on ways of promoting pro-environmental behaviour in relation to one or more of the following pro-environmental behavioural themes:

· Energy efficiency/ usage in the home

· Waste and recycling · Water efficiency/ usage in the home

· Personal transport (including tourism)

· Purchase of eco-friendly products

For more information visit the funding site.

The deadline for applications is 9th September 2009.

The Nature Conservation Council of NSW are seeking a Climate Campaign Coordinator.

“Are you looking for a challenging role on the frontline of community engagement and organising on climate change?”

Applications close 9am, Monday 13 July, 2009.

“At the Nature Conservation Council we’re proud of our strong commitment to grassroots climate action, including our founding role in organising Walk Against Warming and climatemovement.org.au.

We know it will take a massive amount of creativity and passion to build partnerships and engage communities across NSW on the action that is needed to avert catastrophic climate change. That’s where you come in!

We’re looking for an energetic and self-motivated person to coordinate our climate campaign work.

You’ll be working collaboratively with a great group of people with a passion for the environment. Together you’ll work to maximise project integration and make our climate campaigns a success. The Climate Campaign Coordinator will work closely with other members of the climate team as well as other groups working on climate change, including new initiatives in the lead-up to Copenhagen and beyond.

Applicants should have strong communication and organising skills, sound knowledge of climate change politics and policy in Australia and be an excellent networker.

Make your contribution for a better climate future.”

Click here for full position description and further details on how to apply.

Applications close 9am, Monday 13 July, 2009.

For more information on the position, call Cate Faehrmann on (02) 9279 2466.

Source: Greenleap

Please either comment on Sustainable Cities Net below or email me directly at fedwards @unimelb.edu.au.
Best,
Ferne
Ferne Edwards, Moderator, SustainableCitiesNet.com

There are only 2 weeks remaining until the Healthy Cities Conference being held at the Holiday Inn, Surfers Paradise 25th – 27th March 2009. The Conference will be a platform for Government, Academics and Industry sector professionals to consider health, sustainability, natural resource management, climate change, urban design and the implications for public policy. The future will present some exciting challenges, what do we need to meet these challenges and how will it effect the way we live and work?

An interactive panel has been included in the Healthy Cities program allowing delegates a Q&A opportunity with the following keynote presenters:
Prof Ian Lowe – Australian Conservation Foundation
Ann Bunnell – Sustainable Solutions
Dr John Coulter – Sustainable Population Australia
Prof Jan McDonald – National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility
Dr Peter Davey – Griffith University
There will also be a round table for professional bodies to discuss the Climate Change Agenda.

Professional bodies wanting to become involved in the Climate Change Agenda round table are asked to contact the Conference Secretariat via email as limited seats are available. A copy of the Conference program is available on the Healthy Cities website along with online registration. There is now only one remaining booth available to exhibit or display your services, please contact the Conference Secretariat for this last opportunity!

If you have any further queries please feel free to contact Sophie Secombe, Healthy Cities Conference Secretariat.
Email: conference@ healthycities.com.au
URL: www.healthycities.com.au

A real ‘step change’ in city transportation logistics, Freight*Bus marks the integration of passenger and freight transportation. It will have a profound impact on city infrastructure, providing increased passenger and freight capacity, improved convenience and service, whilst reducing congestion, pollution and real costs.

On-Route’ is a radical new urban transportation system concept which would see a Freight*BUS™ optimise the carrying of passengers and freight, thereby tackling the problems of both congestion and pollution.

The Freight*BUS has been designed with a zero-emission propulsion system able to accommodate either a battery fuel-cell system or small bio gas generator to maintain fully charged batteries. It also features other state-of-the art technologies such as distributed wheel motors and completely new inventions, like ceiling-suspended seating and a patent-protected pallet-less lifting and handling device. The ability to turn in its own length & ‘crab steer’ is great for tight fit bus stops & bus station manoeuvres.

This avant-garde concept requires a whole new way of thinking about urban transportation systems; stakeholders are invited to help take this model to the next level.

A multi disciplined design specialist has come up with a radical urban transport proposal, called On-Route, which he believes tackles the two biggest problems caused by city-centre transport today; congestion and pollution. Hugh Frost’s Freight*BUS™ www.freight-bus.co.uk is an innovative new design that combines a passenger-carrying bus with that of freight haulage with the minimum of disruption to either service. It can be reconfigured in seconds by the conductor or driver to carry freight and passengers. Furthermore, passenger space & freight space can be easily adjusted to match demand.

Frost’s proposal was submitted to Transport for London (TfL)’s ‘A New Bus for London’ competition,’ which Mayor of London Boris Johnson launched earlier this year. Although the Freight*BUS was not the final winner of the competition, Hugh Frost, designer and concept originator of the On-Route system www.onroutebus.co.uk and the Freight*BUS still wishes to take his idea to the next level and is now looking for stakeholders to help him do this. These could be in the form of bus or commercial vehicle manufacturers who are interested in developing the Freight*BUS from conceptual state into a full-blown prototype; a municipality which would consider trialling the On-Route system, or stakeholder investors, such as venture capitalists that specialise in environmental transportation solutions.

“Taking London as an example, the most optimistic proposals put the average occupancy of its buses at 25%. However, our calculations show that for around four hours a day, their utilisation drops to as low as 20%,” Frost says. “Despite this, city authorities are tasked with increasing the numbers of vehicles, routes and service frequency to supposedly reduce congestion and improve services. My idea is to put our cities’ buses to good use by using them to provide an alternative city freight system at times of low passenger capacity utilisation. This could reduce the numbers of freight vehicles on city roads by as much as 30%. By using the buses to carry freight in the evening and overnight, the utilisation of these vehicles would be maximised, offering maximum return on investment (ROI) and substantially increased revenue from the vehicles. However, in order to fulfil this dual role, the entire concept of buses, as we know them today, needs to be revisualised.”

With this in the mind, the Freight*Bus has been designed to allow varying combinations of passenger & freight space to match demand. In full passenger configuration, it provides seating for up to 90 passengers – that’s 43 more than the bendy-bus and standing room for a further 40 passengers. With standing room only on the lower deck, it could accommodate 150 people with 52 seated. Meanwhile, in its full freight configuration the Freight*BUS is designed to accommodate 35 freight pods (equivalent to 35 europallets).

Loaded with other State-of-the-Art Technology

 

The Freight*BUS combines a number of completely new ideas, patents for which have already been applied, combined with leading-edge technology that is already proven in automotive applications or is undergoing extensive on-road trials.

The design of Freight*BUS will readily accommodate battery or fuel cell technology. The 200mm deep space in the main floor of the bus will house batteries or fuel cells and the accompanying hydrogen storage tanks (if required). Indeed, it is envisaged that when fuel cell technology is affordable, that the fleet could be easily switched to this propulsion system, while keeping the drive motors and control systems in place. Similarly, its re-configurable interior design could even be broadly applied to existing vehicles built with combustion engines. However, it is the designer’s view that the latest and emerging advances in battery technology will make the re-fit and the use of hydrogen and fuel cells unnecessary. Freight*BUS would also feature the very latest in other emission-saving technology , such as distributed wheel motors which can be as much as 50% more efficient that central motors.

With the latest battery technology, an 80% recharge is possible in around 1 minute. This could be done at bus stations or other major stops, with a recharge point built into key bus stops. These 1 minute recharges do not seriously affect battery life and can be performed within the duration of a standard stop. Alternatively, in the short term, the electric drive & battery storage system could be ‘hybridised’ with a small, efficient, clean burning LPG fuelled, 2 litre generator to top up batteries on the move. Adopting the all battery concept will enable off peak green energy to be stored in the vast reservoir of battery energy that would be created by large fleets of the Freight*Bus.

In respect of carriage versatility, seating is suspended from the ceiling and can be configured for almost any combination of passenger & freight space between these limits. This is achieved by designing the seating to be folded away. In fact, each 2 person seat (on both decks) can be folded into the ceiling in seconds. Seats are fixed to the ceiling through special anti-vibration mounts to improve ride quality. In terms of the vehicle’s freight-carrying capabilities, a pallet-less lifting & handling device is key to easy loading/unloading. Indeed, a crucial part of the interior design is a compact, low cost pod handling system, which has patent protection.

Route Consolidation

When looking at the idea of consolidation in relation to bus routes and passenger transport, Frost quickly realised that not only were there opportunities to improve bus routing & linking with other transport services and types using consolidation principals, but that there is an even bigger opportunity to use the buses for freight as well as passenger movement that would reduce the numbers of goods vehicles on city roads (especially light goods vans which are responsible for 15% of all UK carbon emissions from all forms of transportation) by as much as 50%. He remarks: “We looked at passenger & freight systems end to end and concluded that there is sufficient overlap to be able to build on and integrate existing infrastructure of both passenger & freight systems. However, it will be necessary to develop consolidation centres and cross-docks for freight movement, and hubs for passenger and freight delivery and collection. Many of these elements already exist and can be linked into existing infrastructure such as bus/rail stations & depots; haulage/sorting depots etc. Hubs would also be located at major bus stops, and concentrations of retail, commercial & light industrial units.

 

Frost points to studies which have already been carried out in London showing that the implementation of alternative freight systems, including the use of ‘Consolidation Centres’ in city areas can give exceptional results. One such study found a 68% reduction in construction vehicles entering the City of London for the project, an average journey time reduction of 2 hours, a circa 75% reduction of CO2 emissions, and a 10% reduction in local distribution journey times. The On-Route Bus supports the existing aims of the London Freight Plan as set out of in the Mayor of London’s existing Transport Strategy.

For more details of the On-Route and Freight*BUS concept, see

www.onroutebus.co.uk

 

 

Hugh Frost

Google are also fully committed to funding the winning ideas. Time is running out for submissions – the deadline is 20 October – don’t miss out!

To learn more about Project 10¹⁰⁰ visit their website.

This call for proposals is co-funded by CCAA and IDRC’s Urban Poverty and Environment program. The application and project development process is led by CCAA.

Full details on this call can be found at: www.idrc.ca/ccaa-urbancall. Completed applications, accompanied by full proposals, must be submitted no later than midnight, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), November 30, 2008 to: ccaa-urbancall @idrc.ca

The Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) research and capacity development program is jointly funded by IDRC and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID).

“We are inviting academic editorial contributors to the Green Series, a new electronic reference series for academic and public libraries addressing all aspects of environmental issues, including alternative energies, sustainability, politics, agriculture, and many other subjects that will comprise a 12-title set. Each title has approximately 150 articles (much like encyclopedia articles) on major themes, ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 words. We are starting the assignment process for articles for the first three titles in the series with a deadline of FEBRUARY 2, 2009:
Green Energy
Green Politics
Green Food

This comprehensive project will be published in stages by SAGE eReference and will be marketed to academic and public libraries as a digital, online product available to students via the library’s electronic services. The Series Editor is Paul Robbins, Ph.D., University of Arizona, and the General Editor for the first three titles is Dustin R. Mulvaney, Ph.D., UC-Santa Cruz. Both editors will be reviewing each submission to the project.

If you are interested in contributing to this cutting-edge reference, it can be a notable publication addition to your CV/resume and broaden your publishing credits. SAGE Publications offers an honorarium ranging from SAGE book credits for smaller articles up to free access to the online product for contributions totaling 10,000 words or more.

The list of available articles is already prepared, and as a next step we will e-mail you the Article List (Excel file) from which you can select topics that best fit your expertise and interests. Additionally, Style and Submission Guidelines will be provided that detail article specifications. If you would like to contribute to building a truly outstanding reference with the Green Series, please contact me by the e-mail information below. Please provide a brief summary of your academic/publishing credentials in environmental issues.

Thanks very much,

Ellen Ingber
Author Manager, Golson Media”
green@ golsonmedia.com