Ecocity World Summit April 22-26, 2008 San Francisco CA


www.ecocityworldsummit.org/

Conference Program

You’ll be learning from some of the greenest urban pioneers alive, including “can do” politicians, genius innovators, design visionaries, urban eco radicals, stellar activists and other creative problem solvers.

Ecocity World Summit Main Conference Summary Schedule

Please note that this is a tentative summary schedule and subject to changes and revisions at this time. A more detailed schedule for both the Main Conference and Academic and Talent Scouting Sessions will be posted as soon as it is ready. The order of presentations and breakout/panels have not been finalized. Speakers and moderators for Main Hall Topics will be added soon.


Main Hall Topics



The Future of Cities, Towns and Villages

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"What do cities do for humanity and to nature?"

"What do cities, towns and villages have to do with the triple crisis of climate change, species extinctions and coming peak oil and energy scarcity?"
"Can we run whole cities on renewable energy and maintain a good quality of life for everyone? (In the long run is there anything else to run them on?)"

"Can we transform cities in time to solve these serious problems of the environment?"

"How can we prioritize and plan for the shift from unhealthy to ecologically healthy cities, towns and villages, and how should these models be crafted so that they can be adopted by both developing and developed countries?"


The Future of Land Use and Cities, Towns and Villages

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"How do basic land use arrangements work for or against social and economic vitality, energy conservation, open space and nature, and for or against natural restoration and health, from the local to the global?"

"How can cities be reshaped to cover far less land area while increasing livability and energy efficiency?"

"What can governments do to regulate and govern the use of land without encroaching on individual rights?"

"How can nature be restored and celebrated inside cities as well as outside?"

"What is the relationship between population, wealth, and land use?"


The Future of Architecture/Design and Cities, Towns and Villages

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"What is the difference between “green building” and arrangements of buildings that create healthy built environments for entire communities, including low-income residents?"

"What are examples of architectural and design features that larger buildings can adopt for different climate zones and building styles? "

"In an ecological city, how can architecture and design reflect the human scale within the taller and more compact built environment? "

"How do architects design with an understanding and relationship to their immediate surroundings, the natural environment, and the whole city structure? "

"Now that nearly everyone is claiming "green" credintials,how can we quickly sort out the viable soutions from all the green hype?"


The Future of Transportation and Cities, Towns and Villages

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"What are the main modes of transportation worldwide, and then broken down into regions of the world?"

"How does the automobile impact the overall form and function of the city?"

>"What forms of transportation best support the ecocity model?"

"What relationship does land use have to transportation?"

"How can cities start shifting subsidies over towards forms of transportation that fit the ecocity model?"


The Future of Energy and Cities, Towns and Villages

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"What do we primarily use energy for and where does it come from at present?"

"What is “peak oil” and how will it impact us in the future?"

"What energy sources and technologies are going to be able to address the needs of the future without further damage to the environment and atmosphere?"

"How does the form and efficiency of the built environment correlate to energy and natural resource supply and demand?"

"What are the consequences of trying to maintain a fossil fuel based form of transportation and land use (private automobiles/sprawl) on another transport energy source, like biofuels? "


The Future of Nature and the Built Human Environment

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"What is the state of the world’s environment, on land and in the oceans and atmosphere?"

"How have humans impacted the health of the planet?"

"How have cities, towns, and villages specifically contributed to environmental degradation?"

"How can the built environment be changed to help save the natural environment?"

"How can we stop climate change and save species from extinction?"


The Future of Food and Cities, Towns and Villages

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"How did populations feed themselves in the past, and how did that change after the discovery of oil?"

"Can the big agribusiness model be sustainable?"

"Can local and regional farms and organic farming be economically and ecologically sustainable and can they adequately supply the needs of the world’s cities, towns and villages?"

"How does government subsidy and policy determine what kind of food is produced and how it is distributed, and how could that change in order to support the transition to more locally based food systems?"

"What are the impacts on hunger if crops are increasingly shifted over from food to fuel to maintain automobile fleets?"


The Future of Consumption and Population and Cities, Towns and Villages

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"On a global scale, who is over-consuming natural resources and by how much?"

"How can we address problems of over consumption and overpopulation?"

"Is there a level of consumption that everyone could aspire to that would afford a good quality of life without destroying the biosphere?"

"How does the structure of the city, town and village relate to consumption of resources per capita?"

"If we built cities to run on a fraction of the energy and resources they do now, approximately how many people could the earth support?"


The Future of Business and Cities, Towns and Villages

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"What is the main purpose of doing business?"

"Is the corporate business model helping or hurting overall?"

"Should businesses be more global or more local in order to benefit the most people and the environment?"

"What role does government play in making sure businesses are protecting and serving the citizens and the environment as well as their own interests?"

"What efforts and models are available that demonstrate a shift from big business to locally owned and operated businesses supporting a local economy?'


The Future of Government and Cities, Towns and Villages

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"How are governments currently addressing the problems of climate change and its impact on citizens, the economy, the environment and the future?"

"How can government lead us from the Age of Oil into a new Ecological Era?"

"What governments are taking a leadership role in addressing the needs of the present and a future facing climate change, peak oil and other environmental, social and economic problems?"

"How can governments work together to address problems of climate change, over-consumption, population, social justice, biodiversity collapse and other serious problems facing humanity?"

Full details on Presentations, Plenary Speakers, Breakout Sessions, Tours, Meals, Exhibit Hall Hours and Special Events will be posted as they become available.


The Ecocity World Summit is a conference in two parts:


Part 1: Academic and Talent Scouting Sessions

Preceding the Ecocity World Summit Main Conference will be two days of Academic and Talent Scouting Sessions. Select students and researchers from around the world will present their best ecocity innovations and solutions for review, critique and discussion. As part of the Academic and Talent Scouting Sessions you will find:

Part 2: Ecocity World Summit Main Conference

Next is the three-day Ecocity World Summit Main Conference, with top international keynoters, experts, authors, thinkers and doers, launched by a public event on Wednesday night after the close of the Academic and Talent Scouting Sessions. During the Ecocity World Summit Main Conference you'll experience:
Interspersed: Tours, cultural events, party.


Conference Speakers

The Ecocity World Summit will bring together many of the world’s best and brightest in the ecocity, town and village movement. Keep checking back as more speakers are confirmed.


Confirmed Speakers

Lois Arkin, Founder, Los Angeles Ecovillage

Dr. Sahar Attia, Professor of Planning and Urban Design, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

David Beach, Founder and Executive Director, EcoCity Cleveland

Tim Beatley, Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities, Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, School of Architecture, University of Virginia

Dan Beard, Chief Administrative Officer, US House of Representatives, Washington DC, Green the Capitol Initiative

Peter Berg, Founder, Planet Drum Foundation

Lalit Bhati, architect, urban planner, spokesperson for Auroville, India

Rajiv Bhatia, MD, MPH. Director, Occupational & Environmental Health, San Francisco Department of Public Health

Joan Bokaer, eco-visionary, co-founder, Ecovillage at Ithaca, NY

Jared Blumenfeld, director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment

Gary Braasch, photographer and author of “Earth Under Fire, How Global Warming is Changing the World"

Peter Brastow, founding director, Nature in the City, San Francisco

Wendy Brawer, ecological designer and networker, Green Map System founder

Gray Brechin, historical geographer and author, founder of the Living New Deal Project

Ernest Callenbach, author of visionary novel Ecotopia

Stuart Cohen, co-founder and Executive Director of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition (TALC)

Betsy Damon, Executive Director, Keeper of the Waters

Jonathan Dawson, Executive Secretary of GEN-Europe and a sustainability educator at the Findhorn Foundation

Serigne Mbaye Dine, village leader, Yoff, Senegal, co-convenor, The Third International Ecocity Conference

Paul Downton, Principal Architect and Urban Ecologist, Ecopolis Architects, Australia

Peter Droege, Senior Advisor, Beijing Municipal Institute for City Planning and Design, Steering Committee member, Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN). Chair, World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE) Asia Pacific, author of “The Renewable City”

Debra Efroymson, Regional Director, HealthBridge, Bangladesh

Reid Ewing, lead author of the Urban Land Institutes study “Growing Cooler, the Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change”

Paul Fenn, founder and director, Local Power, Oakland, California

India Flint, (eco)fashion designer, cloth colourist & costumiere, Australia

Gil Friend, systems ecologist and business strategist, founder, president and CEO of Natural Logic, Inc.

Eric Holt-Giménez. Executive Director, FoodFirst/Institute for Food and Development Policy, author of Campesino a Campesino: Voices from Latin America’s Farmer to Farmer Movement for Sustainable Agriculture

Maneka Gandhi, Member of Parliament, Pilibhi, India, Founder, People for Animals

Gao Guihua, Vice President and Director, Shanghai Industrial Investment Company

Parris Glendening, former Governor of Maryland and President, Smart Growth Leadership Institute, a project of Smarth Growth America

Gwendolyn Hallsmith, Founder and Executive Director, Global Community Initiatives

Phil Hawes, Project Director, Global EcoVillage Development Company

Peter Head, Arup, Director, Planning Plus

John Holtzclaw, Director of Sierra Club Challenge to Sprawl Campaign, San Francisco

Walter Hood, Professor of Landscape Architecture B.L.A., University of California, Principal, Hood Design

Huey Johnson, founder of Resource Renewal Institute and Trust for Public Land

Nazreen Kadir, scholar in science and public policy at the Western Institute for Social Research

Patrick Kennedy, urban infill developer, Berkeley, California, founder, Panoramic Interests

Jeffrey Kenworthy, Professor in Sustainable Cities, Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy at Murdoch University in Western Australia

Pierre Laconte, Foundation for the Urban Environment, Belgium, President, International Society of City and Regional Planners

Jaime Lerner, Renowned architect and urban planner, former Mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, co-founder of IPPUC (Institute of Urban Planning and Research of Curitiba)

Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, CA State Assembly Majority Whip, Chair of the Legislative High-Speed Rail Caucus

Sylvia McLaughlin, Co-founder, Save the San Francisco Bay Association, Berkeley

Gabriel Metcalf, Executive Director, San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR)

Bernard Otoki Moirongo, Professor, National School of Architecture and Planning, Kenya

Dr. Tadeusz Patzek, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley

Dr. Raquel Rivera Pinderhughes, Professor of Urban Studies, San Francisco State University

Rick Pruetz, Specialist in transfer of development rights and related planning/preservation tools

Richard Register, President, Ecocity Builders, author of Ecocities, Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature (2006)

Maria Rosario, Senior Architect and Planner for the Latin America Region at PADCO/AECOM in Washington DC.

Stephen H. Schneider, Climatologist, Stanford University, scientist sharing the Nobel Peace Prize for the UN Intergovernmental Pannel on Climate Change with Al Gore

Christopher Swan, advocate for the further development and future of photovoltaic solar energy systems and for light rail (rail transport) systems

Geoff Syphers, Chief Sustainability Officer, Codding Enterprises

Prof. Sundarshan Tiwari, Architect and City Historian, Nepal

Brent Toderian, Director of Planning, Vancouver, BC

Mary Evelyn Tucker, Senior Lecturer in Religion and the Environment at Yale University, Co-Director, The Forum on Religion and Ecology, Harvard University

Dr. Mathis Wackernagle, Executive Director, Global Footprint Network, co-founder of the Ecological Footprint Analysist

Isabel Wade, SF Neighborhood Parks Council Executive Director

Liz Walker, Co-founder of Ecovillage at Ithaca, Ithaca, New York

Rusong Wang, President, Ecological Society of China

Curtis White, American essayist, author of The Spirit of Disobedience: Resisting the Charms of Fake Politics, Mindless Consumption, and the Culture of Total Work (PoliPointPress, 2006)

Ken Yeang, eco-architect, Malaysia, England

Gene Zellmer, architect, early pioneer in green building


Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie@sbpermaculture.org
 www.sbpermaculture.org

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