The Crystal: A sustainable cities initiative

Posted on: 18 September 2012
By: mackene
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The Crystal is a sustainable cities initiative by Siemens that explores how we can create a better future for our cities. It is home to the world’s largest exhibition focused on urban sustainability. Based in the Royal Victoria Docks, the centre of London’s new Green Enterprise District, the Crystal is a natural home for thought leadership on urban sustainability. It provides a global knowledge hub that helps a diverse range of audiences learn and understand how we can all work to build better cities for ourselves and for future generations. Experts on urban sustainability will be available to exchange ideas, while a dynamic conference programme will foster dialogue between stakeholders. The website also provides access to research sponsored by Siemens, including the Green City Index.  The Crystal opens to the public on 29 September 2012.

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New Cities Foundation

Posted on: 12 September 2012
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The New Cities Foundation is a non-profit Swiss institution dedicated to improving the quality of life and work in the 21st-century global city, with a particular focus on new cities in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.

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Knowledge brokerage in action in European Cities: Key insights from five successful knowledge brokerage initiatives

Posted on: 22 August 2012
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The Informed Cities Initiative applied the theory of knowledge brokerage to the field of urban sustainability, in a research project funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme. This brochure is one of the project’s outputs; it reports the findings from five European case studies, using data collected via structured questionnaires and follow-up telephone interviews with key figures in the brokerage process in the case study cities.

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Reference Framework for Sustainable European Cities

Posted on: 22 August 2012
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The Reference Framework is an on-line toolkit to assist actors of urban management and development to improve dialogue and action on sustainability. It offers a multi-purpose decision-making and communication tool for promoting sustainable urban development. It is not place-specific and can be adapted to suit local priorities and different circumstances. The tool shows and explains step-by-step what actions are possible or necessary to organise the process in a city or municipality, that is to say to help the city develop in an integrated manner. The users are guided through a series of questions to explore their city’s approach to sustainability and provide them with tools for improving this.

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3rd International Urban Research Symposium ICLEI World Congress 2012. Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 14-17 June 2012

Posted on: 17 August 2012
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This conference focused on urban sustainability, sustainable cities, eco-cities and sustainable communities with the aim of linking research and practice. Presentations are available online.

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Pando

Posted on: 10 July 2012
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Pando is a new online community with a professional focus, where researchers, academics, and public- and private-sector practitioners focused on local sustainability challenges can share knowledge, network, and collaborate.

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Green growth: New shoots. Sheffield, 9-10 May 2012

Posted on: 5 July 2012
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Our cities and city regions are facing an urgent challenge to create jobs and economic growth – but how can this be balanced with the need to improve social cohesion and create sustainable communities? What are the opportunities for durable growth and investing in Green Infrastructure and how does a high quality environment attract and retain talent and confidence? By providing a forum for debate and networking, this event aimed to further our shared understanding of the issues and ways forward to help address these central challenges.

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Beautiful, green, smart and inclusive: Colourful cities

Posted on: 4 July 2012
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As part of the Committee of the Regions’ 5th European Summit of Regions and Cities, which was held on 22 and 23 March 2012 in Copenhagen, the Committee invited its members as well as a variety of European associations and cities from across Europe to showcase their recent urban projects in the following four areas: architecture and town planning (’Beautiful Cities’); energy efficiency, sustainable transport and development (’Green Cities’); innovation and smart specialisation strategies (’Smart Cities’); and inclusion, social innovation and employment (’Inclusive Cities’). This brochure accompanied the exhibition.

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A survey on urban sustainability

Posted on: 29 June 2012
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In the spring of 2012, ICLEI ( local governments for sustainability) and EMI (European Metropolitan network Institute) launched a joint survey on urban sustainability. The survey was sent to city officials and policymakers across Europe and is part of EMI’s Knowledge and Research Agenda on Urban Sustainability looking into research needs when it comes to stimulating urban sustainability. The survey addressed issues such as cities’ understanding of the concept, their ambitions concerning sustainability as well as  goals on this theme of the European Union. Another important aim was to identify the needs of European cities relating to the further implementation of urban sustainability goals.

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Re-mixing the city: Towards sustainability and resilience. Vienna, 14-16 May 2012

Posted on: 21 June 2012
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REAL CORP conferences are held annually since 1996. About 500 experts from around the world from the fields of urban planning, transport planning, information and communication technologies, architecture, social and environmental sciences, real estate, GIS, surveying and remote sensing and more meet to discuss current tasks and topics on urban planning, regional development and information society in an international and extremely interdisciplinary conference. It is possible to research the archive of all papers presented since 1996 here.

Cities worldwide are facing rapid social, economic, environmental, technological and cultural changes such as: rapid urbanisation, aging of society, security issues, housing emergency, new solutions on mobility, integration of immigrants, food and water shortage, etc. Especially in times of economic crisis and demographic changes in cities, it is necessary to think about how to best handle what we have, and therefore “RE-MIXING THE CITY” is a challenge to manage and re-combine the elements which make our modern cities in order to better respond to change. This event offered the possibility to collectively discuss a wide range of topics in different panel groups and workshops. Questions considered included:

Can “mixed cities” be more sustainable and resilient?

Time-space patterns of the 24/7 city?

Is it the purpose of spatial planning to “sort land uses in space”?

Do the urban patterns and structure of our cities still meet the needs of the people in their everyday life?

How do urban, transport and environmental technologies and solutions shape our cities?

Does and can migration re-mix the city?

What is the role of urban planning in these processes?

A large number of presentations and papers are available online.

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