Green ArchiTEXT

The VPL Authority: Welcome to “smart-sprawl”

By Rustam Mehta and Thomas Moran with Keller Easterling

Deep in the desert Southwest, a public-private corporation is building a mega-eco-city that will be the hub of a new high-speed rail network. Welcome to “smart-sprawl.”

via www.canopycanopycanopy.com

IMAGE: VPL Authority
Building a high-speed rail network and eco-friendly mega-station in the desert Southwest

Copenhagen: Why the U.S. Should Build a Green City

The conversation at the Copenhagen climate conference is all about policy. But regulation won't stop global warming by itself. Nor will simply spending money on clean technologies. In the US, President Obama has earmarked a half billion dollars of initial funding for a breathtaking array of renewable technologies. This looks like bold action, but it isn't nearly bold enough. We need to be thinking on a far, far grander scale. With its financial and intellectual resources, the U.S. needs to lead this charge. But instead of backing individual technologies, the country should build a whole city of technologies.

What if we were to go into an area of our country that's seriously in need of reinvention — the Midwest — and build a city that would offer a living, breathing opportunity to create an entire clean-tech infrastructure? That's not nearly as utopian as it sounds. Here's why.

via blogs.harvardbusiness.org

Sunshine, sewage to power cities of the future

From San Francisco to Malmo, Sweden, cities around the globe are preparing for a new imperative: to accommodate the mass of world population growth and thrive, without further accelerating the release of carbon dioxide that threatens their existence.

via www.theglobeandmail.com

Will Vancouver Become the World’s Greenest City?

 CREDIT: Vancouver Convention Ctr.

Chicago, Portland, San Francisco – all claim to be vying for the title of North America’s, if not the world’s, greenest metro area. But what about Vancouver, BC? The city’s transformation in terms of parks, transportation and green jobs began decades ago. Even the built environment in and around Vancouver boasts some of the world’s green trendsetters, such as Library Square and the C.K. Choi Building at the University of British Columbia. The Vancouver Convention Center, featuring a six-acre green roof, is on track for LEED Platinum, and the uber-green Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) – designed by Busby Perkins+Will – will open in 2011.

How exactly do you measure this achievement? Northwest Hub explains, with a recap of Vancouver’s plans to become the world’s greenest by 2020:

“By positioning itself as the destination for green jobs and business, Vancouver hopes to strengthen and expand its global stature and continue to be one of the world's most livable cities. One way Vancouver hopes to achieve its goal is through implementing what it calls 'bright green ideas.'

One such bright green idea is the use of low-carbon economic development (LCED) zones. By creating LCED zones, Vancouver hopes to encourage the development of low-carbon businesses and technologies that will attract investment capital, development funding, grants, and other financial resources that will further advance such green industries as renewable energy, energy efficiency, and additional low-carbon technologies.  If LCED zones are successful, they will proliferate or expand, further increasing the size and reputation of Vancouver's green industries and practices.”

Read all of “A Brief Look at Vancouver's Plan to Become the Greenest City in the World by 2020”.

The Resilient Cities conference, held October 20-22, 2009 in Vancouver, explored many of these ideas further. Co-sponsored by SmartGrowthBC and Gaining Ground, the program addressed an amazing variety of topics from a who's who of green thought leaders:

• The City and the Resilient Future, Paul Hawken
• Development is Community, John Knott Jr.
• Shifting Corporate Culture, Anita Burke
• Sustainability From the Community Up, Majora Carter

Download the full program here.

Tour of South Korea's New Eco City: Songdo City