Net Impact Seattle Sponsors the Resilient Cities Conference
October 20 – 27, 2009 in Vancouver
North American cities are facing transformational challenges in sustainability, economy, and urban management. Sustainability imperatives, the call for climate action, the prospect of a quickly shifting energy future, pressure for new approaches in almost every urban system, and the shock of the economic downturn have North American cities scrambling to comprehend and manage the shift toward ecological practices and greater resilience.
At the heart of this Resilient Cities conference are these ideas:
• Cities are powerful agents for climate action and ecological governance;
• It’s crucial to develop powerful new sustainability collaborations between business, civic leadership and the communities that make up our cities;
• The emergent green economy, new green jobs, and a green way of doing old jobs together represent an important new economic development/training/education strategy;
• The concepts and practices of ecological citizenship need to spread more thoroughly through all segments of society and all constituencies;
• Cities—as social and political units—are leading the way in sustainability innovation in the areas of governance, policy and implementation. This capacity, these skills, need to be perfected and widely shared;
• Practitioners from all sectors—technical professions, elected folks, developers, non-profit agencies, post-secondary institutions, community leadership, etc.—are in on this reawakening to commons values. It’s time to maximize collaboration and partnerships. It’s time for the whole city to go green.
The conference will explore strategies to make cities more robust, and will enable participants to advance their thinking on three key subjects:
• innovation in sustainability governance and best current practices for managing sustainable urban systems;
• capturing opportunities in the green economy;
• strategies for building widespread sustainability collaborations that engage the community level.
For more information: www.gaininggroundsummit.com
Spend the afternoon volunteering to help with park restoration at Kellogg Island
Join Net Impact members for dinner and discussion lead by Board Advisor Carol Sanford.