Transition UGent: a bottom-up initiative towards a more sustainable university

The vibrant think-tank ‘Transition UGent’ engaged over 250 academics, students and people from the university management in suggesting objectives and actions for the Sustainability Policy of Ghent University (Belgium). Founded in 2012, this bottom-up initiative succeeded to place sustainability high on the policy agenda of our university. Through discussions within 9 working groups and using the transition management method, Transition UGent developed system analyses, sustainability visions and transition paths on 9 fields of Ghent University: mobility, energy, food, waste, nature and green, water, art, education and research. At the moment, many visions and ideas find their way into concrete actions and policies. In our presentation we focused on the broad participative process, on the most remarkable structural results (e.g. a formal and ambitious Sustainability Vision and a student-led Sustainability Office) and on recent actions and experiments (e.g. a sustainability assessment on food supply in student restaurants, artistic COP21 activities, ambitious mobility plans, food leftovers projects, an education network on sustainability controversies, a transdisciplinary platform on Sustainable Cities). We concluded with some recommendations and reflections on this transition approach, on the important role of ‘policy entrepreneurs’ and student involvement, on lock-ins and bottlenecks, and on convincing skeptical leaders

Sustainable community development through the conceptual lens of productivity

Achieving global sustainability requires addressing urban systems since more than two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050. Fundamental changes are needed in local decision-making, urban sustainability planning, implementation, and assessment, and citizen mobilization to move from current piecemeal approaches toward long-lasting and successful implementation of local and global sustainability goals. This research explores the potential of holistic community/urban productivity: “How can the concept, principles, and practices of community productivity help address local sustainability planning, implementation, and assessment, and contribute to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals?” In response, I engaged in critical review of the literature on sustainable community development, urban sustainability, and holistic productivity, developed a conceptual framework for holistic urban productivity, and conducted in-depth case studies with two Canadian cities. While cities are often considered as a component of Anthropocene problems, they also offer unique opportunities and solutions: they have enormous potential not only in terms of economic and labor productivity (diverse and inclusive economy, fostering innovation), but also of social productivity (hubs of research, learning, and sharing) and ecological productivity (ecological function regeneration and efficient use of resources). Holistic urban productivity posits that transforming cities into well-functioning and sustainable systems is possible through inclusive co-production of the commons, resource circularity and regeneration, natural systems restoration, and systemic decision-making. This dissertation contributes to sustainable community development conceptually and empirically by substantiating existing literature and by proposing a new framework with principles, goals, and metrics grounded in long-term whole-systems thinking and regeneration of urban assets and resources. The research findings helped enhance the holistic Urban Productivity Framework and the development of recommendations for municipalities in Canada and beyond and for further research. Cities need to welcome visioning, networking, learning, and connectedness tools for balanced and synergistic optimization of all community elements

City Lab Lisbon - Development of a smart roadmap for the city of the future

Lisbon is a city with more than half a million inhabitants and one of the most touristic capitals in Western Europe, constantly trying to find ways to deal with challenges in a smart and sustainable manner. How to turn Lisbon into a more inclusive, connected, and resilient city going into the future, is the question that researchers in the Fraunhofer project, Morgenstadt, are trying to solve. Lisbon has developed a city development strategy for the next decades, defining goals that aim to create more employment, attract more people and to become a more liveable city. This last goal does not only include the improvements in living standards of citizens, but addresses topics such as new mobility concepts, renewal of old buildings, increased energy efficiency, among others. All this can be fostered by using more participative approaches and an extensive exploration of the local resources to stimulate the economy and incentivize local innovation. The question that arises is how to get there? How to make Lisbon a more liveable and attractive city not only for tourists but especially for its citizens and workers? This paper is based on an interdisciplinary project in the form of a so-called “City lab” that began in September 2015 in the context of the ongoing long-term research project called “Morgenstadt: City Insights” initiated by the Fraunhofer Society. This paper therefore first provides a general introduction into the smart city concept (chapter 2) and an overview over the initial position of Lisbon in this regard (chapter 3). In a next step, the research methodology applied in the City Lab will be outlined, dividing the analysis process (chapter 4) and the project development process (chapter 5). In the following the results of the city lab Lisbon will be presented. While the first part of results concentrates on key outcomes such as the sensitivity analysis and exemplary sector specific results (chapter 6), the second part will provide an overview over the developed projects to foster a smart and sustainable development of Lisbon (chapter 7). According to the identified challenges and opportunities in chapter 6 that reveal a good level of smartness among the different sectors, the projects presented in chapter 7 will specifically address the strengthening of interdisciplinary and cross-department as well as cross -stakeholder cooperation, which has been identified as Lisbons key challenge

Preparing for a Northwest Passage: A Workshop on the Role of New England in Navigating the New Arctic

Preparing for a Northwest Passage: A Workshop on the Role of New England in Navigating the New Arctic (March 25 - 27, 2018 -- The University of New Hampshire) paired two of NSF\u27s 10 Big Ideas: Navigating the New Arctic and Growing Convergence Research at NSF. During this event, participants assessed economic, environmental, and social impacts of Arctic change on New England and established convergence research initiatives to prepare for, adapt to, and respond to these effects. Shipping routes through an ice-free Northwest Passage in combination with modifications to ocean circulation and regional climate patterns linked to Arctic ice melt will affect trade, fisheries, tourism, coastal ecology, air and water quality, animal migration, and demographics not only in the Arctic but also in lower latitude coastal regions such as New England. With profound changes on the horizon, this is a critical opportunity for New England to prepare for uncertain yet inevitable economic and environmental impacts of Arctic change

Sustainable consumption: towards action and impact. : International scientific conference November 6th-8th 2011, Hamburg - European Green Capital 2011, Germany: abstract volume

This volume contains the abstracts of all oral and poster presentations of the international scientific conference „Sustainable Consumption – Towards Action and Impact“ held in Hamburg (Germany) on November 6th-8th 2011. This unique conference aims to promote a comprehensive academic discourse on issues concerning sustainable consumption and brings together scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines. In modern societies, private consumption is a multifaceted and ambivalent phenomenon: it is a ubiquitous social practice and an economic driving force, yet at the same time, its consequences are in conflict with important social and environmental sustainability goals. Finding paths towards “sustainable consumption” has therefore become a major political issue. In order to properly understand the challenge of “sustainable consumption”, identify unsustainable patterns of consumption and bring forward the necessary innovations, a collaborative effort of researchers from different disciplines is needed

Urban heritage conservation and rapid urbanization : insights from Surat, India

Currently, heritage is challenged in the Indian city of Surat due to diverse pressures,  including rapid urbanization, increasing housing demand, and socio‐cultural and climate changes.  Where rapid demographic growth of urban areas is happening, heritage is disappearing at an  alarming rate. Despite some efforts from the local government, urban cultural heritage is being  neglected and historic buildings keep being replaced by ordinary concrete buildings at a worryingly  rapid pace. Discussions of challenges and issues of Surat’s urban area is supported by a qualitative  dataset, including in‐depth semi‐structured interviews and focus groups with local policy makers,  planners, and heritage experts, triangulated by observation and a photo‐survey of two historic  areas. Findings from this study reveal a myriad of challenges such as: inadequacy of urban  conservation management policies and processes focused on heritage, absence of skills, training,  and resources amongst decision makers and persistent conflict and competition between heritage  conservation needs and developers’ interests. Furthermore, the values and significance of Surat’s  tangible and intangible heritage is not fully recognized by its citizens and heritage stakeholders. A  crucial opportunity exists for Surat to maximize the potential of heritage and reinforce urban  identity for its present and future generations. Surat’s context is representative of general trends  and conservation challenges and therefore recommendations developed in this study hold the  potential to offer interesting insights to the wider planners and conservationists’ international  community.  This  paper  recommends  thoughtful  integration  of  sustainable  heritage  urban  conservation into local urban development frameworks and the establishment of approaches that  recognize the plurality of heritage values

Smarter greener cities through a social-ecological-technological systems approach

Publisher Copyright: © 2022Smart city development is expanding rapidly globally and is often argued to improve urban sustainability. However, these smart developments are often technology-centred approaches that can miss critical interactions between social and ecological components of urban systems, limiting their real impact. We draw on the social-ecological-technological systems (SETS) literature and framing to expand and improve the impact of smart city agendas. A more holistic systems framing can ensure that ‘smart’ solutions better address sustainability broadly and extend to issues of equity, power, agency, nature-based solutions and ecological resilience. In this context, smart city infrastructure plays an important role in enabling new ways of measuring, experiencing and engaging with local and temporal dynamics of urban systems. We provide a series of examples of subsystems interactions, or ‘couplings’, to illustrate how a SETS approach can expand and enhance smart city infrastructure and development to meet normative societal goals.Peer reviewe