Now in its 14th edition, the Ecocity World Summit, the longest running conference on sustainable cities, has come a long way since the first Summit held in Berkeley, California in 1990, making its way throughout the world, from Australia to China, from Turkey to the UAE. Looking back, I have had the opportunity to volunteer at the 2008 Ecocity World Summit in San Francisco, California and the honor to volunteer with Ecocity Builders under Richard Register while he was organizing the 1996 and 2000 summits in Yoff, Senegal and Curitiba, Brazil. From Richard, I heard many a great stories and amazing accomplishments that different global ecocities have achieved. A special shout out to Richard Register for his tenacity and contributions to bringing the Summit to different parts of the world and creating a network for people and communities to exchange ideas and strategies on how we can address the sustainability of our world. Another shout out to Kirstin Miller for bringing the Summit to another level and keeping it alive.
The What: This year, Ecocity World Summit 2022 will take place online on February 22 – 24, 2022. Who would have thought that something good would come out of Covid, giving people anywhere around the world a chance to virtually participate in the Summit? Ecocity 2022 is hosted by the City of Rotterdam and TU Delft. The theme this year is Urban Transformations for Nature-Based Solutions.
There are four themes which the sessions and workshops evolve around: Biodiversity, Circular City, Healthy City, and Resilient City. Some of the must-attend talks will be given by Dr. Nico Tillie, Urban Ecology and Ecocities Lab of TU Delft, Andy van den Dobbelsteen, Professor of Climate Design & Sustainability of TU Delft, Dr. Sahar Attia, Emeritus Professor of architecture and urban design at Cairo University, and Katharina Holscher, senior researcher at the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions.
Each edition of the Summit gathers some of the most talented, compassionate and hard-working professionals to carry out a design revolution: the city, town, and village built for people and nature. The Summit seeks to transform the way we inhabit planet Earth, and brings together people to discuss, refine, and energize the current vision.
Past Summits have featured a wide range of leaders and innovators, including environmentalists Severn Suzuki, David Brower, Paul Hawken, Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, former Vice President of the United States Al Gore, renowned architect and urban planner Jamie Lerner, former Mayor of Curitia, Brazil, architect/philosopher Paolo Soleri, and Denis Hayes, Director of the original National Earth Day.
The When: February 22 – 24, 2022; official time zone is Central European Time (CET)
The Where: Online. It’s not too late and you don’t need an airline ticket! Register here.
The Who: Calling all innovators and pioneers, engineers and planners, policy makers and administrators, professionals and business people, environmentalists and developers, teachers and students, as well as artists and designers. Each conference focuses on related themes pertaining to healthy and sustainable cities, towns and villages of the future — from theory and research, to the application and implementation of all things related to the ecological city.
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