Ecocities Now: Building the Bridge to Socially Just and Ecologically Sustainable Cities

This book presents a selection of the best papers submitted to the International Ecocity World Summit held in Vancouver, October 7-11, 2019. The objective is to accelerate knowledge dissemination about the development of ecocities through attention to what constitutes an ecocity, what cities around the world are doing, what Vancouver as an emerging ecocity is doing, and how education can play a role in preparing the next generation of ecocity practitioners.

The book uses the Summit’s overarching theme and sub-themes as an organizing framework and aligns with the International Ecocity Standards that serve as a diagnostic tool to help cities assess their progress on the path to becoming ecocities. The Ecocity Standards are also proving useful to communities in developing locally relevant pathways to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The book is presented in four parts that align with the Summit overarching theme of i) building a bridge to socially just and ecologically sustainable cities, supported by sub-themes of ii) climate action, iii) circular economy, and iv) informal solutions for sustainable development. Chapters comprising each part in the book are introduced by a brief precis that orients the reader to the relevant Ecocity Standards that are being addressed and other important contextual considerations that open the potential application of the chapters to an international audience.

Arguments presented in the selected papers provide an orientation to the importance of engaging people, where they live, in ecocity transformations as well as emerging opportunities for affordable and accessible technologies that help cities build capacity for implementation of ecocity initiatives.

Jennie Moore, Ph.D. is Director, Institute Sustainability at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and leads its Ecocity Centre of Excellence. She was the program convenor for the 2019 Ecocity World Summit and a founding coordinator of Vancouver’s EcoCity Network. She is a core advisor to the International Ecocity Standards and creator of the ecoCity Footprint Tool that helps cities and citizens identify pathways to sustainability. With over twenty years of public service, Dr. Moore was Metro Vancouver’s first Air Quality Planner in charge of climate action, first Demand Side Management Planner curbing consumption to address bioregional capacity, and first manager of the Sustainable Region Initiative developing a sustainability framework to guide regional plans. 

Sahar Attia, Ph.D. is Professor of Architecture, Urban Design and Planning in the Department of Architecture at the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, where she also previously served as Chair of the Architecture Department. She has forty years of experience practicing urban planning, community development, architecture, and urban design in the academic and professional field, and she is MD of Associated Consultants, Head of Planning /urban design and Community Development sector and also works as an Urban Development Consultant. Dr. Attia was a member of the Ecocity World Summit 2019 program committee and is on the Board of Directors of Ecocity Builders, the international not-for-profit organization that oversees the Ecocity World Summit conference series.

Adel Farid Abdel-Kader, Ph.D. is a senior executive advisor with over twenty-five years of experience in environment, sustainable development, and disaster risk reduction. He consults to governments, international organizations, industry, and not-for-profit organizations and was a member of the 2019 Ecocity World Summit program committee. He was CEO and founder of the Toronto-based Trend Green Knowledge Inc. Previously, Dr. Abdel-Kader worked at the United Nations Environment Program as Regional Coordinator, West Asia, Early Warning and Assessment and Acting Director, Regional Office for West Asia. Prior to that he was the Senior Regional Advisor and Head of the Environmental Information Unit at the Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe. 

Aparajithan Narasimhan is a practicing architect and Chairman and Managing Director of Madras Building Works Group, a conglomerate comprising an architectural design firm, a furniture manufacturing unit and an interiors retail store. He was a member of the 2019 Ecocity World Summit program committee and is on the Board of Directors of Ecocity Builders, the international not-for-profit organization that oversees the Ecocity World Summit conference series. Mr. Narasimhan has over 17 years of international experience and has worked on projects in India and the United States of America in residential, residential mixed-use, active-adult, senior living, health care and research laboratories, in both new construction and renovations, totalling a value of more than US$1.7 billion.