Get ready to change the world!

Throughout Earth Day Week, April 22-26, 2008 in San Francisco, California, the Ecocity World Summit (7th International Ecocity Conference) will be convening an international community of inspired change-makers; courageous individuals who are addressing problems of the world's environment with thoughtful long-range solutions that are truly sustainable, ecologically healthy and socially just.

The International Ecocity Conference Series brings together the key innovators, decision makers, technologists, businesses and organizations shaping the conversation around ecological and sustainable city, town and village design, planning and development. We intend to put these issues on the economic and environmental agenda for 2008 and beyond.

THEMES

• People: population, health, equity, and access
• Nature: protecting and restoring the planet’s living systems and agricultural lands
• Sustainable Development: land use, transportation, architecture and infrastructure
• Economies & Technologies: building the supporting markets, businesses and technologies
• Incentives & Support Structures: role of government, organizations, institutions and individuals

The time to act is now. Life-threatening global environmental problems and limitations on resource consumption demand a restructuring of cities and transportation systems worldwide for long-term energy efficiency and conservation. Concerned citizens in every community - in every city, town and village - must get involved in formulating and implementing new land use and transportation policies and practices, preserving agricultural lands and open space, and reclaiming natural habitat.

INFO

The Seventh International Ecocity Conference (Ecocity World Summit) will be held in San Francisco during the week of Earth Day, 2008. This world-renowned conference follows the first, held in Berkeley in 1990, and five subsequent conferences in South America, Australia, Africa and Asia. The conference series addresses the way humanity builds its home – it's cities, towns and villages. The Ecocity World Summit will focus on key actions cities and citizens can take to rebuild our human habitat in balance with living systems, and, in the process, slow down and even reverse global heating, biodiversity collapse, loss of wilderness habitat, agricultural lands and open space and social and environmental injustices.

Bottom line: We want to unite people around a new way of living on the planet that provides the best possible cities for people to live in without destroying the biosphere.


SPEAKERS

Lois Arkin, Founder, Los Angeles Ecovillage
Dr. Sahar Attia, Professor of Planning and Urban Design, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
David Beach, Founder and Executive Director, EcoCity Cleveland
Lalit Bhati, Architect, urban planner, spokesperson for Auroville, India
Rajiv Bhatia, MD, MPH. Director, Occupational & Environmental Health, San Francisco Department of Public Health
Joan Bokaer, Eco-visionary, co-founder, Ecovillage at Ithaca, NY
Wendy Brawer, Ecological designer and networker, Green Map System founder
Ernest Callenbach, Author of visionary novel Ecotopia
Stuart Cohen, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition (TALC)
Betsy Damon, Executive Director, Keeper of the Waters
Paul Downton, Principal Architect and Urban Ecologist, Ecopolis Architects, Australia
Debra Efroymson, Regional Director, HealthBridge, Bangladesh
India Flint, (eco)fashion designer, cloth colourist & costumiere, Australia
Gil Friend, Systems ecologist and business strategist, founder, president and CEO of Natural Logic, Inc.
Gwendolyn Hallsmith, Founder and Executive Director, Global Community Initiatives
Phil Hawes, Project Director, Global EcoVillage Development Company
John Holtzclaw, Director of Sierra Club Challenge to Sprawl Campaign, San Francisco
Dr. Jeffrey Kenworthy, Professor in Sustainable Cities, Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy at Murdoch University in Western Australia
Pierre Laconte, Foundation for the Urban Environment, Belgium, President, International Society of City and Regional Planners
Jaime Lerner, Renowned architect and urban planner, former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, co-founder of IPPUC (Institute of Urban Planning and Research of Curitiba)
Sylvia McLaughlin, Co-founder, Save the San Francisco Bay Association, Berkeley
Gabriel Metcalf, Executive Director, San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR)
Bernard Otoki Moirongo, Professor, National School of Architecture and Planning, Kenya
Dr. Tadeusz Patzek, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley
Dr. Raquel Rivera Pinderhughes, Professorof Urban Studies, San Francisco State University
Michael Pollan, Professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006), The Botany of Desire (2001), A Place of My Own (1997), and Second Nature (1991)
Rick Pruetz, Specialist in transfer of development rights and related planning/preservation tools
Richard Register, President, Ecocity Builders, author of Ecocities, Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature (2006)
Maria Rosario, Senior Architect and Planner for the Latin America Region at PADCO/AECOM in Washington DC.
Prof. Sundarshan Tiwari, Architect and City Historian, Nepal
Dr. Mathis Wackernagle, Executive Director, Global Footprint Network, co-founder of the Ecological Footprint Analysist
Isabel Wade, SF Neighborhood Parks Council Executive Director
Liz Walker, Co-founder of Ecovillage at Ithaca, Ithaca, New York
Rusong Wang, President, Ecological Society of China
Curtis White, American essayist, author of The Spirit of Disobedience: Resisting the Charms of Fake Politics, Mindless Consumption, and the Culture of Total Work (PoliPointPress, 2006)
Ken Yeang, Eco-architect, Malaysia, England

STRUCTURE

A 2-day Academic Conference will precede the Ecocity World Summit Main Conference. Students, innovators and researchers from around the world will present their best ecocity solutions for review and discussion, an excellent way to bring forward new and up-to-date ideas.
Next, the 3-day Ecocity World Summit Main Conference, with top international plenary speakers, experts, authors, and breakout sessions. Tours, cultural events, party and SF Bay dinner/dance cruise.


CALL FOR PAPERS

The Call for Papers for the Academic and Talent Scouting Sessions is open. Those interested should submit their Abstract through the Ecocity World Summit Website.

Categories:

Ecological city theory, design and planning (emphasizing moving away from or eliminating the automobile)
Green architecture, green building (placed within the ecocity framework)
Eco sanitation, composting, water treatment
Transportation (emphasizing moving away from the automobile)
Renewable energy solutions
Restoration of natural ecologies including watersheds, water bodies, forests and grasslands
Restoration and protection of agricultural lands
Recycling and reuse
Pollution abatement
Population stabilization
Resource management
Education, lifestyles, culture
Policy and law, governance
Public/private partnerships
Belief systems, religion and ecological ethics
Psychological barriers and means to surmount them in life-style change issue
*You may also submit a proposal underneath a different topic for approval
 
The deadline to submit an Abstract for consideration is November 10, 2007. However we encourage you to make your entry as early as possible.



To register for the conference, click here