MQ

Our city was hit with an amazing influx of ideas and energy last week – the Gaining Ground/Resilient Cities conference was in town.  Over 750 registrants (the biggest GG ever) and a resounding success in terms of ideas exchanged, emotions stirred and actions at the top of mind.

Sad for me, I missed a great deal of the conference – trying to touch down on all the other events that were also happening last week that were important to me.  But here are some general tid-bits – and then I’ll do two specific blogs – one on the Bold New Economy Panel and one on the GCAT panel.

High points that I heard…

Gene Miller (conference host and sustainability impresario)

• Good citizens are the riches of the city.
• Cities are places where real change can happen.
• It’s about fostering conversation among citizens.
• Integrative thinking is key.
• Why can’t Vancouver be the sustainability learning capital of North America?

Rob Abbott (conference moderator and director of sustainability stratos inc.)

• The future is created and the act of creating requires courage.
• Sustainability is not a problem to be solved, but a future to be created.
• Our patterns of city growth must change with low carbon, community based solutions.

Paul Hawkin (environmentalist, entrepreneur and author – Blessed Unrest)

• Resiliency = eco-system thinking.
• It’s about resilient cities (cities are inherently resilient) in a brittle world.
• It’s about re-imagining our cities.
• Cities are the level of sovereignty that can be effective re: climate change
• It’s a challenge around literacy – perceptions about the environment – the trivialization of the issues – as if using towels twice is going to solve the issue.
• Herman Daly:  We are using more of what we have less of (resources); and using less of what we have more of (people).  What is wrong?
• Who we are is defined by each other.

All of the conference presentations should be up on the web-site in the next week or so at www.gaininggroundsummit.com