Kent Portney's "Our Green Cities" Blog

New Challenges in Solid Waste Management

One of my students, Casey Strong, alerted me to a recent article in the Economist magazine on the state of solid waste management around the world.  Check out the story called "Talking Rubbish."

This story doesn't deal specifically with cities, but obviously the issue is one that has significant effect on cities' efforts to try to become more sustainable.  Let me know what you think about this article, and if you know of anything like this that relates specifically to cities, I'd love to know about it.

Tufts Global Cities Symposium

Congratulations to the Tufts EPIIC program on "Cities: Forging an Urban Future" -- including its Director, Sherm Teichman and all of the terrific students who worked on last weekend's events. This represented an amazing collection of people and talent from around the world, and a large number of these people have been involved with sustainable cities projects and research for a long time. At the risk of leaving people out, it was a real experience to hear from Peter Droege, Director of Solar City, International Energy Agency; Chair, World Council for Renewable Energy, Asia Pacific; and author of The Renewable City: A Comprehensive Guide to an Urban Future and Urban Energy Transition: From Fossil Fuels to Renewable Power. Peter led a breakout session focusing on Masdar, the planned city in the United Arab Emirates, initiated by Abu Dhabi. I also enjoyed hearing Joan Fitzgerald, from Northeastern University, who spoke about the various forms of economic development pursued in the context of sustainable cities. 

I was fortunate to have been able to lead one of the breakout sessions, with my subject being "Sustainable Cities, Governance, and Political Will," where about a dozen participants and I talked extensively about what it takes to create the political will to pursue sustainability.

New "Our Green Cities" web site

If you haven't already visited our new "Our Green Cities" web site, please check it out.  My sister has done a terrific job of moving to this new site. We still have quite a lot of work to do to tailor the format of the materials to the new format of the site, but we're working on it almost daily.  As always, if there is anything you'd like to see posted there, just send me a note.

Sustainable Cities Rankings in Canada

The newest rankings of Canadian cities has been recently published, and these rankings show that among larger cities, Edmonton and Toronto are the most sustainable.  Among medium sized cities, Halifax and Quebec are the top of the list. And among small cities, Yellowknife and Saskatoon are tops.  These rankings are found in an article called "Green Space: CK's Third Annual Sustainable Cities Ranking" by Melissa Shin. 

Green Cities in Florida

In case you haven't seen this and you are interested in green cities developments in Florida, there is going to be a conference called "GreenCitiesFlorida," to be held in Orlando from May 19 through 21, 2009.  This conference should provide a nice opportunity for those interested in knowing more about what is happening in Florida, and to get a sense of what future steps can be taken there.  Check the conference web site at http://greencities.com/usa/florida/orlando/2009.

Apparently future GreenCities conferences are being planned for Charlotte and New York City.

Thanks to the Greater Manchester Chamber

I just wanted to post a note to thank the people at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and others in Manchester for the terrific event they held on February 10.  I would single out Barry Brensinger of Levallee and Brensinger Architects, who served as the chair of Chamber's dinner committee, and Robin Comstock, the Chamber's Executive Director, for their hospitality.  In talking to Mayor Guinta, and the many other people who were at the dinner, it is clear not just that Manchester is ready to embark on a serious effort to grow their green economy, but also that the Chamber of Commerce is ready to serve as the catalyzing force to help make that happen.  On Wednesday morning, I got to meet with about 30 business, government, and nonprofit leaders, and they are all on the same page.  We should all look forward to seeing rapid progress in the near future.