Future Cities Summit Ties Sustainability, Social Equity, Clean Energy and Scale
by RP Siegel
The Greentopia Future Cities Summit, which took place last week in Rochester, NY, gave a thoughtful look at some of the potential opportunities for cities in the future, and what kinds of steps might be required to get us there. These were presented by a number of knowledgeable experts who have been considering these issues and developing approaches for some time.
Most of our cities were not so much designed in advance as thrown together somewhat haphazardly as populations grew. If there was a guiding principle, for many that was accommodation of the automobile. It’s time, says Michael Philipson, co-founder of Greentopia, “to disrupt people’s thinking – get them to critically analyze everything that is happening in our city.”
Jessica Millman works with NRDC’s Green Neighborhoods program. You might think that NRDC was only interested in protecting forests and rivers. But given that more then 80% of Americans now live in cities and their surrounding suburbs, the impact of cities on the planet is tremendous. So, “by focusing on urban areas, NRDC can tackle the interconnected challenges of climate change and community vitality side-by-side.” Not only that, but cities are also home to the highest rates of income inequality in the country.
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RP Siegel, author and inventor, shines a powerful light on numerous environmental and technological topics. He has been published in business and technical journals and has written three books. His third, co-authored with Roger Saillant, is Vapor Trails, an eco-thriller that is being adapted for the big screen. RP is a professional engineer – and a prolific inventor, with 50 patents, numerous awards, and several commercial products. He is president of Rain Mountain LLC and is an active environmental advocate in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. In addition to Justmeans, he writes for Triple Pundit, ThomasNet News, and Energy Viewpoints, occasionally contributing to Mechanical Engineering, Strategy + Business, and Huffington Post.
