Who is familiar with the IMAGINE foresight initiative and Energie-CItés, is familiar with the "One planet living" concept. Indeed, the London Borough of Sutton, membre of Energie-Cités and active participants to our annual IMAGINE seminars is currently engaged in the "One planet Sutton" project, which is for the borough a way to create, share and reach the vision of a sustainable and attractive future for its community.

In her post in World changing, Holly Pearson, a practising urban planner, tells us how she met Jennie Moore, a fellow alumna from the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning presently investigating the concept of a “One planet city” for her doctoral research.

A brief abstract of the questions Jennie's works adress is given here:

What can be done to restructure the physical form of cities? What strategies are available to reduce the footprint of a city, and how close can a city get to ecological sustainability or “one planet living”? The obvious solutions are to promote compact and mixed use urban development, district energy, local food production, and the like. But the potential for change through strategies like these is limited, given the fixed and usually unsustainable form of existing urban areas.

The second question relates to the social and cultural aspects of cities’ ecological impact – how do we, as city dwellers, become fair and equitable stewards of the planet in our patterns of consumption and production? When we’ve pushed physical city restructuring as far as it can go, what opportunities exist for changes in social behavior?

To read more:
World Changing: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/008537.html
Towards One planet living in sutton: http://www.oneplanetsutton.org/
The "One planet living" concet: http://www.oneplanetliving.org/

Press review including an online video game, the proceedings of the Changing the Change event and more urban sustainability.

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This is the title of the next Seminar organised in the Saline Royale of Arc et Senans on 19-20 November 2008.
“Factor 4”, “3x20”, “the 2000W society”… An increasing number of local authorities are expressing their intention to commit to such objectives and elected representatives are joining the “Covenant of Mayors ”. The explosion in energy prices has blown away any remaining doubts: our mode of development is definitely not sustainable. We need a complete change of direction! But how can we achieve this? What strategies should be implemented? What actors should be involved?
A baffling problem?
Yes, if we remain prisoners of our past and present habits. In this scenario, the slightest change is viewed as an insuperable obstacle. Discouragement is only a short step away and failure a certainty.
No, if we seize this opportunity to IMAGINE what our cities will be like in 2020 or within one generation; if we are able to build and share a vision for a desirable future; if we agree to redesign all our policies on the basis of the new paradigm. It is the road to success. However, we must change our methods to achieve this: old recipes will not work. In a democratic society, such a change of direction cannot be made without the support of citizens in their private, professional and voluntary capacities. We have a major challenge ahead of us!
This is why the theme of the 3rd IMAGINE seminar will be: Sharing a vision of a desirable future for my city.
The seminar aims to address the following issues:
- Why such a change course? What direction should we follow?
- How to build/share a vision of a desirable energy future in my city?
- What can I do to share this vision?