The synthesis of our last seminar has just been published. This year, it takes the form of 10 separate documents according to the different presentations and aspects of the seminar. You can read them independently or get a global view in the table of contents (here in English and French) and below:




1. About the seminar

Programme (en) (fr)
List of participants
Participants’ biographies
Photographs


2. Theoretical reflections

General presentation by Gérard Magnin, Energie-Cités Executive Director
“Daring to opt for challenges that are both sustainable and desirable” (en) (fr)
“The role of energy in the construction and uses of an urban territory”(en) (fr)


Speech by Guy Loinger, Professor at Paris 4 University
“What do we mean by foresight vision?”(en) (fr)


Speech by Dominique Bourg, Professor at Lausanne University
“Sustainable city, rejecting city” (en) (fr)

Round table discussion on foresight vision (en) (fr)


3. Testimonies, exchanges of practices and viewpoints

Speech by André Régani, former Deputy Mayor of Besançon
“Implementing a city traffic plan or how to remove obstacles to change.” (en) (fr)

Obstacles to change and obstacles to the construction of a shared territorial vision (en) (fr)

Some cities and their visions: Figueres (Spain), Greater Lyon (France) and Sutton (United-Kingdom). (en) (fr)


4. Tools and methods

Draft evaluation table of the steps towards implementing a shared territorial vision. (en) (fr)

A picture tells a thousand words: my sustainable and desirable city. (en) (fr)

Industrial chemical plants need lots of energy to run. Therefore these economics actors pay a particularly attention to energy future. Interesting for the IMAGINE concept is the approach of SOLVAY. This chemical company runs a large plant near Besancon, at Tavaux. Because of its size, the industry activities of this site are very much linked and integrated to the territory and within the local governance.

© Photography by Henri Bertand

As following of its commitment to sustainable development and as part of its long-term strategy, Solvay has been actively contributing to develop alternatives to fossil fuel in its own plants. In Tavaux, a co-generation project is being run, while a biomass fuelled power station is already active. In Germany, non-recyclable residues are used as fuel for a power station in the Bernburg plant.

Besides this, Solvay is also one of the main contributors to the SolarImpulse project, which is a long-range solar plane project currently under study. This project is being presented in an exhibition at the Saline Royal in Arc-et-Senans, where the IMAGINE annual seminars take place.

For more information on Solvay's approach to sustainability, click here.

The Danish foundation Realdania have asked the Scandinavian think-tank Monday Morning to create the Copenhagen Agenda for Sustainable Cities initiative, supported by the Danish Minister of the Environment.

Monday Morning asked 50 of the world’s most influential urban experts to share their thoughts about the key challenges facing urban leaders and to suggest a way forward. Representing all parts of the world and a wide range of disciplines, these experts agree that to make our cities sustainable, we need a radical change of mindset, new planning strategies and new methods of governance to support development and foster a new generation of urban leadership. The result of their considerations is to be found within 10 principles for sustainable urban governance presented in one publication.

To download the document, click here.

More information on this post: http://www.planetizen.com/node/27556

The interesting work of the American Post Carbon Institute is being translated at the urban level. This is being realised in the Post Carbon Cities Initiative.

Central to this approach is the publishing of the Post Carbon Cities guidebook. Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty is a guidebook on peak oil and global warming for people who work with and for local governments in the United States and Canada. It provides a sober look at how these phenomena are quickly creating new uncertainties and vulnerabilities for cities of all sizes, and explains what local decision-makers can do to address these challenges.

To read is also the blog run by the Post Carbon Cities Team.

Imagine partner, Munich, was the focus of a study in partnership with Siemens and the Wuppertal Institute aiming at looking upon the city's energy future.

Read more

German industry conglomerate, Siemens AG, approaches the urban sustainability dimension with a simple question. How can cities protect the environment and save money at the same time?

Siemens' activities brings mainly technological know-how to cities sustainability challenges. Technological solutions provided by Siemens' tools are mostly about energy savings and therefore about reducing costs. Siemens, for example, as infrastructure provider is contributing to London's sustainable mobility, but also works on buildings energy efficiency with the city of Berlin through energy saving contracting, or is developing cogeneration in New York.

On the company website, two studies are highlighted and go deep towards both London's future as well as Imagine partner's, Munich, paths toward a Carbon-Free Future. More on Munich sustainable future study on the next post.

A citizen led initiative for a cleaner energy eventually ended up as a proper green energy company.

Read more

Business in the energy sector is clearly concerned by the changing energy situation and its impacts on the environment.

Shell (Royal Dutch Shell) interestingly explore different scenarios, looking ahead the energy future until 2050. While opposing a scramble to a blueprint scenario, Shell shows that sustainability need important decisions to be taken as soon as possible and that in order to secure a working energy future, actors needs to act positively, and not only react to events.

What does the future of mobility look like? This is a relevant question to ask to the automobile industry and indeed, many constructors have engaged actively in this direction.

Read more

The US journal, the TIME, published a remarkable dossier in its March, 23, 2009 issue. The dossier, called '10 ideas changing the world right now' investigates possible changes responding to the global economy remake. 'When the old answers don't fit the new questions, that's when ideas happen', and this is also what we want the IMAGINE initiative to be about.

Three ideas out of the ten especially fit in the IMAGINE concept.

Recycling the suburbs - click here

Reinstating the interstate - click here

Ecological intelligence - click here

The Norwegian Ideas Bank Foundation presents an interesting website. The website hosts a database of ideas. More precisely, these ideas are innovative projects that promote environmental sustainability, global justice and/or democratic community development.

Most of these examples are from Denmark, Norway or Sweden. They involve various actors, mainly at the local level - including municipalities, businesses, community groups and individual "fiery spirits".

To take a look at the website and browse the database: http://www.idebanken.no/english/main.html