1. Go to http://vote.riodialogues.org 2. Click on 'Your Vote' 3. Scroll to : Sustainable Cities and Innovation 4. Vote for: Promote global standards of sustainability for cities. 5. Share!
As the Earth's ecosystem and climate is rapidly reaching a "tipping point" it's becoming increasingly clear that we humans all have to pull together to turn the mothership around. Luckily, the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio (Rio+20) from June 20-22 (and the weeks leading up to it starting right now) is offering many great opportunities for people from all over the world to come together, build bridges, and draft a common path upon which all residents of this breathtakingly beautiful planet we call home can journey towards a sustainable and equitable future.Over the last few months I've been peripherally involved in the sometimes hopeful, sometimes frustrating, but always interesting process of midwifing the elusive and almost mythical outcome document that is supposed to become the collectively agreed upon blueprint for a prosperous, secure and sustainable future for people and planet. For the first time ever, rather than just leaving it to high level diplomats and heads of state to duke it out over how to solve the world's many interconnected problems, the UN decided to ask representatives from all areas of civil society, aka major groups, to participate in the process.
As such, Ecocity Builders, the organization I've been dreaming up cities that function like natural ecosystems with for many years, was invited to participate and chime in as part of the NGO Major Group cluster.
As some of you already know, I got to go to New York and look dapper in my Jerry Garcia tie, but since that is such a rare sight and as a little treat for voting for the 'Global Standards of Sustainability for Cities' at http://vote.riodialogues.org, a big thank you smile:
But really, for Ecocity Builders this process started three years ago when the groundwork was laid for a standards system that would measure and quantify the progress cities were making towards becoming more holistic in their approach to planning, The International Ecocity Framework and Standards initiative. A sort of a LEED ratings system for cities, this was something that everyone who knew how big of a role cities will have to play (70% of the world's population, poverty, huge CO2 emissions) in accomplishing anything resembling global sustainable development was clamoring for. In a nutshell, without some sort of a comprehensive methodology by which cities' progress toward becoming ecocities could be objectively assessed we would all just call ourselves "green" cities and the last sprawling seas of suburbia with a few solar roofs and a marketing budget turn the lights off on the planet.
When it became clear that the UN was finally going to get serious about cities and human settlements, including this paragraph in the zero draft...
We commit to promote an integrated and holistic approach to planning and building sustainable cities through support to local authorities, efficient transportation and communication networks, greener buildings and an efficient human settlements and service delivery system, improved air and water quality, reduced waste, improved disaster preparedness and response and increased climate resilience. ...we knew that we had just what they needed to actually follow through on establishing a set of concrete guidelines to building whole systems cities, should the nations of the world commit to that in the final outcome document. So we weren't just at these "informal informal" meetings in New York to talk about the change we wish to see, we had the goods to make those changes happen and we wanted the big fish to use them.But it wasn't as easy as just walking up to Ban Ki-moon and saying "yo bro, let's get this ecocity standards thing going." Instead, the UN is more like a labyrinth with all the exits blocked, you're just wandering and feeling your way around, bumping into the same people over and over, yet slowly but surely you begin to understand the flow, and then random lifelines seem to pop out of nowhere, and you just grab whatever you can get your hands on.
Kirstin and I in New York. The real heroine here is Ecocity Builders' ED Kirstin Miller, whose godlike patience and dogged determination led her to become the master of the labyrinth (the Zen UN Maze Master?) and in the process unearthed some of the right clues and accidentally hit some of the right buttons to the secret vaults of UNirvana.So, somehow our global standards of sustainability for cities made it onto the Rio+20 Dialogues online platform, survived the first rounds of voting, and now is in the Final 10 of the Sustainable Cities & Innovation category. If we're selected, our proposal can be delivered directly to Heads of State at Rio+20.
You know what to do. If you vote now, I promise there'll be more cool Rio+20 ecocity nuggets below the fallen Dutch snowman.
1. Go to http://vote.riodialogues.org 2. Click on 'Your Vote' 3. Scroll to : Sustainable Cities and Innovation 4. Vote for: Promote global standards of sustainability for cities. 5. Share!