Systainability in the City

This was the first persentation I attended at the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Environmental Studies. It was given by Spencer Finch of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council. Spencer is Director of Sustainable Development, Penn Environmental Council.

This is part of a series of presentations provided by Department of Earth and Environmental Science. There is a permanent link to the left University of Penn IES.

Date: April 09, 2008
Time: NOON - 1:30 pm
Place: Carolyn Hoff Lynch Auditorium
On the Penn campus: Chemistry Building; 34 & Spruce St

The presentation description was:

"Nicknamed by some the “world’s most sustainable mayor”, Jaime Lerner came to Philly in February of 2006 and was a major hit – a sell out audience packed the Academy of Natural Sciences, the mayor gave him the keys to the city, Lerner charmed Brenda Jorett on WHYY radio, and many in the non-profit, government, and private world were inspired into action.

But what has happened in Philadelphia and the region since then? Where are we today, compared to 2 years ago? Do changes in this urban environment matter – especially when compared to a species (or an entire habitat) going extinct in the middle of Amazon or of Indonesia; or to climate change being a potential threat to humans for generations to come?

What is sustainability – for you, for me, for us residents of Philadelphia and the region? How do you bridge the science and the politics, the passion and the resistance to change, the ideal and the doable? What is, after all, sustainability in the city? Jaime Lerner and his hometown of Curitiba, Brazil are a model. But can Philadelphia be one as well?

Come hear from Spencer Finch, an engineer and Penn alum who went from a private engineering firm to the non-profit sector – and join the dialogue!"

I was very impressed with the facility and the presentation.

The presentation started with a historical perspective. There were some great slides of Bridesburg vacation homes from long ago. Yes that is right. At one time there were homes along the Delaware River front that were vacation homes. People would retreat to thees places for a week end of fishing. I wish the slides were made available, they are truly wonderful.

I was really surprised to see this emphasis on changing the city. Having been born in Philadelphia and moving to the green suburbs as a child I always equated the city with ecological disaster. It was further reinforced when I moved to California and Florida, both environmentally orders of magnitude above an beyond then Philadelphia metropolitan area. However, this speaker spoke with great conviction and point to other organizations trying to move the city into a new direction.

Apparently Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York have made major commitments to be the greenest cities in the United States. The are 3 models that are being used to accomplish this goal:

1. Business Led Model
2. Political Legislative Led Model
3. Other based on Business, Legislation, Non-Profits

New York is an example of being a business led model. It is coming from the business community as self initiated efforts primarily in new construction projects. Chicago is an example of then mayor setting a green goal for the city and using legislation and other methods to achieve the goals. Philadelphia is a combination of New York and Chicago but adds the additional element of non-profits. Each city is able to point to some great accomplishment as an example. Philadelphia can point to the new Comcast building as being the tallest green building in the USA.

Some of the other links are:

Delaware Valley Green Building Council
Penn Future

The Road To Change - Stockton College

On Saturday April 5, 2008 there was an Environmental Educational Forum at Stockton College. This was an all day event that included workshops, presentations, and a special guest appearance of Ralph Nader. My daughter and I got signed copies of Ralph's book "The Good Fight - Declare Your Independence and Close the Democracy Gap". We attended 3 presentations before sitting down to hear Ralph Nader speak. I will describe one presentation because it was good and then Ralph Nader's presentation because it was great (I am not a Nader follower).

We attended a presentation called Climate Change: Science and Solutions. It was given by Andrew Huemmler a Lecturer from the Earth and Environmental Science Department University of Pennsylvania. The presentation description was:

"Within the last two years, public perception about climate change has shifted. Once viewed with skepticism by many, climate change is now on many people's agendas whether it be at a personal, organizational, or political scale. The science of climate change will be briefly reviewed. Emerging policy responses, particularly carbon "cap and trade" legislation will be summarized. Solutions suggested by putting a price on carbon emissions will be discussed."

Andrew was very knowledgeable and a very good presenter. The time flew much too fast and the thoughts stimulated exceeded the time allotted for questions and answers.

I was surprised to learn that a carbon market was created a few years ago in Europe. It eventually collapsed because the share of allotted carbon credits was to large. Apparently Europeans produce less carbon than was realized at the time the market was established. However this experience was invaluable for tuning the market in the future in Europe and then rolling it out to the USA.

Andrew mentioned that as we were gathered at this meeting people were working on millions of lines of software code in England and other countries for eventual roll out to the USA. He basically said not if but when. He mentioned that this would probably start to roll out to the USA in about 2-3 years. Andrew drew an analogy to the existing hydrogen sulfide market in the USA that has been successfully in place for decades.

The Ralph Nader presentation was definitely the highlight of the day. I never saw Ralph I only knew him from the popular media. Needless to say the media image in my head was wrong. This is a very intelligent articulate man who has lived a long time and has something to say that we should attempt to hear. He spoke for almost 2 hours without any notes and completely energized the audience which included people like my 20 something year old daughter. There was no rhetoric. There was only problem identification then possible solutions. The solutions were all based on what people have done through history. I was especially sensitized to this because of my recent completion of a study to use software to analyze global warming documents for content. In that process we used the Internet to find tools that people have used to solve problems. So I was shocked to hear Ralph basically affirm the study of document analysis and separating rhetoric from real content.

Some of the tools Ralph mentioned are: regulation, prosecution, quality competition, civil litigation, tort law, litigation, class action law suits, mobilized consumers, international cooperation, prevention, coalitions, building coalitions.

This was obviously from the perspective of a lawyer. It was very powerful when he asked the audience to raise their hands if they have been part of any law suit on either end. No one raised their hands. He then said everyone claims that the lawyers are out of control. If that is the case why were there no hands. He then eloquently made the case that litigation is a tool available to a free people and that tool is key to maintaining freedom. He went down a list of other examples and tools. He eventually pointed to a book that he wrote which lists tools that people can use to engage as citizens and said that he donated copies to the Stockton Library. This was fascinating because I had just completed software to analyze policy documents and I used it to analyze 3 policy documents.

On the way back from the conference my daughter had one comment which I will try to recreate.

Why all the carbon stuff, why not just do the right thing and build things that minimize carbon. Why do you have to give people incentives to do the right thing. Why not just give the money to people who build things to just go off and build them instead of wasting it on all these paper pushers. The world is complicated enough it needs to be made simpler.

So there you have it... a profound system thinking system engineering reaction to the day of fun.

These are links of note from the event:

Atlantic County Utilities Authority
New Jersey Water Watch