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Biography |
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Prof. Herbert Girardet is co-founder and director of programmes of the World Future Council. He is leading consultant on sustainable development and a recipient of a UN Global 500 Award ‘for outstanding environmental achievements’. For many years he has focussed mainly on the challenges of sustainable urban development and he is often called the world’s leading urban ecologist. He has been a consultant to UNEP and UN-Habitat and has developed sustainability policies for major cities such as London and Vienna. In 2003 he was ‘Thinker in Residence’ in Adelaide, developing sustainable development strategies for South Australia. He has also been a senior adviser to the Dongtan Eco-City project on Chongming Island, Shanghai.
Herbert is author and co-author of 12 books and 50 TV documentaries for major broadcasters. He is an honorary fellow of Royal Institute of British Architects, a patron of the Soil Association, UK, and a visiting professor at University of the West of England. In 2004 Wiley-Academy published his book, CITIES, PEOPLE, PLANET – Urban Development and Climate Change. In 2007 he edited SURVIVING THE CENTURY – Facing Climate Change and other Global Challenges, published by Earthscan. He has recently completed A Renewable World – Energy, Ecology, Equality, which was published by Green Books, UK.
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Abstract |
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This urbanising world is becoming a great burden on Planet Earth. The bulk of its resources are consumed in cities and the bulk of its wastes emanates from them. A predominantly urban world needs to reconfigure the way its cities function. In my lecture I will show how we can create 'regenerative cities' that are designed to rekindle natural systems by the effective use of renewable energy, by new approaches to food production and by advanced methods of waste recycling and remanufacturing. Cities can only exist in the long term by a assuring a regenerative relationship to the world's ecosystem. My lecture is intended to show how we can make the necessary changes. |
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