In the tradition of the Urban Sustainability Forum (hosted by the Academy of Natural Sciences) and Conversations Toward a Sustainable Philadelphia (hosted by the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia and Judy Wicks) we are pleased to introduce the 2nd installment of the Urban Regeneration Forum. This session is also doubling as a part of Temple University's Campus Sustaianbility Week, which this year has a focus on Resiliency.
Resilience and/or resiliency have become fairly common terms to hear in the sustainabililty, emergency response, and even general governmental discourse. For the most part these conversations focus on threats from climate change, or simply disaster response plans: in both cases they're generally aimed at establishing greater fortification of our infrastructure and housing. The question is typically framed something like "How do we engineer stronger cities that are able to persist despite adverse conditions?" and/or "How can we ensure the well-being of our most critical infrastructure systems and support our most vulnerable populations?"
These are good questions, but not sufficient... and ultimately locked in a pardigm that prevents us from attaining higher potential by way of systems that thrive and strengthen as they adapt to disruption. So in keeping with the R in URF, what would it mean to look at these issues through this new lens we're crafting, the lens of regenerative development?
Helping us to explore this will be our friend and colleague, keynote Jim Newman, a nationally-renowned thought leader in understanding Resilience through the lens of Regeneration. Join us for an explanation of the relationship of sustainability, resilience, and regeneration as concepts, and discussion of how to pursue the highest and best forms of them in concert.
This event will also feature a panel of local leaders, whom are already wading into this exploration on behalf of a regenerative future Philadelphia. Christine's, Felix's, Brett's, and Thomas's work represent at least three nested scales of planning in our region and we are thrilled to highlight their work!
Local leaders panel:
- Christine Knapp - Director of Sustainability, City of Philadelphia
- Felix Torres-Colon - Executive Director, NKCDC
- Brett Fusco - Manager, Office of Long-Range Planning, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC)
- Thomas Flaherty - Deputy Director for Planning and Policy, Energy Coordinating Agency (ECA)
Many thanks to Philly Fair Trade for their coffee sponsorship and to Temple's office of sustaianbility for donating snacks from Rad Dish for this event!
This event is possible thanks in part to collaboration with our international partners at: AASHE, CLEAR, Cloud Institute, ILFI, Linnean Solutions, and Regenesis;
our regional partners at The City of Philadelphia Office of Sustainability, Green Building United, and the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia;
and our local academic partners at Drexel University's Urban Strategy program, Temple University's Division of Architecture and Envioronmental Design, Penn Design's Center for Environmental Building and Design, Penn State at the Navy Yard, Villanova University Sustainability, The University of the Art's School of Design, and St. Joseph University's Pedro Arrupe Center for Business Ethics.
