BCIT

Centre for Ecocities

Helping build socially just cities in balance with nature

BCIT Centre for Ecocities receives international award of recognition for its positive impact

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Ecocity Builders and the Centre have received the 2020 Incredible Impacts Award, presented collaboratively by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) and the BestCities Global Alliance.

Ecocity Builders Logo.      Centre for Ecocities Logo.

The Incredible Impacts Award celebrates international conference legacy initiatives that lead as examples of excellence within the global meetings industry and serve as a platform for positive societal impact beyond the conference. The Centre for Ecocities is a legacy of the Ecocity World Summit 2019 (Summit) and is committed to support the vision of Ecocity Builders, the owners of the Summit Series, to provide tools and training to cities locally, and around the world, to help them become ecologically healthy. As one of three award recipients this year, the Centre is recognized for its innovation and impact made in areas of sustainability, accessibility, and ecology. This award also marks the Centre’s first international award of recognition.

Read more at BCIT News.

BCIT Centre for Ecocities Director Jennie Moore joins UN-Habitat Taskforce for the creation of a Global Urban Monitoring Framework.

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Image of Jennie Moore sitting on the Sustainable Development Goal 11 cube for Sustainable Cities and Communities.Dr. Jennie Moore has joined the Global Monitoring Framework Task Team, an UN-Habitat coordinated task force to assist in development of a Global Urban monitoring Framework for SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

The framework will be an important contribution to international standards and methods for the compilation of urban/city level statistics and data. It aims to harmonize existing urban indexes and tools, to propose an agreed universal framework to measure the urban SDGs and the New Urban Agenda (NUA). It will also serve as a monitoring tool for the UN-Habitat Flagship Program SDG Cities and be a very useful tool for the preparation of Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) and preparation of urban data for the Common Country Assessments with the UN Country Teams.

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Upcoming Webinar: ecoCity Footprint Tool Pilot Testing Results

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Image from Carbon Reduction Through Sustainable Consumption & Lifestyles Workshop at Ecocity World Summit 2019.

Carbon Reduction Through Sustainable Consumption & Lifestyles Workshop

Join us in November to learn more about the ecoCity Footprint Tool and Lighter Footprint App. We will provide an overview of results from testing the Tool with 10 British Columbia municipalities and demonstrate the App. The App uses output data from the Tool to support individuals interested in learning about how they can reduce their personal carbon and ecological footprints.

November 2 from 9:30-11:00 am PT

Register here

Earth Overshoot Day 2020: COVID-19 contracted our environmental footprint by three weeks.

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Image of cut logs in front of forest for Earth Overshoot Day 2020.When you think about global pandemics and environmental catastrophes, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and discouraged.

But Dr. Jennie Moore is both optimistic  — albeit cautiously — and practical when discussing the impacts of COVID-19 and the health of the planet.

“How do we pivot now, and make sure we don’t recreate mistakes that put us back on an unsustainable trajectory?” says Jennie, Director of Institute Sustainability at British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT).

Read more on how the pandemic has shifted Earth Overshoot Day 2020 3 weeks in the latest BCIT News story.

International Youth Day Aug 12 2020

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Youth and Informal Settlements: Engagement for Global Action Online Summit

International Youth Day poster.Please join our Dr. Jennie Moore and UN-Habitat Youth for a Youth Virtual Online Summit to hear from youth leaders and their adult supporters who are taking action to keep our communities healthy on Wednesday August 12th at 8AM (EST).

Host Organizations

  • Ministry of Environment and Urbanization of Turkey
  • United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)
  • Balıkesir Municipality, Turkey
  • Habitat Norway

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the world’s most vulnerable people the hardest, including the one billion people living in informal settlements and slums worldwide. These areas are densely populated with inadequate water and sanitation, little or no waste management, overcrowded public transport and limited access to formal health care facilities. It is very difficult for people to follow many of the suggestions by the WHO such as socially distancing, and masks can sometime be an extra burden on already low incomes.

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We’re hiring a Student Researcher

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Ecocity Centre Student Researcher

Ecocity Centre Director Dr. Jennie Moore has been awarded a grant from the Social Science and
Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The project will explore how living within the Earth’s carrying
capacity can be measured and managed at the city scale. The purpose is to understand how a handful of
high-consuming cities around the world are achieving absolute reductions in energy and material
throughput and how this could be translated into policy and action in Canadian cities.

Research will include discovering which cities are achieving reductions in energy and materials
throughput as measured by greenhouse gas reductions, material footprint, ecological footprint, and
urban metabolism studies (energy/material flows). The student researcher will then compile data on
which evaluation frameworks, metrics, governance models, and policies these cities are using. Initial
search terms and other guidance will be provided but the researcher should have well-developed critical
thinking and analysis skills and be able to undertake independent work from their home or other remote
location.

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Dr. Jennie Moore Awarded SSHRC Grant

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Picture of Dr. Jennie Moore.Ecocity Centre Director Dr. Jennie Moore has been awarded a grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) through its Knowledge Synthesis Grant program. The project will explore how living within the Earth’s carrying capacity can be measured and managed at the city scale. The purpose is to understand how a handful of high-consuming cities around the world are achieving absolute reductions in energy and material throughput and how this might be translated into policy and action in Canadian cities.

Work will be conducted in conjunction with co-applicant, Claudiane Ouellet-Plamondon of École de technologie supérieure at the Université du Québec. Other collaborators include UBC Professor Emeritus, W.E. Rees, originator of the ecological footprint concept and co-developer of ecological footprint analysis, David Lin of the Global Footprint Network, and Alastair Moore, a registered professional planner with expertise in creating one-planet cities and Director of think-and-do-tank One Earth.

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Happy Earth Day!

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This is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a day of action to empower people with the information and tools they need to make the world healthier, safer, more just and sustainable.

To celebrate, we are posting the Keynote video recordings from the Ecocity World Summit, held recently in Vancouver. If you missed them in person, now is your chance to take them in for free.

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