BCIT

Centre for Ecocities

Helping build socially just cities in balance with nature

Archives for December 2020

2020 Year in Review

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Image of the Cover of the 2020 Year in ReviewWe are pleased to present the inaugural annual report from the BCIT Centre for Ecocities.

Our Mission is to help cities and communities close their sustainability gap. We deliver on our mission through applied research, education, and advisory services.

We achieved a great deal this year despite the onset of the global pandemic. We built partnerships, developed relationships, and worked with municipalities, students, faculty, and other collaborators to drive transformative change locally and globally.

We are excited to create new ways to serve cities, BCIT’s students and faculty, and others around the world who can benefit from ecocity focused applied knowledge and training. Whether through micro-credential courses or other accessible real-world learning, we see a path ahead filled with opportunities to help cities and their citizens achieve sustainability in all its dimensions.

Ecocities Now Book Released

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Ecocities Now: Building the Bridge to Socially Just and Ecologically Sustainable Cities

Image of the book cover for Ecocities Now.We are pleased to announce the publication of Ecocities Now. The purpose of the book is to publish the ten best papers submitted for presentation at the International Ecocity World Summit held in Vancouver, October 7-11, 2019. The objective is to accelerate knowledge dissemination about the development of ecocities through attention to what constitutes an ecocity, what cities around the world are doing, what Vancouver as an emerging ecocity is doing, and how education can play a role in preparing the next generation of ecocity practitioners.

The work uses the Summit’s overarching theme and sub-themes as an organizing framework and aligns with the International Ecocity Standards that serve as a diagnostic tool to help cities assess their progress on the path to becoming ecocities. The Ecocity Standards are also proving useful to communities in developing locally relevant pathways to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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World Soil Day

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World Soil Day Where Food Begins poster.December 5th, 2020 is World Soil Day – the United Nations Observance that celebrates healthy soils for a food-secure future. This years’ campaign “Keep soil alive, Protect soil biodiversity” focuses our attention on the workers that live in the soil – from tiny bacteria to agile millipedes and earthworms – all of which contribute to processes that are indispensable to life on Earth.

These days biodiversity loss is a worry – and soil is also affected. Soil is home to more than 25% of our planet’s biodiversity. There are more living creatures in a single teaspoon of healthy soil than there are people on Earth. Soil organisms are responsible for many critical ecosystem services, on which humans depend: from supporting plant growth, to storing carbon and being a vast reservoir for pharmaceuticals. But soil biodiversity is under pressure! Unsustainable soil management affects life below ground (from www.fao.org/world-soil-day).

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