Reimagining Sustainable Cities: Strategies for Designing Greener, Healthier, More Equitable Communities -- Virtual Event on Zoom
with authors Stephen M. Wheeler and Christina D. Rosan with Louise Mozingo, Chair and Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning (UC-Berkeley), moderated by Professor Christopher Jones, Director of CoolClimate Network (UC Berkeley)

This program is virtual, on Zoom

Cosponsored by AIA-SF

What would it take to make urban places greener, more affordable, more equitable, and healthier for everyone? In recent years, cities have stepped up efforts to address climate and sustainability crises. If communities are to thrive in the future, we need to quickly imagine and implement an entirely new approach to urban development: one that is centered on equity and rethinks social, political, and economic systems as well as urban designs. With attention to this need for structural change, Reimagining Sustainable Cities advocates for a community-informed model of racially, economically, and socially just cities and regions. The book aims to rethink urban sustainability for a new era.

In Reimagining Sustainable Cities, Stephen M. Wheeler and Christina D. Rosan ask big-picture questions of interest to readers worldwide: How do we get to carbon neutrality? How do we adapt to a climate-changed world? How can we create affordable, inclusive, and equitable cities? While many books dwell on the analysis of problems, Reimagining Sustainable Cities prioritizes solutions-oriented thinking—surveying historical trends, providing examples of constructive action worldwide, and outlining alternative problem-solving strategies. Wheeler and Rosan use a social ecology lens and draw perspectives from multiple disciplines. Positive, readable, and constructive in tone, Reimagining Sustainable Cities identifies actions ranging from urban design to institutional restructuring that can bring about fundamental change and prepare us for the challenges ahead.

Stephen M. Wheeler is a Professor in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of California, Davis. His previous books include Planning for Sustainability, The Sustainable Urban Development Reader (co-edited with Timothy Beatley), and Climate Change and Social Ecology. He is a Switzer Fellow and winner of the Dale Prize for Excellence in Urban and Regional Planning.

Christina D. Rosan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia. Her books include Governing the Fragmented Metropolis: Planning for Regional Sustainability, Growing a Sustainable City?: The Question of Urban Agriculture (with Hamil Pearsall), and Planning Ideas That Matter (co-edited with Bishwapriya Sanyal and Lawrence Vale).

Louise Mozingo is Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning. She is a member of the Graduate Group in Urban Design of the College of Environmental Design and Director of the American Studies program of the College of Letters and Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. She was named a Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor of Undergraduate and Interdisciplinary Studies in 2017. A former Associate and senior landscape architect for Sasaki Associates, Prof. Mozingo joined the department after a decade of professional practice. In 2009 she became the founding director of a research interdisciplinary team at the College of Environmental Design, the Center for Resource Efficient Communities (CREC) dedicated to supporting resource efficiency goals through environmental planning and urban design.

Christopher Jones (Moderator) is Director of the CoolClimate Network, a university-government-industry partnership at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lecturer at the Haas School of Business. His primary research interests are carbon footprint analysis, community-scale greenhouse gas mitigation, environmental psychology and environmental policy.Jones lead the development of the first carbon footprint calculators to account for the greenhouse gas emissions of all transportation, energy, food, goods and services purchased by households and businesses. This comprehensive method, called “consumption-based greenhouse gas accounting,” powers a suite of online tools that allow households, businesses and communities to estimate their complete carbon footprints, compare their results to similar users, and develop personalized climate action plans to reduce their contribution to climate change. Versions of these tools have been adopted by governments, businesses and non-governmental organizations throughout the United States and internationally. CoolClimate also develops and evaluates programs to engage, educate, motivate and empower individuals to take climate action. Examples include the Cool Campus Challenge and the CoolCalifornia Challenge. He also serves as Program Chair of the Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Conference.

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