Green Cities 2011, Melbourne

The Green Cities conference, has for me mostly focused on green buildings due to the emphasis on the built form, however this year it evolved. Whilst the last couple of years has seen the focus growing toward city design, this year saw it promoting green communities alongside the development of the green communities rating tool.

Green Cities 2011 is the annual conference run by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) and the Property Council to promote sustainable built environment best practice for and from industry. There were a number of notable key speakers, representing best practice case studies, research and notions around communities however local speakers were again limited to sponsors and GBCA personnel.

Attendance was, as always, a good representation of the stalwarts and industry experts, and therefore the participation and networking opportunities were plentiful. Notable presentations included London Olympics 2012 by Dan Epstein, ideas on Mumbai by Jeb Brugmann, health and productivity by Esther Sternberg and notions of sustainable communities by Michael Greene.

Green Cities 2011 is all about the community and how we live in it, in the developed cities / world (planned /democratic?) and the unplanned or third world cities/countries, which not surprisingly can also be extremely well planned from the community’s perspective. Ultimately the conference was however about the people within communities, their culture and climatic context, the resources available and the economy past present and future. This was complimented by discussions around the Green Communities Tool development.

My take home bytes were:
_It takes seven years to affect cultural change (really?); and

_Our future focus must be design for communities rather than individuals.