Monday the 5th of October, I was one of the many students who came to listen the first lecture of oikos Academy Fall 2015. It was not very hard to find the right lecture hall since the long queue was showing the right direction. I am new in Copenhagen so it was interesting for me to hear what are the ideas behind Copenhagen’s desire to be the forerunner of sustainability. And here are some notes from the lectures.
Dr. Luise Noring (Head of Urban Sustainability at CBS) talked about “Sustainable urbanization”. More and more people are going to move to live in cities. On the one hand urbanization is good for the economic growth but on the other hand it also promotes the carbon growth in a cities. Delaying or postponing sustainable policies and investments are dangerous because above all the climate changes are mostly felt in cities. That is why the cities are the leaders of sustainable innovations. “Living in a sustainable city does make you more happy!”
I can relate to her point that people are cities and recourse dependent, especially in the USA where car is the key to survive in some areas. I noticed that myself in one summer when I was selling educational study materials door-to door in Mississippi – one young mother told be that she cannot go to university since she does not have a car. And apparently there was no public transport connection and you would not cycle 50 miles in a highway.
Jacob Hartmann (Senior Advisor at City of Copenhagen) introduced us the CPH 2025 Climate Plan. It is not a secret that Copenhagen is one of the forerunners of sustainability and not only because of the fact that citizens prefer bicycle/public transport to the car. The whole idea is basically “to keep the next generations without wet shoes”. The new plan also includes building 100 windturbines, reducing 20% of heating consumption in buildings in Copenhagen, making 75% of all trips on foot, bicycle or by public transport etc.
And again my mind went on a little trip – this time to China. I was in Shanghai for an exchange and I would have never thought that blue sky is such a precious thing since I saw it only about couple times per month due to the air pollution. Furthermore it was recommended to check the air pollution index before going for a run. It may happen that the app will tell you better stay indoor and close all the windows.
BONUS MATERIAL
Here is the link if you are a full time Master Degree student and want to take an elective course about sustainable urban development in a summer and spend 2 weeks in New Delhi or Beijing.
http://greeninnovationincities.dk/
And if you are competitive look up some more information about Green tech challenge 2015.
See you in the next Lectures:
- 20th of October – “Culture & Livability” (Dr. Deane Simpson, Associate Professor of Architecture at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and Christian Pagh, Founder and Culture Designer at Urgent Design Agency)
- 3rd of November – “Green Technology” (Kurt O. Nielsen, City Account Manager at Siemens A/S)
- 11th of November – “International context” (Henrik R. Seiding, Executive Director at Rambøll Management Consulting)
… and do not forget to try out some Pakistan Chicken meanwhile! 🙂
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