Green A City

Commonwealth Club Panel: How Green is Your City?

Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 2, I will be leading a panel from noon to 1 p.m. at the venerable Commonwealth Club in San Francisco ("The nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum") on our new book How Green is Your City? The SustainLane U.S. City Rankings.

Appearing with me will be the ever-entertaining Director of the Department of the Environment for San Francisco, Jared Blumenfeld--abandon your notions of a staid city bureaucrat--and Ian Kim from the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, which is leading up a "green collar" jobs program for the city.

It should be an enlightening discussion about the future of green cities, local jobs, economic development and clean tech in the 21st century, with representatives from the #2 city (San Francisco) and #5 city (Oakland) out of the largest 50 US cities profiled in How Green is Your City?

I'll be signing copies of the book and all three of us will field your questions. For those who can't make it because you're on the other side of the world, if you have any questions you want to post on this blog I'll try to ask them during tomorrow's panel.

How Green Is My City? The New Book

We just learned that we'll have a book out this spring: How Green Is Your City? The SustainLane US City Rankings.

New Society Press will be getting the book out in time for the spring season. It will include a foreword from one of the leading sustainability visionaries, as well as updated material on the US city sustainability rankings, which are a report card on the nation's largest 50 cities.

New Society is one of the continent's most inspired publishers on the topic of applied sustainability.

We think the book will be a big hit. Besides the high-level endorsements, more people want to know how cities are managing programs and projects that will impact future quality of life, including the regional economy. Whether it's green building, advanced public transportation or clean technology, sustainability is happening at the city level more than anywhere else. We studied more than 2,000 data and information points on the cities that make these and overall policy innovations measurable.

We'll be providing more details on how to get a copy of How Green Is My City? and how to arrange for us to present and facilitate a discussion about the topic in your city, whether it scored at the top or the bottom of the list.

In January, watch for more on the upcoming book on The Weather Channel's "Climate Code" show with Dr. Heidi Cullen, which will feature a segment on the SustainLane US City Sustainability Ranking.