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Planet-Profit Report, reporting on sustainable development in the Western United States.

“Meeting of the Minds” was a sustainable success

The focus: transportation, buildings and technology

Urban Age’s fifth annual Meeting of the Minds, a sustainable city conference, was held in Boulder, Colo.,  in late September. The three-day conference brought together more than 250 participants from around the globe to share innovative ideas and best practices aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of cities. If you were unable to attend, most of the presentations are available on line here.

The conference focused on three key topics: transportation, buildings and technology.

The second panel discussion of the conference, Changing Cities-Changing Cars addressed real world solutions for immediate carbon reduction capabilities. Executive representatives from research and development at Toyota, along with MIT Labs, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Mercedes Benz and BYD America stole the show with their vehicles. The conversation went beyond electric vehicles, examining broader issues associated with cars, buses and fleets such as short and long term parking, car sharing, utility truck idling  and social usage of mass transportation. The global conference perspective provided cultural insights into why some regions of the world are faster to adopt transportation technologies than other regions.

As the largest producer of carbon in an urban environment, the transportation challenge must be addressed. The one-person-per-vehicle model is unsustainable. In addition to taxing the environment with excessive tailpipe emissions hundreds of hours of personal time are lost each year for each driver due specifically to vehicle related issues including traffic snarl ups, maintenance and repair, even locating a parking space.

Solutions offered to the transportation challenge included expanding mass transit opportunities; smaller, lighter vehicles; vehicle sharing models instead of ownership, batteries to support the bucket portion of utility vehicles rather than idling all day; and smart vehicles that drove themselves allowing the navigator to continue to work as the vehicle carried the passenger to the destination. The creative transportation solutions presented in this panel demonstrates the innovative thinking taking place around the world necessary to develop a comprehensive portfolio of solutions to meet the urban transportation dilemma.

Buildings are another high carbon producer. Representatives from Deutsche Bank, Jones Lang LaSalle, Philips and Urban Land Institute addressed the positive impacts of building retrofits. As has been noted numerous times, energy efficiency is the most effective way to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.

The Empire State Building is the poster child of retrofitting, having received Energy Star certification in 2010 and LEEDs Gold certification in 2011. For details on the retrofit, the financials, and free replicable tools and processes, go here. According to the panelists, each building must be closely scrutinized for retrofitting candidacy. Financing is available for retrofits when structured decision tools are used to determine the energy efficiency gains relative to the proposed improvements.

The technology thread came up in every conversation and panel discussion.

The conference organizers used Cisco Systems’ high definition TelePresence for panelist participants in Washington D.C., Rome, and Amsterdam. Meeting of the Minds also enabled web streaming for many of the sessions to allow anyone to participate from anywhere with an Internet connection.

Other examples of technology at the conference included: sensors and GPS embedded in smart cars to automatically prevent collisions and find the most efficient routes; smart meters on the home to educate homeowners on power usage by appliance and time of day; sensors on windows to allow or block sun light to reduce heating and air conditioning requirements. Technology devices, software and applications are enablers to monitor, measure and modify power usage from the personal level up through an urban environment.