CREATING SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES: large scale low impact.
Session Tracks:
REDUCING THE REGION’S FOOTPRINT
This track will explore the options for reducing our carbon and ecological footprint even as we continue to grow and consume. Speakers will explore ways to measure and reduce our footprint at the scale of buildings, sites, communities, cities or the entire region. Strategies discussed may include energy efficiency, renewable energy, carbon sequestration, transportation and urban planning and design. What special challenges does the Gulf Coast region face as a result of our hot humid climate? How can we reverse the carbon clock?
IMPLEMENTING BREAKTHROUGH SOLUTIONS
This track will highlight the latest technologies and innovative strategies in green building and community and urban design. Topics may include renewable energy, revolutionary materials, lifecycle assessment, tools for performance measurement, inventive construction methods, and HVAC, electrical and other engineering innovations.
ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES
This track will focus on passive, low-tech and low cost solutions to green building and urban planning design challenges. Is it possible to design an entire urban area in a way that will allow it to be passively cooled and daylit in a hot/humid climate? What historical, current, or simulated models of urban design can help us to answer this question? How can lessons from nature inform design decisions? What can we learn from Gulf Coast vernacular architecture and planning to inform contemporary green architecture?
SMART PLANNING FOR INEVITABLE GROWTH
This track will address the challenge of responsible planning to accommodate the predicted growth of the region. Smart planning may address increasing population, energy and resource management, agriculture, transportation, natural disasters such as flooding, infrastructure and pollution. How can cities in the Gulf Coast region constantly adapt themselves to rapid changes? What urban planning strategies can be implemented that are sustainable and yet economically viable? Will existing infrastructure be able to serve our future needs?
Contact Hayley Pallister at [email protected] with questions.
