Blog  September 8, 2011

Brick Works Forum: Mapping the Sustainable City

(Photo: Kourosh Javidi)

For the past two years, the annual Brick Works Forum on Leadership, Innovation and Sustainability has attracted leading thinkers and innovators from around the world in an effort to foster a sustainable economy.

This year’s Forum on September 29, 2011, is made possible with support from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, and from presenting sponsors, Holcim and Walmart.

Discussions will be open-ended and imaginative, but also grounded in practical reality. Panelists will focus on the “wicked” problems faced by cities around the world, including rapidly growing populations, climate change, crumbling infrastructure and declining resources, as well as ongoing challenges such as transportation, water and energy.

Forum participants hold roundtable discussions. (Photo: Kourosh Javidi)

Internationally acclaimed author and lecturer Jeremy Rifkin will kick off the Forum as keynote speaker. As a top advisor for the European Union over the past decade, Rifkin has been the principle architect of the EU’s “Third Industrial Revolution,” a long-term economic sustainability plan to address the triple challenge of the global economic crisis, energy security and climate change. He has written 17 bestselling books including his latest effort, The Empathic Civilization.

The Forum participant list is now full, but the ideas generated in these candid conversations will be captured in thought-provoking summaries and submitted, as requested, to Canada’s Federal Minister of Finance.

Evergreen’s Geoff Cape speaks with two participants at the 2010 Forum during a break in discussions. (Photo: Kourosh Javidi)

Visit the Evergreen website in October for a full summary of the event, and a blueprint for moving forward toward sustainable solutions.

The Brick Works Forum is part of our new partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, an exciting project that brings together innovators in urban sustainability—from entrepreneurs and city planners to top academics and scientists. Stay tuned as we roll out the project’s new website this fall!