International Conference on Sustainable Cities

Columbia-Fordham-NYU

May 1-2, 2018

Fordham University
Lincoln Center Campus, McNally Amphitheatre
113 West, 60th Street, New York, NY

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Creating sustainable cities has become one of the most pressing issues facing the United States and the global community. As Dr. Steven Cohen, Executive Director of the Columbia Earth Institute, has noted, a sustainable city “uses resources as efficiently as possible, uses renewable resources as much as possible, recycles as much as possible and has the least possible impact on the natural environment.” There is a growing consensus, Dr. Cohen argues, that our cities must be “attractive, exciting, healthy and productive places to live, learn, develop, work and play.”

There is, however, far less consensus about how cities can most efficiently and effectively design and implement the architecture and systems to grow and prosper sustainably, as the world’s population urbanizes and the threats to urban areas increase. Rigorous research related to sustainable cities is thus more central than ever, and the questions scholars face are urgent: What is a sustainable city? What is the role of climate change in sustainable cities? And what is the future of the sustainable city—and how can we best get there?

In a unique collaboration to help answer these questions, three universities—Fordham, Columbia and NYU—in the world’s greatest city are organizing a two-day interdisciplinary International Conference on Sustainable Cities. The Conference, which will be held on May 1-2, 2018 at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus, will bring together leading scholars from a range of disciplines with policymakers, business leaders, and advocates to share insights and set a comprehensive research agenda for this vital subject.