The Ecocity World Summit (EWS) is a global conference that addresses the way humanity builds its home — its cities, towns and villages. The aim is to unite people through a new way of living on the planet that provides the best possible cities while enhancing, not destroying, the biosphere. It is a biennial event involving over 1,000 delegates from around the world. The first Summit in this series was held in Berkeley, USA in 1990 with the purpose of bringing together bright minds to share knowledge on ecological and sustainable city designs. Ecocity Builders, a nonprofit corporation, has since been convening Summits in different locations around the globe such as Melbourne, Australia in 2017, Vancouver, Canada in 2019 and Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 2022.
Ecocity World Summit 2019 in Vancouver
The 2019 Summit (EWS2019) was hosted by BCIT in collaboration with Ecocity Builders, the City of Vancouver and Tourism Vancouver at the Vancouver Convention Centre West. Within BCIT, the School of Construction and the Environment took the lead to convene the Summit program. EWS2019 consisted of keynote and guest speakers, presentations and local field trips highlighting features of sustainable city design, construction and operation. Recordings of the keynote presentations are available to watch below.
EWS2019 brought focus to the International Ecocity Standards (IES) which were developed through a decade-long partnership between Ecocity Builders and the BCIT School of Construction and the Environment. The IES has 18 standards pertaining to sustainable urban living grouped under:
- Urban design
- Bio-geophysical conditions
- Socio-cultural features
- Ecological imperatives
Each day of EWS2019 highlighted one of these four topics in order to promote the understanding and development of Socially Just and Ecologically Sustainable Cities.
The launch of the Centre for Ecocities
The BCIT Centre for Ecocities (formerly Ecocity Centre of Excellence) was established as a legacy of EWS2019 to anchor the global leadership of BCIT in the restructuring of cities to reduce their carbon and ecological footprints while simultaneously regenerating natural habitat.
Keynote Recordings
Wish you could have been there? Or that you could revisit a Keynote Presentation? You can watch all of the Keynote Presentations from the 2019 Ecocity World Summit below.
