Report of the Year 2012 – Peter Head, Executive Chairman
2012- A story of a year in which the world searched more urgently for greater resilience and moved focus from National global initiatives towards Regional urban-rural, globally supported, projects with community participation.The Ecological Sequestration Trust actively supported this trend from WEF Davos to Rio+20 , on the ground in China, India, Africa and Europe and started building foundation tools to enable everyone to eventually do this for themselves.I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our Trustees, executive team and Advisory Board members for a successful first year and wish you all a very happy and successful New Year.
The report is seen through a selection of my year’s Tweets https://twitter.com/PeterHeadCBE.
10th April A useful explanation of my leaving Arup and setting up The Ecological Sequestration Trust and plans going forward
http://youtu.be/iT9eMustoIc .
26th April Thoughts from me on resource scarcity and what we do about it on the Arup blog. http://thoughts.arup.com/post/details/189/a-new-approach-to-resources …
Nice article on the Ecological Sequestration Trust background and approach http://www.greenprospectsasia.com/node/2161#sustainable_development 14th August
Video of my 10min presentation at opening plenary of Open Innovation Conference in Moscow and useful intro to Trust. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk15-XCgZE0&feature=channel&list=UL … 14th November
India
It has been a good week meeting Tata Trust, Adani Group, Dr Pachauri and today Chief Minister Modi, the day after his fast. We have agreed on decisive appropriate, timely and ‘convenient action’ (not inconvenient) in a Gujarat demonstrator region. I am leaving India in an optimistic mood on demonstrating a new development approach integrating urban rural systems. Why? I have met so many bright young Indian people who have the skill and understanding to join and help communities to show a better way.And there is enough political leadership and corporate interest in exploring this path too plus community enthusiasm to move forward. 21st January
Mike Rann (Trust Advisory Board) on platform with Arnie at Delhi Sust Dev Summit talking about the Ecological Sequestration Trust and demos. 2nd Feb
Just as London’s Boris was re-elected I was in office of Surat Mayor Rajendra Desai talking about massive challenge of 6% pop growth per year 4th May
Our partner TARU have prepared this excellent resilience strategy for Surat that the Trust will support delivery of. http://www.acccrn.org/sites/default/files/documents/SuratCityResilienceStrategy_ACCCRN_01Apr2011_small.pdf 9th May
Today we are in Surat to discuss how to develop the city in a more resilient way that addresses mitigation and adaptation to climate change 18th May
Article about The Ecological Sequestration Trust recent workshop in Surat and the proposals to support the city region. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-10/surat/32155434_1_ecological-sequestration-trust-suda-surat-urban-development-authority …
Indian Government to invest US$2.3 billion over next 8 years to boost adoption of electric & hybrid vehicles http://ow.ly/bYYB1 #EVs#EV 3rd July
Arriving at Surat airport at sunset with monsoon storm clouds. Rains have been unreliable this year http://pic.twitter.com/bvOl1B0L19th August
Rush hour in Surat outside city hall. Good meetings with Commissioner and City Engineer on taking model Trust forward. 22nd August
Trust proposals for demonstration region in Surat after successful meetings this week.Timings not correct but ideas are http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-08-21/surat/33302483_1_public-transport-green-campus-surat-municipal-corporation …
Need for infra -India is over $1trillion to enable growth in the economy.’innovation is needed in holistic approach to integrated urban Dev’.India is now spending 2.8% of GDP on climate adaptation measures and this has doubled in the last 10 years.This is 10% of annual budgets 19th September Delhi
CNBC presents The Future Cities of India.From this series, watch the city of Surat, the Trust chosen demo city in India http://www. facebook.com/suratrealestate 22nd September
Just leaving Surat after busy series of meetings with Chamber,business and City leaders. Impressive low carbon activity http://www.jhminternational.com/ 22nd September
The challenge of urban development in India and insight into why we chose Surat as demonstrator region-the Economist http://www.economist.com/node/21563412 28th September
In my favourite Indian city of Surat-talk to SGCCI about taking forward Surat demo region for sustainable development http://pic.twitter.com/bTl5ot2V 28th November
Meeting of Future Institute in Indian Habitat Centre in New Delhi trying to help fashion a resilient development path 29th November
China
Getting ready to go to China for important Trust meetings around our China demonstrator.Then back to Singapore next week. 7th March
29th May Just off to Beijing to present Trust proposals for Chongming demonstrator to Urban Tech China conference http://www.urbantecchina.com/press_show.asp?pressid=189 …
China announces to cut emissions by 25%, coal power plants by 8% and cement factories by 3% by 2015 based on a 2010 baseline. 22nd August
Back on Chongming Island-negotiating for it to be Trust demo region in China.Huge new planning exhibition for Island http://pic.twitter.com/qrfGNVrX 28th August
Signed an MOU for the Trust to support world Eco- island of Chongming on the Island in forum closing ceremony http://pic.twitter.com/syX7ZRkL 29th August
I am now looking for UK University to occupy a joint Campus with Tongji on Chongming to research and teach Eco development.Finance in place. 29th August
Africa
‘The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, overcome, endure, transform, love & be greater than our suffering’ Ben Okri
UNESCO – Africa needs 300% increase in water engineers to meet demand, one example of why education underpins sustainable dev#rioplus20 16th June
President Kagame on food-http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/blog/food-water-energy-resource-efficiency?newsfeed=true#block-10 12th July
Sister city partnerships between Africa and China will double over next 5 years. Trust aims to support this http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/…/content_ … 27th August
@SOAafrica The Eco Sequest Trust aim to provide and demo tools for The sustainability revolution in Africa http://fb.me/2lkKGsM9W 6th December
@SOAafrica I am based in London but the Trust will be working with African Centre for Cities in Cape Town. I will be meeting Edgar Pieterse tomorrow in London 6th December
Swansea(Europe Demo Region)
Today I attended a great Trust workshop to explain how we can facilitate a profound accelerated transformation of the Swansea Bay Region 20th April
News of the Trust and our proposals for Swansea Bay Region demonstrator. http://www.cynnalcymru.com/blog/development-swansea-bay-city-region ….
Just arriving in Doc Penfro (Pembroke Dock) to meet ecnmc dev teams from Welsh counties in our Europe demonstrator region.286mls from london 24th May
@InstForSustain: http://bit.ly/Sg0wFJ At launch of resrch reports #GREEN#RETROFIT #GREENBUILDING #SUPPLYCHAIN#SUSTAINABLE#ENERGY GUIDES 6th December
Wales the most progressive country in Doha ,asks Guardian? This is why we chose Swansea Region as our Trust Europe demo http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/06/doha-most-progressive-country-wales … 7th December
Community Participation.
All welcome to Culture Futures event today at Hilton 1325 ave Americas NY 3rd floor.I will be giving keynote 9am to 9.45am 6th January
Today speaking at Culture Futures event in Budapest organised under EU presidency of Denmark. http://www.culturefutures.org 24th January
New World Bank blog site on cities that is worth following http://blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities 14th February
Getting ready for Rio+20. Join us if you are there on Monday 17th June. Location on http://theecologicalsequestrationtrust.createsend1.com/t/j-l-vjylll-l-d/calsequestrationtrust.createsend1.com/t/j-l-vjylll-l… … I will keep you posted#rioplus20
News from City Regions in Rio from Mike Rann who is a member of the ecological sequestration trust advisory board.http://cnponline.org/ht/display/ViewBloggerThread/i/38494 …
Pessimistic view from Rio +20 chief Maurice Strong, “there´s not much to celebrate at Rio92 anniversary”, and there are tremendous gaps. 16th June
Frank Bures essay ‘We picked place to live because of cheap housing, jobs family friends,arts, biking, public transit&quality of life’ What we need is multilateral process supporting local economies and public institutions to democratically manage the commons’ 19th June Rio
Blog about ‘people smart city regions’ explaining our collaboratory proposal for innovation and cultural change hubs http://blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities/supporting-people-smart-regions …
Everyone talking about lack connection between private sector,people ,governments all in different places in Rio and not joined in practice 18th June
Just witnessed real anger from #Greenpeaceboss Kumi Naidoo post talks with Ban Ki Moon – “leaders hv abdicated responsibility”#RioPlus20 22nd June Rio
Gallons of anger and vitriol at #RioPlus20today – this assessment by@James_BGoffers a diff view worth reading: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/james-blog/2186 22nd June
@RTCCnewswire: IPCC Rajendra Pachauri wants ‘people power’ to take lead: http://www.rtcc.org/living/dr-rajendra-pachauri-time-to-forget-governments-and-use-people-power-to-fight-climate-change/ … I hope Trust open source model will help 3rd July
Culture|Futures Clubs been awarded Council of Europe “Cultural Event Label” (CECEL) label for work with kids in sustainability and culture. For background on Culture Future Clubs see http://www.culturefutures.org/ started in Copenhagen and go global in 2013.We will run them in Trust demos 11th July
Participation so important-a Trust view!@CityRenaissanceparticipatory playground turns children into city planners http://ow.ly/ecgOn 3rd October
Off to be a speaker at tonight’s Edge debate on How to Get Innovation going towards a Circular Economy in Europe. http://www.edgedebate.com 8th October
@Remmid: How the ‘Civic economy’—social entrepreneurs strengthening local economies—I am sure this is the way forward http://www.valiz.nl/en/CompendiumfortheCivicEconomy … 11th December
Here’s a round up of nine interesting resilient community ideas from articles in 2012@CityRenaissance http://ow.ly/gnVSx via @who ge 29th December
Economics and modelling
Another group here (NYC) http://www.thecityatlas.com. Richard Reiss is creating an innovative digital platform for community understanding of sust devt 6th January
Towards the Circular Economy. E MacArthur Foundation’s report provides evidence for Trust http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org 14th February
@worldresources http://www.censa.org.uk/partners.html ARUP and CENSA are building a global model of embodied emissions in supply chain 9th April
Going to launch of UK circular economy task force tonight http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/uploadedFiles/Media_room_2/Press_releases/20120704%20PRESS%20RELEASE%20-%20CETF%20Launch%20FINAL.pdf … 4th July
Very interesting meeting with staff at Global Green Growth Institute discussing models, demos and possible cooperation http://pic.twitter.com/7xUtMXeh 31st August
It is good Korea will host the Green Climate Fund. Korea puts 2% GDP into own green growth http://reut.rs/Wyp6FT #COP18#GCF#climatechange 22nd October
A huge sense of relief that Obama has won the election as I leave. Madrid for London and MPA conference on carbon neutral projects. 6th November
The Eco Seques Trust has started creation of open-source model for integrated climate adaptation&mitigation for regions http://www.iier.ch/category/1 .The Trust open-source model is the ‘human ecosystem model 27th November
@InstForSustain: This is the type of model the Trust will build but with resource flows from human- eco and economics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8TRchvO9Kw … 10th December
Negotiating funding from Foundations and Large Corporates
Now at Hub Culture Davos where tonight we have reception for Clean Energy Leadership from 7pm Promenade 93 7270 Davos Platz.Just did live webcast on http://www.HubLive.TV with Nissan + Climate Group being the first from Davos. You can see the Hub and snow outside! Clean revolution YouTube HubCulture video from Davos explaining what the ecological sequestration trust is all about 14th February.
GLTE meeting in beautiful AXICA building at old east west border in centre of Berlin. Frank Gehry says it his best. 19th April
Met Larsen&Toubro in Surat at fabrication plant employs 5000. They re-use waste steel from fabrication in high quality steel forgings.Bril! 21st August
Privilege to dine in Copenhagen with H Topsoe famous Danish 99 year businessman and Mr Ravindranath L&T.Mr Topsoe knew Larsen of L&T 13th September
Political high drama in India with minority gov,as arrive in Delhi to discuss at GLTE how to get infra investment going in low carbon growth 19th September
