Events

 

GUDs 10th Anniversary Update, 2001-2011

December 14, 2011  (revised May 21, 2013)

 

Dr. Marc A. Weiss, Chairman and CEO

 

 

We first began organizing Global Urban Development (GUD) on the morning of September 11, 2001, and we were legally incorporated as a non-profit organization in Washington, DC on December 3, 2001.  Today GUD is legally incorporated in the State of Delaware.  It's hard to believe that more than a decade has gone by since we first set out for Prague on our ambitious and improbable journey to build a global network of leaders and experts, and to develop a set of inspiring ideas and innovative policies that can help enable all people, everywhere in the world, to live and thrive in peace with each other and in peace with nature.

 

It's even harder to believe the considerable progress that GUD has accomplished over the past decade. And for those of you who know about my severe health problems during more than four of those years (from October 2005 through December 2009), it's incredibly hard to believe that I am still here, alive and (relatively) well. Life itself has turned out to be the most extraordinary gift of all, an ongoing blessing for which I am profoundly and humbly grateful.

 

Please allow me to express my heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you for your steadfast love and support during the decade now behind us, and hopefully for many, many more years into the future.  I especially want to thank my wife, Nancy Sedmak-Weiss, GUD’s Secretary-Treasurer and Chief Legal Officer. Nancy's great love and dedication kept both me, and GUD, alive and moving forward during extremely difficult and challenging circumstances.

 

In the spirit of GUDs 10th anniversary celebration, what follows are reflections on the past decade of GUDs evolution as well as on its current context and future trajectory. The following summary is relatively brief, and necessarily very selective.  It is designed to highlight a few of GUDs successes and to thank many people who generously contributed their time, ideas, money, and many other resources that made possible our considerable progress since 2001.  Please accept my apologies in advance for all of the people, places, projects, publications, events, and organizations that are not mentioned by name in the next few paragraphs.  Know that our appreciation and gratitude remains forever strong.

 

GUDs History Since 2001

 

GUD began in 2001 as the Prague Institute for Global Urban Development, officially changing our name to Global Urban Development in October 2005.  Since 2001 we have built a worldwide network of more than 600 leaders and experts in nearly 60 countries who serve on our Board of Directors, Advisory Board, and as Senior Fellows and Fellows affiliated with GUDs 15 offices located in Barcelona, Beijing, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, Porto Alegre, Prague, Rehoboth, San Francisco Bay Area, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto, and Washington, DC.  During these years, 12 distinguished GUD leaders have passed away: Nick Bollman, Kim Van Deventer, Andrzej Flis, Joseph Gross, Eric Hobsbawm, Richard Hollingsworth, Monika Jaeckel, Gill-Chin Lim, Roger Montgomery, Peter Oberlander, John Parr, and Anthony Smith.  Several other inspiring leaders with whom GUD had the pleasure of collaborating, especially Ray Anderson, have also passed on.  We deeply mourn the loss of our beloved friends and colleagues.

 

In the original Prague Institute brochure that GUD proudly unveiled early in 2002, there were three major themes: Treating People and Communities as Assets, Facing the Metropolitan Challenge, and Celebrating Our Urban Heritage. Today GUDs three core themes are Innovation and Prosperity, Sustainability, and Inclusiveness, and we have nine program committees: Analyzing Global Urban Development; Building Gender Equality; Celebrating Our Urban Heritage; Envisioning Sustainable Futures; Facing the Environmental Challenge; Generating Sustainable Economic Development; Improving Global Health; Inclusive Economic Development: Treating People and Communities as Assets; and Metropolitan Economic Strategy: Advancing Innovation, Prosperity, and Quality of Life.

 

Inclusive Economic Development: Treating People and Communities as Assets

 

Inclusive Economic Development: Treating People and Communities as Assets gave birth during 2002-4 to the Community Productivity Project (CPP), in partnership with Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat). The CPP helped innovate the policy framework for Inclusive Economic Development Strategies and Community Productivity Indicators. The CPP partnership included government agencies and NGOs in Cape Town, Cleveland, Mexico City, Mumbai, London, Nairobi, Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Tirana. Despite the efforts of Besnik Aliaj, Jockin Arputham, Nefise Bazoglu, Gregory Berzonsky, Sergio Besserman Vianna, Lance Buhl, Sundar Burra, Tim Campbell, William Cobbett, Claudia Coulton, Celine d'Cruz, Kim Van Deventer, Mary del Carmen Diaz Amador, Malika Djebli, Marlene Fernandes, Peter Hall, Emile Van Heyningen, Eric Hoddersen, Jane Katz, Jeroen Klink, Nomaindia Mfeketo, Nhanla Mjoli-Mncube, Eduardo Moreno, Geoff Mulgan, Sheela Patel, Janice Perlman, Jonas Rabinovitch, Wicaksono Sarosa, Nina Schuler, Wandia Seaforth, Nancy Sedmak-Weiss, Marta Suplicy, Nigel Tapela, Marta Tellado, Patrick Wakely, Emiel Wegelin, Erna Witoelar, Nicholas You, Robert Zdenek, and many others, and even with the encouragement of Gene Sperling and the Clinton Global Initiative, we were unable to raise the $10 million needed to do the full-scale global Community Productivity Project. The good news is that I now believe there will be numerous opportunities for GUD to engage in Inclusive Economic Development in many countries during the next few years, especially in Latin America.

 

Since 2010 GUD has been working with Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), UN-Habitat, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), World Bank, Cities Alliance, US Government, Rockefeller Foundation, International Housing Coalition, and many other organizations on the Global Housing Indicators (GHI) initiative, under the leadership of GUD Board member Jane Katz, who is HFHI’s Director of International Affairs and Programs. She also serves as GHI Manager, and as Co-Chair of GUD’s committee on Inclusive Economic Development, which is actively supporting the GHI initiative. In December 2011 HFHI and IDB organized a Housing Indicators Workshop at the IDB offices in Washington, DC, and HFHI published a key report, Global Housing Indicators: Evidence for Action.  Thanks to GUD Board member Jane Katz, HFHI’s Director of International Affairs, and Co-Chair of GUD’s program committee on Inclusive Economic Development, for her leadership of this important GHI effort.

         

Creating Jobs and Livelihoods

 

As an outgrowth of our major GUD meeting at the 2010 UN World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, GUD created a new committee, Creating Jobs and Livelihoods. Recently this committee merged with Inclusive Economic Development.

 

Celebrating Our Urban Heritage

 

Celebrating Our Urban Heritage has been quite influential as a theme under the dynamic leadership of committee Co-Chairs Luigi Fusco Girard, Donovan Rypkema, and Belinda Yuen. This GUD program committee helped produce an urban heritage special issue of GUD Magazine in 2008, and continues to work on creating greater understanding among policymakers and investors of GUD's decade-long project on "Urban Heritage as an Economic Asset." Currently GUD is working with the International Scientific Committee on the Economics of Conservation (ISCEC) of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) to produce a special issue of the Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development. The Co-Editors of this special issue are GUD Advisory Board member Christer Gustafsson and GUD Board member Don Rypkema.

 

Facing the Metropolitan Challenge

 

Facing the Metropolitan Challenge started in 2002 with two key projects: 

 

A) Thanks to GUD Vice Chair Peter Hall, Global Urban Development was included in a European Commission-funded research consortium, headed by the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, to analyze the urban development impacts of the enlargement of the European Union to include eight new countries from central and eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic, where GUDs Prague headquarters was located. During June 2003, GUD hosted one of the first meetings of this multinational research consortium. This memorable three-day meeting included a public lecture by Sir Peter Hall attended by more than 100 invited guests (his speech/report was published in the 2005 inaugural issue of GUD Magazine as “The Worlds Urban Systems: A European Perspective”), and a delightful celebratory dinner when it was officially announced that the Czech Republic had voted to join the European Union.

 

B) GUD actively participated in the Coalition for Sustainable Urbanization together with UN-Habitat, UNDP, UN Advisory Committee on Local Authorities, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, World Bank, Cities Alliance, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Metropolis, United Cities and Local Governments, and numerous other organizations. This Coalition organized the highly successful five-day Local Government Session, attended by more than 1,000 local officials from many different countries, at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (Earth Summit) in Johannesburg, South Africa during August 2002.  Two GUD Board members, Kaarin Taipale and Nicholas You, were key leaders of the Coalition for Sustainable Urbanization, with Kaarin representing ICLEI and Nick representing UN-Habitat.

 

Metropolitan Economic Strategy & Facing the Environmental Challenge

 

As the cutting-edge ideas of Facing the Metropolitan Challenge increasingly became more mainstream and widely accepted among national governments and international institutions such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), European Union, United Nations, and World Bank, GUD decided to split its original theme into two separate initiatives and program committees:

  

1) Metropolitan Economic Strategy: Advancing Innovation, Prosperity, and Quality of Life, with GUD's special blend of technological innovation, global competitiveness, sustainability, and inclusiveness designed to generate prosperity and quality of life for central cities, metropolitan areas, urban regions, states/provinces, and nations worldwide.

 

GUD created its program committee on Metropolitan Economic Strategy: Advancing Innovation, Prosperity, and Quality of Life in order to make Metropolitan Economic Strategy a global policy initiative. One early project involved producing a major theme paper on Productive Cities and Metropolitan Economic Strategy for the UN International Forum on Urban Poverty in Marrakech, Morocco in 2001. In 2002 GUD conducted, with funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), four days of professional training on Metropolitan Economic Strategy for senior national, provincial, and city government economic development officials participating in the South African Cities Network (thanks to Andrew Boraine).  GUD later conducted professional training on urban economic development for senior USAID officials in Washington, DC during 2006.  Thanks to David Dowall for his collaboration.

 

During 2003 and 2004, GUD advised the Central Bohemia Regional Government (around Prague) and produced two reports for the Strategic Metropolitan Plan of Barcelona (thanks to Francesc Santacana), “Metropolitan Regions are Dynamic Economic Engines of Global Prosperity and Quality of Life for Everyone” and “Metropolitan Governance and Strategic Planning in the US.”  GUD also wrote two major reports for the OECD on Leveraging Private Financing and Investment for Economic and Community Development and on the internationally recognized, award-winning NoMa (North of Massachusetts Avenue) strategic economic development initiative in Washington, DC. (Thanks to Jonathan Potter, Marco Marchese, and the OECDs Local Economic and Employment Development Program).  In 2002 GUD produced a major report for the National Governors Association (NGA) on State Policy Approaches to Promote Metropolitan Economic Strategy, and during 2004-5 we provided strategic advice on Metropolitan Economic Strategy for the Hampton Roads Partnership in Norfolk, Virginia.  Over the past decade GUD focused on globalizing Metropolitan Economic Strategy, as expressed by our research project on cross-border international urban regions, through our Metropolitan Economic Strategy reports on Belo Horizonte, Cape Town, Curitiba, Johannesburg, the Oresund Region (Copenhagen-Malmo), San Diego-Tijuana, Shanghai, Singapore, and Trieste-Koper, and in our comparative study for the Brookings Institution on national policies supporting Metropolitan Economic Strategy

 

Please click here for Teamwork: Why Metropolitan Economic Strategy is the Key to Generating Sustainable Prosperity and Quality of Life for the World.  This article from the inaugural 2005 issue of GUD Magazine summarizes our strategic policy framework.

 

2) Facing the Environmental Challenge, focusing on sustainable urban development. The first major project by this program committee involved GUD conducting research and producing reports on Sustainable Urban Development in the US and Sustainable Urban Development in Canada, funded by the Government of Sweden's Mistra Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research. GUD Board member Henrik Nolmark coordinated the much larger Mistra-funded worldwide research project, and we thank Henrik for graciously including GUD as part of his overall team. Thanks also to GUD Board member Nola-Kate Seymoar and her colleagues at Sustainable Cities International for producing the Canada report, and to Belinda Yuen and Wendy Sarkissian for participating in the global project.

 

In addition, GUD signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Chinese Government in October 2009 to give strategic advice for the US-China Mayors Sustainable Cities Program, particularly with respect to Sustainable Economic Development Strategies. Thanks to C. S. Kiang, Jiang Mingjun, and Lawrence Bloom for connecting us. 

 

GUD has actively participated in the Partnership for Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), a stakeholder coalition of NGOs such as ITDP and EMBARQ, private corporations, UN agencies, and development finance institutions.  The SLoCat Partnership’s “Rio+20” Campaign recently secured commitments from the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and six other multilateral development banks to invest $175 billion (USD) in sustainable urban transportation systems in developing countries over the next decade, with 16 additional resource commitments from other organizations.

 

Also, GUD Vice Chair Nicky Gavron is working with Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, Phillipp Rode, Dimitri Zenghelis, Karl Baker, and their faculty and senior research colleagues at the London School of Economics on The Economics of Green Cities Program, a collaborative global research project analyzing the economics of sustainable urban development, with an initial focus on Copenhagen, Portland, and Stockholm.

 

Finally, GUD serves on the Steering Committee of the United Nations Sustainable Development Knowledge Partnership, established by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

 

Generating Sustainable Economic Development

 

GUD's Facing the Environmental Challenge and Metropolitan Economic Strategy committees also collaborated to create a new GUD program committee on Generating Sustainable Economic Development. GUD President James Nixon, in addition to serving as the committees Co-Chair, has played a key role in developing GUDs comprehensive Sustainable Economic Development strategic framework.

 

Climate Prosperity

 

Beginning in 2007, GUD created and helped organize the Climate Prosperity Project (now Clean Economy Solutions) in the US and the Climate Prosperity Alliance globally, both of which were later established as independent organizations.  The Climate Prosperity movement promoted a new wave of Sustainable Economic Development Strategies in US cities and regions during 2008-9.  

 

The Climate Prosperity Alliance (CPA) and GUD worked together with Tariq Banuri, the UNs Director of Sustainable Development and a senior member of the UN Secretary-General's climate team, to develop the Global Climate Prosperity Agreement ("The One Trillion Dollar Deal"). GUD and CPA also collaborated with Hazel Henderson and Ethical Markets Media to create the Global Climate Prosperity Scoreboard (now the Green Transition Scoreboard), and later teamed up with Jigar Shah and the Carbon War Room to design the Global Coal Transition and Clean Technology Investment Initiative. These initiatives helped encourage the agreement by developed countries, operating through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to establish the Green Climate Fund, which beginning in 2020 will make available $100 billion annually to developing countries for climate mitigation and adaptation.  They also played a role at Rio+20 in encouraging more than $50 billion of private sector investment commitments, another $30 billion from multilateral development banks, plus billions more from national governments, for the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All program to promote universal energy access, renewable energy production and distribution, and energy conservation and efficiency improvements in developing countries by 2030.

 

Building Gender Equality

  

In 2004 GUD adopted the theme of Building Gender Equality, creating a committee spearheaded by the late and beloved Monika Jaeckel. We even introduced the principle of gender equality in successfully reconfiguring the composition of GUD's Board of Directors.

 

Improving Global Health

 

In 2006 we added the theme and program committee on Improving Global Health. Under the leadership of Claire Blanchard, Wilfried Kreisel, and Vivian Lin, this committee is working closely with the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE), and particularly with IUHPE’s Global Working Group on Climate Change and Health, to potentially organize a worldwide campaign for "Leaving Coal in the Ground: Building a Sustainable Economy and Ending a Global Health Crisis by 2030."  We are very pleased to participate in this path-breaking and visionary collaboration.

 

Analyzing Global Urban Development

 

Along the way we also added a theme and program committee on Analyzing Global Urban Development, reflecting the many scholars, researchers, writers, and analysts that are part of GUD's worldwide professional network. This committee is involved with LSE's Economics of Green Cities Program studying sustainable urban economic growth.  It is also working with the UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign (“I’m a City Changer”), the Atlantic Council’s Urban World 2030 initiative (thanks to Banning Garrett and Peter Engelke), the Global City Indicators Facility (thanks to GUD Board member Patricia McCarney), the World Bank Urbanization Knowledge Partnership, and the Habitat for Humanity International/Inter-American Development Bank/UN-Habitat Global Housing Indicators initiative. 

 

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Recently we added Envisioning Sustainable Futures (ESF) as a new program committee (initially called Climate Prosperity Media/Arts), reflecting the media and arts talent in GUDs network. ESF will encourage education, communications, and entertainment about the global future of Innovation and Prosperity, Sustainability, and Inclusiveness. 

 

International Collaboration

 

Throughout the past decade, GUD has participated in and partnered with many international organizations.  For example, GUD serves on the Steering Committees for the United Nations Sustainable Development Knowledge Partnership, the UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign, the UN-Habitat Best Practices and Local Leadership Program, and the Atlantic Council’s Urban World 2030 initiative, on the Advisory Council of the UN-Habitat Cities and Climate Change Initiative, on the Board of Directors of the International Housing Coalition, on the Board of Advisors for Green World City, and as a member of the World Bank Sustainable Cities Partnership, Coalition for Sustainable Urbanization, ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) International Scientific Committee on the Economics of Conservation, Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), Clinton Global Initiative, European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON), Metropolis Initiative on Integrated Strategic Planning and Public-Private Partnerships, Development Gateway, and Citistates Group. Similarly, GUD served on the Board of Directors of the International Downtown Association, as a member of the Metropolis Commission on Urban Mobility and the Metropolis Commission on Financing Urban Infrastructure and Services, on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Town and City Management, and on the International Board of Advisers for Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.  In addition, GUD has served as an adviser to the World Bank, OECD, USAID, European Union, UN, and World Future Council.

 

Also, GUD has worked with the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas, Tallberg Foundation, Ashoka, United Cities and Local Governments, International Union for Health Promotion and Education, United Way International, Sister Cities International, Cities Alliance, International Chamber of Commerce, Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils, American Chambers of Commerce Abroad, International Economic Development Council, Tomorrow’s Company, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, World Economic Forum, World Social Forum, World Business Academy, Urban Land Institute, Globe Forum, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Global City Indicators Facility, American Planning Association, American Council on Renewable Energy, National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, Carbon War Room, Climate Group, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, EMBARQ, ShoreBank International, Habitat for Humanity International, Microcredit Summit Campaign, Shack/Slum Dwellers International, Grameen Trust, Grassroots Women's International Academies, Mother Centers International Network for Empowerment, Huairou Commission, Participatory Budgeting Project, Young Foundation, International Renewable Energy Agency, Washington International Renewable Energy Conference, 350.org, Ethical Markets Media, State of the World Forum, Earth Policy Institute, Urban Age Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Building and Social Housing Foundation, North/North Network, Columbia University Earth Institute Millennium Cities Initiative, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, Cornell University Global Labor Institute, Georgetown University Global Education Institute, London School of Economics Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, University of Sao Paulo Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, and University College London Development Planning Unit, among many others.

 

Every two years GUD holds a major meeting of our global network at the UN World Urban Forum.

 

Sustainable Economic Development Strategies

 

GUDs Generating Sustainable Economic Development initiative has grown substantially during the past six years.  In 2006 we moved our main headquarters office from Prague back to Washington, DC, because we decided that if the US could begin following the path of Sustainable Economic Development, then it would be easier for other places around the world to do likewise. With financial support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Environmental Defense Fund (thanks to Michael Northrop and Jackie Roberts), GUD developed an innovative policy and program framework for Sustainable Economic Development Strategies that was applied in various ways by San Antonio, San Jose, Silicon Valley, Southwest Florida, Metropolitan Portland, Metropolitan Denver, and the State of Delaware.

 

During the past two years, GUD completed a strategy for Sarasota County, Florida to become a "Center for Innovation in Energy and Sustainability" with funding provided by the US Department of Energy. The final report, summary slideshow presentation, and five of the background reports are available on the Publications page of GUD's website, www.globalurban.org, together with various strategy reports from the other places mentioned above.  Thanks to my GUD Sarasota team colleagues: James Nixon, John Cleveland, and Al Victors.

 

Currently GUD is advising the City of Denver, Colorado, on its Denver Seeds initiative for sustainable food production and distribution as an economic development, business growth, and job creation strategy. Recently GUD produced a report for Denver Seeds on Best Practices for Urban Food Strategies.

 

Please enjoy GUD's colorful and attractive new SED logo, where Sustainability and Economic Development separately merge into the new jointly overlapping space of Sustainable Economic Development.

 

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Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA)

 

GUD's substantial Sustainable Economic Development activities over the past five years recently led to a major international opportunity. On June 7-8, 2011 in Curitiba, Brazil, the Brazil and US Governments, through the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA), sponsored a conference on "Planning for Sustainable Economic Development Across the Americas." GUD played a key role in organizing this conference, working with the American Planning Association, the City of Curitiba, and the US State Department. Thanks to GUD Senior Fellow Eduardo Pereira Guimaraes, former Secretary of International Relations for the City of Curitiba, Edson Ramon, President of the Commercial Association of Parana, and Paul Farmer, APA Executive Director, as well as thanks to all the leaders from GUDs network who either spoke at and participated in the conference or helped enable it to succeed: GUD Vice Chair Jaime Lerner, Rosa Alegria, Rob Bennett, Cid Blanco, Jr., Christina Carvalho Pinto, Aser Cortines, Emilio Haddad, Walter Hook, Daniel Hoornweg, Daniel Kammen, Paul Krutko, Rodrigo Loures, Adalberto Maluf, Cecilia Martinez, Stephanie McLellan, Cesar Menezes, James Nixon, Emilia Queiroga, Nancy Sedmak-Weiss, Jeffrey Soule, Ramiro Wahrhaftig, Stephen Walsh, and Larry Zinn.

 

Please click here to view the ECPA conference agenda, six of the powerpoint presentations, and related photos. GUDs website is directly linked to the official ECPA website, operated by the Organization of American States (OAS), which also contains information and documents about the Curitiba conference: http://www.ecpamericas.org/events/default.aspx?id=90.

 

Please click here for "The Global Future of Green Capitalism." This article, written for the ECPA Curitiba conference, briefly explains GUD's Sustainable Economic Development framework. For a more detailed overview, please read the GUD publication, Sustainable Economic Development Strategies.

 

Metropolitan Economic Strategy, Sustainable Innovation, and Inclusive Prosperity

 

Please click here for Metropolitan Economic Strategy, Sustainable Innovation, and Inclusive Prosperity.  GUD originally prepared this slide presentation for senior Chinese national and urban government officials participating in Georgetown Universitys Global Education Institute, and then revised it for my graduate course at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. This slideshow combines GUD's work on Metropolitan Economic Strategy, Sustainable Innovation, and Inclusive Prosperity into one comprehensive package, the dynamic result of a decade of GUDs strategic combination of policy research and practical advisory work.

 

We wholeheartedly invite all of you to actively participate in spreading the word about Metropolitan Economic Strategy, Sustainable Innovation, and Inclusive Prosperity throughout the world. Indeed, we strongly encourage you to reach out to government officials and to business and civic leaders, suggesting that they consider working with GUD to advise and assist them in how to design and implement effective and innovative economic strategies.

 

Currently GUD is working on Metropolitan Economic Strategy, Sustainable Innovation, and Inclusive Prosperity in Brazil. We are advising the Federation of Industries of Minas Gerais (FIEMG) and the State Government of Minas Gerais, the Federation of Industries of Rio Grande do Sul (FIERGS) and the State Government of Rio Grande do Sul, and the Federal Government, including the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI). Please read GUD’s two recent Brazil reports, Advanced Manufacturing and Sustainable Innovation: The Third Wave of Industrial and Urban Economic Growth for Minas Gerais (October 2012) and Local and Regional Economic Development Opportunities Related to the Implementation of the Sao Jose do Norte EBR Shipyard in Rio Grande do Sul (December 2012).  Thanks to GUD colleagues Ian Bromley, Ellya Jeffries, Paul Krutko, James Nixon, Emilia Queiroga, Elaine Yamashita Rodriguez, and Nancy Sedmak-Weiss.  Recently Ernani Jardim de Miranda Machado, a Brazilian technology entrepreneur, has joined GUD as our Director of Technology Research, and as Coordinator of New Technology Development for GUD’s subsidiary, Metropolitan Economic Strategy LLC.  He is working with us on developing sustainable and innovative new technologies for Brazil and many other countries. 

 

At the 2012 UN World Urban Forum on September 5, GUD organized a Networking Event on “Metropolitan Economic Strategy and Sustainable Economic Development in Brazil.”  Featured speakers included Mauro Borges Lemos, ABDI President; Olavo Machado Jr., FIEMG President; Marcus Coester, President of the Rio Grande do Sul Development Agency (AGDI); Ines Magalhaes, National Secretary of Housing at the Ministry of Cities; Cid Blanco Jr., Director of Culture, Communications, and Events at the Olympic Public Authority; and Fabio Veras, Deputy Secretary of Economic Development for the State of Minas Gerais.

 

Within the next few years, GUD will be engaging in Metropolitan Economic Strategy, Sustainable Innovation, and Inclusive Prosperity in many countries throughout the world. Indeed, we firmly believe that such an approach combining Innovation and Prosperity, Sustainability, and Inclusiveness will become a key component of the positive path forward for humanity, such that by 2020 nearly all sub-national economic development strategies globally will be based on growing businesses, jobs, and incomes by becoming more innovative, sustainable, and inclusive, not less. Earning and saving more money by conserving and reusing resources more efficiently will become the main engine of economic growth and the central driver of value creation worldwide. People, places, and organizations will improve their overall prosperity, quality of life, health, and peace, through innovation, efficiency, and conservation in the use and reuse of all natural and human resources. In other words, they will "get richer by becoming greener."

 

Sustainable Economic Development (SED) Network

 

Currently GUD President James Nixon is coordinating the Sustainable Economic Development (SED) Network, bringing together many organizations and individuals throughout the world. This global social media network will enable professionals in economic development and sustainable innovation along with cleantech and green entrepreneurs and investors to share information, advice, and best practices, and to engage in collaboration and deal-making.

 

Global Urban Development (GUD) Magazine

 

During the past decade we created GUD Magazine, a truly state-of-the-art international publication. We are very proud of all five issues of GUD Magazine, including the 2005 inaugural issue, the 2006 special issue focusing on the UN Millennium Development Goals, the 2007 special issue on urban land and housing policies published in partnership with the World Bank and the Institute for Applied Economic Research in Brazil (thanks to Mila Freire, Bruce Ferguson, Ricardo Lima, Dean Cira, and Christine Kessides), the 2008 special issue produced by the GUD program committee on Celebrating Our Urban Heritage, and the 2008 special issue on the role of the private sector and market-based innovative urban housing and community development initiatives, edited and published in partnership with Ashoka (thanks to Valeria Budinich, Stephanie Schmidt, Bruce Ferguson, and Aileen Nowlan). Some of you are among the authors from these five issues of GUD Magazine, and we thank you for contributing your wisdom and experience.

 

Please continue to share GUD Magazine with your friends and colleagues. I am using some of these articles for assigned readings in my Columbia University graduate course on Global Urban Policy and Development.  In the future GUD will be publishing individual articles more frequently than entire issues of GUD Magazine, and we encourage you to submit articles authored or co-authored by you, as well as to suggest both original material and interesting recent reprints written by others.

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

Global Urban Development Events

 

October 5, 2002 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC

 

December 12, 2002 GUD Board of Directors Meeting and Reception in Washington, DC

 

April 21, 2003 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC

 

April 24, 2003 GUD Reception in Washington, DC

 

May 30, 2003 Seminar by Dr. Emiel Wegelin and Reception in Prague

 

June 13-14, 2003 Meeting of European Union ESPON Research Consortium in Prague hosted by GUD

 

June 13, 2003 Public Lecture by Sir Peter Hall and Reception in Prague

 

October 3, 2003 Seminar by John McIlwain and Reception in Prague

 

October 9, 2003 Public Lecture by Peter Calthorpe and Reception in Prague

 

November 28, 2003 Seminar by Cornelia Poczka and Reception in Prague

 

December 12, 2003 GUD Board of Directors Meeting and Reception in Prague

 

February 3, 2004 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC

 

March 24, 2004 Seminar by William Stafford and Reception in Prague

 

March 26-30, 2004 Conference on “Redefining Europe: Federalism and the Union of European Democracies” in Prague

 

March 26, 2004 GUD Reception in Prague

 

April 15, 2004 GUD Reception in Prague

 

May 20, 2004 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC

 

July 22, 2004 Seminar by Mary del Carmen Diaz Amador and Reception in Prague

 

September 13-17, 2004 International Meeting on Good Urban Policies and Enabling Legislation, UN World Urban Forum, Barcelona, Spain

 

September 18, 2004 GUD Board of Directors and Advisory Board Meeting at the UN World Urban Forum, Barcelona, Spain

 

September 29, 2004 Seminar by Margaret Caust and Reception in Prague

 

September 30, 2004 Seminar by Dr. Arthur Alderson and Reception in Prague

 

October 12, 2004 Seminar by Christopher Leinberger and Reception in Prague

 

February 10, 2005 GUD Board of Directors Meeting and Reception in Washington, DC

 

April 29-May 2, 2005 Conference on “Redefining Europe: European Union Enlargement One Year After” in Prague

 

May 30, 2005 GUD Advisory Board Meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden

 

June 1, 2005 GUD Meeting on Celebrating Our Urban Heritage in Gothenburg, Sweden

 

June 28, 2005 GUD Meeting on Celebrating Our Urban Heritage in Naples, Italy

 

July 27, 2005 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC

 

September 22, 2005 GUD Reception in Prague

 

October 21, 2005 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC

 

April 3, 2006 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC

 

May 5, 2006 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC

 

June 23, 2006 GUD Board of Directors and Advisory Board Meeting at the UN World Urban Forum, Vancouver, Canada

 

December 15, 2006 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Rehoboth, Delaware

 

September 10, 2007 GUD Meeting on the Mistra Foundation Project and Reception in Washington, DC

 

November 26-28, 2007 GUD and Rockefeller Brothers Fund meeting on “The Economic Benefits of Climate Action” at the RBF Conference Center, Pocantico Hills, NY

 

December 10, 2007 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Rehoboth, Delaware

 

March 6, 2008 GUD and Rockefeller Brothers Fund Event on “Climate Prosperity and Renewable Energy” at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference, Washington, DC

 

July 7-8, 2008 GUD and Rockefeller Brothers Fund strategic leadership meeting of Climate Prosperity at the RBF Conference Center, Pocantico Hills, NY

 

September 26, 2008 GUD and Rockefeller Brothers Fund strategic leadership meeting of Climate Prosperity, Washington, DC

 

November 5, 2008 GUD and Ashoka Foundation Networking Event on “Transforming Urban Markets for the Poor through Entrepreneurship” at the UN World Urban Forum, Nanjing, China

 

November 5, 2008 GUD and Rockefeller Brothers Fund Networking Event on “Climate Prosperity: Sustainable Economic and Community Development” at the UN World Urban Forum, Nanjing, China

 

November 5, 2008 GUD Board of Directors and Advisory Board Meeting at the UN World Urban Forum, Nanjing, China

 

February 4, 2009 GUD and Rockefeller Brothers Fund seminar on “Climate Prosperity: Democratic Capitalism with a Twist” at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, Washington, DC

 

February 20-21, 2009 GUD and Rockefeller Brothers Fund strategic leadership meeting of Climate Prosperity, and public launch of the Silicon Valley Climate Prosperity Strategy, San Jose, CA

 

September 29, 2009 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Rehoboth, Delaware

 

March 18, 2010 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

 

March 26, 2010 GUD Board of Directors and Advisory Board Meeting at the UN World Urban Forum, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

 

October 30, 2010 Climate Prosperity Media/Arts Salon, Santa Barbara, CA

 

December 8-9, 2010 ACORE’s Phase II of Renewable Energy in America National Policy Forum, Washington, DC

 

December 20, 2010 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Rehoboth, Delaware

 

June 7-8, 2011 “Planning for Sustainable Economic Development Across the Americas” international conference, Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas, Curitiba, Brazil

 

December 1, 2011 Housing Indicators Workshop, Inter-American Development Bank and Habitat for Humanity International, Washington, DC

 

December 19, 2011 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Rehoboth, Delaware

 

May 18, 2012 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Rehoboth, Delaware

 

September 5, 2012 GUD Networking Event on “Metropolitan Economic Strategy and Sustainable Economic Development in Brazil” at the UN World Urban Forum, Naples, Italy

 

September 6, 2012 GUD Board of Directors and Advisory Board Meeting at the UN World Urban Forum, Naples, Italy

 

October 25, 2012 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Rehoboth, Delaware

 

February 26, 2013 GUD Global Webinar with Jeff Olson on his new book, The Third Mode: Towards a Green Society.

 

March 18, 2013 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Rehoboth, Delaware

 

December 5, 2013 GUD Board of Directors and Advisory Board Meeting in Washington, DC

 

April 10, 2014 GUD, Habitat for Humanity International, Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, and UN-Habitat Networking Event on “Global Housing Indicators (GHI) Working Group Launch Event:  Policy Knowledge and Empirical Data to Promote Equitable, Affordable, Sustainable, and Resilient Housing and Community Development” at the UN World Urban Forum, Medellin, Colombia

 

July 21, 2014 State of Rio Grande do Sul, Aspen Institute’s Accelerating Market-Driven Partnerships (AMP), and GUD, “Addressing Climate Change Through Sustainable Innovation”, Porto Alegre, Brazil

December 18, 2014 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil

 

July 22, 2015 GUD Board of Directors and Advisory Board Meeting in Washington, DC

 

 

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