1. Information for participant in session:
26 September 5:00 pm
RG3
Evolution of behavioural patterns: how to generate sobriety and implication in the transition?
Video presentation by
Edward CHURCH
Institute for Environmental Entrepreneurship
Executive Director
Understanding human interaction with the built environment –
we can reduce the carbon footprint of cities
short bio (less than 800 characters)
Over the past 30 years, Edward Church has had wide-ranging experience in government, nonprofits and private
business. Ed has served as the Executive Director of the Institute for Environmental Entrepreneurship since 2007.
He has won awards for innovation from the San Francisco Business Times, and awards from the State of California,
the County of Alameda and the City of Oakland.
His experience includes being Chief of Staff for the Mayor of Berkeley and directing the Livable Communities
Initiative at the East Bay Community Foundation. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Urban and Regional
Development at UC Berkeley. Ed was Program Director at Urban Strategies Council, an anti-poverty think-tank,
and was the Founding Executive Director of Brighter Beginnings, a maternal and child health organization.
Ed Church received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1977.
Abstract of the presentation (less than 1,000 characters)
Key words: built environment, urban behavior, carbon reduction, transportation, housing
Our research looked at how people meet their needs within cities, so we could advise planners and city officials how
to reduce the carbon footprint. We reviewed 130 sources from urban planning, economy, sociology, and psychology
journals, focusing on human-centered activity rather than technology.
We found that the U.S. convention is to plan for car travel, which makes walking and biking “alternative” methods,
which is contrary to how people meet their basic needs, in which walking is primary.
We found differences in navigating the built environment by gender, immigrant status, and the perception of
housing density. We looked at ways that the basic need for open space is achieved by cultural preference.
The proposed solutions to the climate change problem among planners so far have been physical, infrastructural, and
technical fixes, but our study and conclusions emphasize the anthropogenic: how humans engage with physical
infrastructure has substantial implications for greenhouse gas emissions. We are just beginning to understand how
human activity and behavior relate to low-carbon development and sustainable consumption.
www.enviroinstitute.org