Vania Goncalves de Souva from the Prefeitura de Porto Alegre has worked with the community for four years and is committed to continuing this work. Vania is pictured (left) on the last day of Vila Chocolatao with Mario, who has lived at Chocolatao for thirty years. She says “resettlement or settlement is an important, a fundamental big step towards the emancipation of the community ...the new house is important because it improves the living conditions. But the point is… to continue capacitating, empowering the community to bring change into their lives to be able to cope with the rights and duties in the new life. We know, even after the resettlement we have to continue working with the community to seek together the true social inclusion”. Vania is currently working with researchers from the Cities Programme and Australian University, RMIT to help map the history of the project and develop a model for application in other settings.

For some the improvement has been immediate. Bete - pictured below in front of her shop in Vila Chocolatao and then receiving the keys to her new shop from Prefeito Fortunati - is very pleased with the change in her life. She recently reported delight at the beauty of rain falling on the window of her new shop - a first time experience.

Pictured below is long time Chocolatao resident who now has a wheelchair accessible house and sealed roads at Nova Chocolatao. He is also pictured with Cezar Bussato, Secretary of Political Coordination and Local Governance, Prefeitura de Porto Alegre and project champion. Cezar says Chocolatao’s inclusive and consultative model will now be applied to other communities the City is working with. This includes focusing on health, employment and training as well as housing.

The new recycling centre at Nova Chocolatao (below) is a major source of employment for the community who were traditionally catadores, or street pickers. The City has changed its garbage collection and disposal practices so that refuse is delivered to the workers at Chocolatao instead of them collecting from the streets and bringing home the rubbish to sort, a major health and safety risk which resulted in tragic fire a number of years ago. All facilities will be managed and operated by Chocolatao community members. The Recycling Centre manager is pictured below being interviewed by local media.

A network, ‘Vila Chocolatao Sustainability Network’ was an important governing collaborative force in the years of preparation to move. It included members of health, education and law services, the Chocolatao community and the private sector. Teresa, another community leader is pictured below with friend Mario and Marcio Milleto Mostardeiro, from the City of Porto Alegre in the old community space that was used for network meetings when it was wet (they were otherwise in the adjacent park) and childcare. Teresa is also pictured in her new home at Nova Chocolatao with husband and adopted son on the day of the inauguration.

The relocation has not been without its challenges. A number of families moved to Vila Chocolatao after the project’s census date and a range of alternative accommodation was required to be negotiated for these people.

Below is the Brasilian WebTV feature on the Chocolatao move. Also see ABC Radio Broadcast on Chocolatao on the ‘Future Tense’ Program - ‘Bigger Cities, Bigger Slums’

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The IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grants, valued at about $400,000 apiece, are aimed at helping cities improve one aspect of city life. Issues addressed by winning cities include health care, education, safety, social services, transportation, communications, sustainability, budget management, energy and utilities.

More than 200 cities in 40 countries competed for the 24 grants. The IBM grant in Milwaukee specifically will look at how water management and aquaculture intersect, and whether there’s a sustainable economic model in Sweet Water Organics, an urban fish and vegetable farm that mimics the Earth’s natural ecosystem in an industrial building in the Bay View neighborhood. Harnischfeger Industries once used the building to make mining cranes.

Cofounded by roofing contractor James Godsil and business partner Josh Fraundorf, Sweet Water Organics is the first commercial test of Will Allen’s innovative aquaculture model for perch – an eco-friendly system that produces fish and vegetables in a closed system that conserves water. Growing Power, the nonprofit urban farm at 5500 W. Silver Spring Drive, unveiled the system three years ago.

James has big aspirations and unlimited enthusiasm for the enterprise and says that Sweet Water Organics may well be the world’s first enterprise involving the transformation of a century old factory building into an aquaponic fish produce farm as well as an art, science, and earth friendly innovation center.

“Sweet Water is a hybrid enterprise growing farmers and, through the power of the internet, aspiring to diffuse aquaponics innovations, large and small, across the planet, especially to arid and rain forest nations. He believes “every city deserves a Sweet Water!”

Sweet Water is raising tens of thousands of yellow perch and plants in simulated river beds, and harvesting information for hands-on education in science, technology, engineering, and math. Sweet Soil, is also being developed through large scale composting.

The Milwaukee team welcome the IBM alliance. “It’s my understanding that IBM wants to help Milwaukee advance itself as one of the world’s smartest cities by virtue of our commitment to learning to feed ourselves,” Godsil said. “We’ve formed a grand alliance around creating a 21st-century, Earth-friendly industry that reminds me of the grand alliance formed when we shifted from wheat and alfalfa and corn to dairy – a much higher added-value form of agriculture with technology surrounding it.”

From left: Claus Dunkelberg from the Milwaukee Water Council with some of the Sweet Water Organics team: Chaya Nayak, James Godsil and Jess Hull.

For more information see www.sweetwater-organic/press and https://smartercitieschallenge.org/index.html

Executive Director of the Milwaukee Water Council, Dean Amhaus sees enormous benefit to the region from its sustained, collaborative focus on water.

“Milwaukee’s global leadership in water technology has offered the region a level of distinctiveness that every place is seeking to achieve.  This unique asset will clearly help in attracting water professionals to study and work in the region which in turn will be critical in the creation, expansion and attraction of water-related businesses.  The bottom line offers great economic development opportunities for our region along with building a tremendous level of pride for our citizens”.

Milwaukee are tackling fifteen complex projects related to water in its work as a lead Innovating City in the UN Global Compact Cities Programme. In addition to private sector and university collaboration, projects include urban aquaculture, phosphorus, stormwater, and sewage treatment, water policy and governance and community perception and use. These involve a number of lead organisations and cooperation across borders and sectors.

Given Milwaukee’s location on the Great Lakes, which holds twenty percent of the world’s freshwater supply, the importance of this collaborative work cannot be underestimated.

The U.S Water Prize is valuable, deserved recognition. Clean Water America Alliance President Ben Grumbles explained that the “five water champions reflect the diversity of America and set a shiny example for innovating, integrating, and collaborating from coast to coast to sustain America’s most precious liquid asset.” Other U.S. Water Prize winners include the City of Los Angeles, National Great Rivers Restoration & Education Center, New York City Department of Environmental Protection, and the Pacific Institute.

U.S. Water Prize winners will be honored in a special ceremony on May 9, 2011, at Washington, D.C.  For more information, visit www.CWAA.us.

A recent UNGCCP visit with Milwaukee Water leaders. From left: Claus Dunkelberg (Milwaukee Water Council); Professor Sam White (University of Winsconsin Milwaukee); Elizabeth Ryan (UN Global Compact Cities Programme); Paul Krajniak (Discovery World); Dean Amhaus (Milwaukee Water Council)

To help cities develop this kind of capability, Accenture has teamed with the Global Compact Cities Programme to develop what we have termed an “Intelligent Cities Simulator”. The purpose of this software system is to simulate the effect of particular programs, interventions and actions on key urban indicators.

Modelled indicators include both general indicators such as CO2 emissions, HDI and Liveability indexes, and program-specific metrics, such as water consumption, recycling rates and proportionate energy mixes.

The simulator provides a useful, high-level pre-planning heuristic, directing attention towards possible side effects and unintended consequences of interventions, prior to (and possibly pre-empting) the undertaking of more detailed cost-benefit analyses. It also takes into account actual urban conditions, through city profiles which capture demographic, environmental and other statistics, and which then show, through the selection and configuration of programs, the differential effects of those programs.

The development of the simulator is an iterative and evolving project. The intention is to learn from the ongoing discussions and critical feedback as the simulator is used around the world. The partnership with the Global Compact Cities Programme enables the engagement with cities across the world as a base to feedback real experiences. In this way we intend to continually develop and expand the simulator to act as a knowledge base and interactive learning tool.

For more information contact Mr Liam Magee, Research Fellow, RMIT University

The State of Australian Cities 2010 report progresses the cities agenda at the national level, setting the context and scope for further involvement by the Australian Government in urban policy and planning. The next stage will involve the development of a national cities strategy that outlines the Australian Government’s approach to achieving more productive, liveable and sustainable cities in the future.

A copy of the full report is available here: State of Australian Cities 2010 (.pdf)

As of 1 June, the confirmed Signatory Cities are:

• Governo do Municipio de Ortigueira, Estado do Parana, Brasil
• Ville De Bois-Des-Filion, Canada
• Municipalidad de Los Angeles, Chile
• Changsha City, China
• Xiangtan City, China
• Yiyang City, China
• Zhuzhou City, China
• Alcaldia Municipal de Piedecuesta, Columbia
• City of Bonn, Germany
• City of Nuremberg, Germany
• Municipality of Budapest, Hungary
• Kawasaki City Government, Japan
• Municipality of Greater Amman, Jordan
• Gumi City, Korea
• City of Veracruz, Mexico
• Gobierno del Estado de Sonora, Mexico
• Gobierno del Estado de Yucatan, Mexico
• Municipalidad Distrital de Santiago de Surco, Peru
• Municipality of Wroclaw, Poland
• The Municipality of Vrbas, Serbia
• City of Kalmar, Sweden
• Municipality of Besiktas, Turkey
• Nilufer Municipality, Turkey
• Bath and North East Somerset Council, United Kingdom
• City of Cleveland, United States of America

This business led forum will discuss the Global Compact, corporate citizenship and responsible investment in the Australian business context and the role of business and government leadership in driving responsible practice and sustainable development nationally, regionally and internationally.

Appointment of members of the Steering Committee of the GCNA and the Network Contact Point will also be voted and confirmed.

“This conference provided an opportunity for companies, public authorities, and other interests to discuss collaboration with respect to making cities and towns more sustainable in economic, environmental, and social terms”, said Gavin Power, Deputy Director of the UN Global Compact. “With more than half of humanity living in urban centres, and this trend expected to grow, the ways in which cities – in partnership with others – manage urban planning will be critically important in the coming years and decades”.
Key observations and perspectives offered at the conference included:

• Urban sustainability should include a number of elements touching on economic, environmental, social, and cultural issues and priorities;
• Leading cities are moving from a narrow compliance orientation with respect to the business community and towards engaging with private enterprise via partnerships and other forms of collaboration;
• The involvement of civil society organizations is important vis-a-vis public-private initiatives;
• Both local government and companies should build greater internal capacities in order to effectively work with one another.

Professor James presented the publication to the City of Melbourne on Monday 1st of March, 2010. The City of Melbourne has been supporter of the Cities Programme since its initiation at the Committee for Melbourne in 2002.

Professor Paul James, Director of the Cities Programme, said that at a time of concern around civic culture and sustainability we need practical tools for re-thinking problems confronting world cities.

“The central tool within the Cities Programme is being utilized by 13 cities who have taken on major projects which demonstrate leadership and innovation at an international scale.

“Current projects span all continents and show improvements to topical urban issues including the role of business in climate change, slum rehabilitation, water management and the prevention of unethical behaviour,” Professor James said.

The City of Melbourne is currently piloting research methodologies with Global Cities Institute at RMIT University, which are focussed toward the residents within the central business district and their awareness and understanding of the responsibilities and governance of climate change adaptation.

The international launch of the publication will be held in Rio De Janeiro on the 23rd of March at the UN Habitat World Urban Forum, which is the world’s premier conference on cities. Members of the International Secretariat from RMIT University were selected to provide a technical training session to the forum delegates. 

This is wonderful news and the training session titled, “How to Effectively Incorporate Sustainability into Urban Governance” will be available for government, business and civil leaders to attend.

The World Urban Forum is one of the most open and inclusive gatherings of its kind on the international stage. It brings together government leaders, ministers, mayors, diplomats, members of national, regional and international associations of local governments, non-governmental and community organizations, professionals, academics, grassroots women’s organizations, youth and slum dwellers groups as partners working for better cities.

For further details and to register your interest online, visit the WUF5 website.

There is a countless number of iindividuals who are part of a Local Secretariat and continue to promote the 10 Principles of the Global Compact and the Cities Programme within their spheres of influence.

The International Secreatariat extends their appreciation to these people who so generously give their time to educate others about the benefits of engaging in the Cities Programme. We look forward to our continued work in 2010.

How to articulate the knowledge production strategic communities in urban areas? How to stimulate collective innovation, the transactional behavior and use of cyberspace for the largest share of citizens?

Connecting the Dots: How Climate Change Transforms Market Risks and Opportunities. 
This report charts the intimate interaction of climate change with other key issues on the global agenda, and identifies the requirement this places on governments and international agencies to develop a new level of policy coherence. It warns business that both the success or failure of climate policy will transform the landscape of risk and opportunity for investment. The report further urges the faster and more imaginative development of partnerships between governments, international agencies, businesses and civil society organisations.

Champions of the Low-Carbon Economy: Why CEOs are Ready for a Global Climate Agreement.
Forty chairmen and CEOs of corporations from around the globe were interviewed for this report. These chief executives indicate that climate inaction is too costly to their businesses and the world. They support a strong global climate agreement and are ready to lead the resulting world economy.

Chief Executives Taking a Stand for Climate Action.
In support of Seal the Deal!, the UN’s global advocacy campaign for a fair, balanced and effective post-Kyoto climate agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 15), the Global Compact Office is reaching out to participants to galvanize the global business voice for climate action. Chief executives were asked to share brief testimonials, expressing why they support an effective climate agreement. This publication presents a selection of these testimonials.

To download a copy of these publications, please visit the UN Global Compact website at http://www.unglobalcompact.org