Edge of Innovation
Putting Real Urban Opportunity–Carbon-Free and Equitable–into Opportunity Zones
In a report featured in GreenBiz–“Opportunity zones could provide major boost for clean energy, sustainable development”–INC partners Julia Parzen & Graham Richard explain how the federal Opportunity Zone program can be leveraged to produce gains for communities, investors, and the planet. Julia and Graham chart various innovative ways…
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New INC Report: Playbook 1.0: How Cities Are Paying for Climate Resilience
This report by Innovation Network for Communities and Climate Resilience Consulting identifies eight distinct strategies cities are using to pay for large-scale climate-resilience projects, mostly to address sea level rise and flooding. These strategies amount to an initial approach—Playbook 1.0—for deciding who will pay what and…
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New INC Report: Can It Happen Here? Improving the Prospect of Managed Retreat by US Cities
This research report provides city government and civic leaders with new reasons to consider the use of managed retreat as a way to strengthen their cities’ climate resilience. As mounting destruction by rising seas, hurricanes, and wildfires drives the dangers of climate change deeper into public…
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Five Resilience Trends to Watch in 2019
Americans depend on our country’s transportation, energy and water supply systems. This infrastructure is under increasing stress as coastal storms, wildfires, drought and sea level rise. And there are countless questions on how to gain the political will, as well as the funds and financing for…
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“Carbon Free Boston” — How One US City Can Reduce GHG Emissions and Improve Quality of Life
January 31, 2019 | Cities, Climate Innovation Laboratory Cities, Innovation Network for Communities, Urban Climate Innovationby
This new report by the Boston Green Ribbon Commission, staffed by INC’s John Cleveland, analyzes, quantifies, and prioritizes strategies and actions for reducing GHG emissions and explicitly addresses the potential impacts of different policies on social equity. From the report introduction: “The report’s analysis makes clear the great…
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Urban Transformation Reader: A Holiday Book List
As we researched Life After Carbon, we relied on a number of terrific books for ideas, examples, and inspiration. Here’s our list, with links to Amazon. Also note that according to our book’s Amazon page, customers who bought our book also bought 12 other books including…
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Making City Decarbonization Real: Boston Uses Rigorous Analysis to Measure and Track Impact of Policies and Strategies
The recent IPCC report concludes that to avoid the worst effects of global warming, the entire global economy has to plan to reduce emissions by 45% by 2030 and 100% by 2050. These targets are consistent with the targets set by most of the cities we profile…
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The 30-Year Evolution of Urban Climate Innovation: From Decarbonizing to Co-benefits to Transformation
December 2, 2018 | Climate Innovation Laboratory Cities, Modern City Model, Urban Climate Innovation, Urban Transformationby
The spreading and evolving efforts of cities to reduce GHG emissions have proceeded through three stages in the past three decades: Decarbonizing Emissions, Emphasizing Co-benefits, and Seeking Transformation. In Life After Carbon, we describe the emergence of urban transformation. From Chapter 6: As climate innovations proliferate in…
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Research Report: Toward a Climate Resilience Financial System for US Cities
Below is a summary of our new research report, produced with partners Cadmus Group LLC and Ramboll. Financial support provide by Summit and Kresge Foundations. Full report available here. Purpose This research project’s purpose is to identify ways to accelerate the development and growth of public and…
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Awakening: Emergence of Climate Leadership from Silent Spring to Inconvenient Truth
Excerpt from Life After Carbon, chapter 2, “Urban Climate Innovation Laboratories” Before climate change arrived in the headlines in the late 1980s, the groundwork for climate leadership had been laid. The creators of urban climate innovation labs span three overlapping generations, each of which experienced its own jolt of awakening and…
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