The Rebel Alliance
(From Chapter 5)

Do. Or do not. There is no try.
Master Yoda (The Empire Strikes Back)

Cities learn from and teach each other. They naturally “connect, interact, and network,” points out Benjamin Barber in If Mayors Ruled the World.

For more than two decades, growing numbers of cities have been doing what comes naturally: engaging with each other worldwide in formal and informal networks to share what they’ve learned about urban climate innovations and collaborate on developing and refining new innovations. These cities recognize that, for perhaps the first time in history, the success of any individual city depends, to a large degree, on the success of cities collectively. In meetings, conference calls, and online chats just about every day of the year, mayors and city managers, community activists and nonprofit leaders, architects and other professionals, business owners and bankers enthusiastically share their know-how and war stories. Within this multitude, innovation-lab cities function as generative hubs, producing innovations and connecting with and inspiring other cities to make climate innovation come alive.

We call this global mesh the Rebel Alliance, after the band of insurgents in Star Wars and Rogue One that pitted its meager resources against those of the Galactic Empire and plotted to destroy the planet-obliterating Death Star. The emergence of thisdense web of connections among urban climate innovators and early-adopters of innovations has been spurred by visionary mayors, like London’s Ken Livingston and New York’s Michael Bloomberg, and funded in large part by philanthropies, as well as governments. It’s a self-organizing, tireless swarm with no commander-in-chief, following the “North Star” of climate action. Its participants apply what they learn back to their cities, where they engage with elected officials, community organizations, business leaders, and others to refine the world’s growing, tested knowledge into workable local actions.

Acknowledgements: It Takes an Alliance

Our community of courageous urban climate rebels has encouraged and supported our commitment to figuring out and sharing what is known and can be done, so that others may follow and contribute.

First a roll call of joiners, then a few call outs.

Thank you Jørgen Abildgaard, Richard Anderson, Susan Anderson, Michael Armstrong, Bernardo Baranda, Tim Beatley, Jessica Boehland, David Burdette, Christopher Chan, Amy Chester, Gary Cohen, Carl Costello, Lois DeBacker, Dong Peng, Marcia Ente, Fan Dongxing, Barbara Finamore, Adam Freed, Aaron Straus Garcia, Alan Greenberger, Guo Jianli (Jerry), Mami Hara, He Dongquan, Linda Holmstrom, Amos Hostetter, Eva Hsu, Bjorn Hugosson, Frank Jensen, Håkon Jentoft, Kate Johnson, Sadhu Johnston, Roya Kazemi, Paul Kirshen, Bryan Koop, Jean Ku, Mette Søs Lassesen, John Lee, Robert Lempert,Mindy Lubber, Atyia Martin, Vincent Martinez, Ed Mazria, Fei Meng, Nils Moe, Steve Nicholas, Michael Northrop, Melanie Nutter, Manuel Olivera, Donnie Oliveira, Henk Ovink, Johanna Partin, Mariella Puerto, Mark Raggett, Debbie Raphael, Trude Rauken, Graham Richard, Bud Ris, Rodrigo Rosa, Mary Skelton Roberts, Gregor Robertson, Christina Salmhofer, Eric Sanderson, Seth Schultz, Neelima Shah, Brendan Shane, Ian Shears, Malcolm Shield, Kelly Shultz, Jill Simmons, Doug Smith, Dean Stewart, Dr. Susanna Sutherland, Brian Swett, Ken Thorp & family, Aisa Tobing, Tian Zhan,Maggie Ullman, Bill Updike, Mijo Vodopic, Sarah Ward, Morley Winograd, Darryl Young, Zang Ao Quan, and Joe Zehnder.

The Kresge Foundation provided a crucial grant, without which we would not have been able to undertake this project. Jessica Boehland, senior program officer for environment at Kresge, served as partner and sounding board, bringing her extensive knowledge and critical judgment to the project. The Summit Foundation provided additional funding for marketing the book, a hard-to-get resource in the nonprofit sector that we inhabit. Darryl Young, director of sustainable cities at Summit, offered wholehearted support when the book was just a two-page concept paper. Much thanks also to the Barr Foundation, which has been a lead funder of John’s work with the Boston Green Ribbon Commission.

To our publisher, Island Press, we offer thanks two ways. Thank you to the Island Press team—Heather Boyer, David Miller, Sharis Simonian, and TK—for betting on the potential value of this book before it had been fully articulated, and for ushering us through the manuscript development, book design, and production processes. (We weren’t always easy to work with, we know.) And thank you, Island Press the organization, a nonprofit started in 1984 with a mission to communicate ideas for solving environmental problem. The Island Press canon, especially books concerning the built environment, was a fabulous resource for us. Time after time, books that provided important insights and examples turned out to be Island Press publications. We hope Life After Carbon adds to the written bounty.