The Division of Environment & Sustainability organized the seminar “Merging Science, Policy, & Business Building a Network of Sustainable Cities” with the support of Business Environment Council on 11 September 2017.

With the strong global trend toward urbanization continuing, the chief focus of the investigation of avenues to long-term sustainability will be on cities, and the transportation, trade, and resource transmission networks connecting them. Prof. Robert Gottlieb (Emeritus Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy, and founder and former Director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College, Los Angeles, USA) and Mr Simon Ng (an environmental and transport consultant, and Fellow and former Chief Research Officer at Civic Exchange) have studied intensively the urban complexes of Los Angeles, Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta, their interconnections through the global trade in goods and resources, and their environmental and societal challenges. They co-authored a new book, “Global Cities” which engagingly describes the history of these urban complexes and their tightly-bound interactions, and explores how those experiences can inform the path forward.

At the seminar, Prof. Gottlieb and Mr. Ng described their research, with Prof. Gottlieb focusing on his studies of the Los Angeles urban complex and Mr. Ng on Hong Kong and the neighboring Pearl River Delta cities. Together they showed how closely connected, in the era of global trade, were these two urban areas on opposite sides of the Pacific, and how the impact of the global trade in goods and resources had affected their social structures and environments. Their presentation discussed the ways in which science and business can contribute to the determination of how cities and their interconnecting networks would structure themselves for long-term sustainability.

Presentation slides, videos and summary report can be downloaded here.