Sustainability Summit of University and Business Leaders Tackles Questions, Raises More

SCUP and The New York Times Knowledge Network assisted in the production which made streaming video of this symposium available to all, for free. This item by Scott Carlson provides his impression of the event:

“For us to continue to make progress economically, for us to continue to evolve, we have to do things in a different way,” Mr. Crow said in his opening remarks. “Most people are looking for new ideas, looking for leadership. … Hopefully we are the last era of the Stone Age leaders before a new generation can be transformed through our effort.”

Given the business-oriented lineup, the discussions that day centered on new products, better fuels, and smarter technologies. Mr. Ford spent time talking about the need to move to cars that burn hydrogen. (Sorry, that model is still under development.) Little to no time was spent on, say, redesigning our lives, buildings, and cities to reduce or eliminate the need for cars and new power sources. Amid all the talk of alternative fuels and the difficulty developing them, no one mentioned designing cities and neighborhoods to be walkable. (A perfectly competent designer — William McDonough, green architect and co-author of Cradle to Cradle — was reportedly somewhere in the audience and could have spoken to this.)