Geothink Co-Applicant, Colleague and Friend Leaves Behind Rich Legacy of Empowering Sustainable Urban Change at the Community Level

By Drew Bush Geothink Co-Applicant Alexander C.E. Aylett passed away on July 23, 2016 from cancer. A beloved son, husband and father, colleagues also remember him for his warmth and passion. His research empowered urban communities to engage with sustainable development through the use of digital technologies and open data. His wife Luna, their two daughters, Inara and Aurora, her … Read More

Gethoughts 8: How Technology is Reshaping Citizen Interactions on Climate Change

By Drew Bush We’re very excited to present you with our eighth episode of Geothoughts. You can also subscribe to this Podcast by finding it on iTunes. In this episode, we examine what role Canada’s cities play in international solutions to climate change as well as how new technologies shape interactions in neighbourhoods and between neighbours on environmental issues. In … Read More

Envisioning An Environmentally Sustainable Urban Future Using Clean Digital Technologies

  By Drew Bush Imagine a world where electric taxis crowd Montreal’s downtown streets, green buildings efficiently manage energy consumption for Vancouverites, and Toronto’s city leaders monitor differences in neighbourhood surface heat emissions to best position green roofs. Now imagine the environmental and social impacts of such shifts when scaled-up for all of Canada’s cities. That future—one that makes use … Read More

Crosspost: Green Cities and Smart Cities: The potential and pitfalls of digitally-enabled green urbanism

This post is cross-posted with permission from Alexander Aylett, from UGEC Viewpoints. Aylett is an Assistant Professor at the Centre on Urbanisation, Culture and Society at the National Institute for Scientific Research (UCS-INRS) in Montreal, Quebec. By Alexander Aylett Since its early days, the discourse around “smart cities” has included environmental sustainability as one of its core principles. The application … Read More