Beyond the City Wall: Building Sustainable Cities on an Interconnected Planet

The Department of Bioresource Engineering invites you to a special seminar by Benjamin Goldstein, PhD, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan

Cities house the majority of humanity and economic activity, but also produce 80% of carbon emissions and consume copious resources (e.g. 60% of residential water, 75% of wood). This pollution and resource demands have profound impacts both inside and outside of cities. This talk explores how urban sustainability research helps understand and mitigate these challenges, both within city boundaries, and “beyond the city wall” at distant locations. Through case studies of urban agriculture, meat, and agro-forestry products, I demonstrate how tools from engineering and geography can quantify the environmental impacts of urban processes. This expanded understanding of urban sustainability contributes to building equitable cities that respect our planet’s finite resources.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Benjamin Goldstein is a broadly trained engineer concerned with solving environmental challenges produced by cities. He advances methods and models to quantify the environmental impacts of technological and policy interventions in urban areas. His work combines engineering tools with theory grounded in social science to promote an interdisciplinary and multi-scale understanding of urban sustainability. He has applied this perspective to topics including urban agriculture, regional food systems, meat consumption, residential energy use, and supply chains of rubber and timber.

Dr. Goldstein is a candidate for the faculty position in Urban Agriculture & Plant Production Engineering.