The conference brought together UCLA experts with peers from across the United States and Israel to share the latest developments and best practices in urban sustainability.

by Jack Schwada, Communications Associate, Y&S Nazarian Center

UCLA International Institute, May 26, 2016 — On Thursday, May 19, 2016 more than 400 students, faculty, environmental professionals and community members gathered at DeNeve Auditorium for UCLA’s Smart and Sustainable Cities Conference. The event brought together experts from UCLA, across the United States and Israel to present the latest developments and best practices in urban sustainability.

Israel has been a leader in sustainability innovation for decades, especially in the area of water management.

“There is a wealth of knowledge and experience in Israel with sustainable practices,” said Yoram Cohen, director of the UCLA Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies and primary organizer of the conference. “And because California and Israel have a similar climate and share many of the same environmental challenges, it made great sense to exchange information on ‘what works’ in both locations.”

Cohen, a professor at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, joined the conference panel discussion on water. Other panels covered transportation, energy, the built environment, as well as the digital city and the sharing economy.

A concluding panel took a big-picture approach and discussed the nexus between sustainability and innovation, politics and social change.

Participants spark lively discussions

Six other UCLA faculty members also participated in the panel discussions, including Stephanie Pincetl of the California Center for Sustainable Communities, J.R. DeShazo and Martin Wachs of the Luskin School of Public Affairs, Rajit Gadh from Engineering, Kevin Daly from Architecture and Urban Design, and Mark Gold, Associate Vice Chancellor of Environment and Sustainability and head of UCLA’s Sustainable LA Grand Challenge.

All of the featured UCLA panelists are leaders in the sustainability field. Their innovations include developing and installing smart grid technologies, implementing policies to make solar energy affordable, and mapping energy use of buildings in Southern California. Other projects of these UCLA faculty have involved improving transportation infrastructure, constructing water treatment systems, building sustainable and affordable housing options and leading efforts to make Los Angeles sustainable by 2050 through UCLA’s Grand Challenges Initiative.

These scholar-innovators were joined by an impressive group of their peers from Israel, among them, Valerie Brachya and Tamar Gavrieli (Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies), Evyatar Erell (Ben-Gurion University), Eran Feitelson (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Sheizaf Rafaeli (University of Haifa) and Uri Shamir (Technion-Israel Institute of Technology).

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti delivered the conference’s keynote address. He spoke about his vision for Los Angeles and after his remarks, sat down to discuss Los Angeles’s first Sustainable City pLAn with Peter Kareiva, director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

“It’s cities where the sustainability action is,” the Mayor explained.

Following the conference, the panelists joined other sustainability leaders from Southern California, including from the City of Santa Monica, the City of Los Angeles and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, for a Friday morning roundtable discussion. They continued the conversation on urban sustainability policies and technologies, discussing the similarities and differences in the approaches of Israel and the United States (particularly the Los Angeles region) to sustainability.

The participants plan to publish their deliberations and proposed solutions to advancing sustainability in urban environments in California, Israel and across the globe.

The Smart and Sustainable Cities Conference was a collaborative effort among a number of UCLA schools and departments and the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, an independent, non-profit think tank in Israel.

UCLA partners included the Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, the California Center for Sustainable Communities, the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Luskin School of Public Affairs, the Water Technology Research Center and the Ziman Center for Real Estate.

The conference was funded, in part, by a generous grant from UCLA Interdisciplinary and Cross-Campus Affairs, together with grants from the Israel Institute, the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, the Y&S Nazarian Family Foundation, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Netafim, CGI, and the National Water Research Institute.

Published: Thursday, May 26, 2016