Date: Thursday, November 19, 2015
Time: 7:30–9:30 pm
Venue: University of Calgary, Craigie Hall C, Room 119
Address: 2940 University Way NW, Calgary
Hosted by: Eclipse Solar, Leaf Ninjas, and Pixie Gardens, with special thanks to Landscape Alberta*
Tickets in advance via Eventbrite
Brad’s talk title & description:
Regenerative Rights-of-Way: Local Harvests and Enhancements in Our Community Commons,
a.k.a., Urban Water and Abundance

In the urban environment, streetscapes are our public land, our commons. They are abundant—one-third of a typical city’s footprint is pavement for motor vehicles. These streetscapes are usually designed as drains, rapidly ridding a community of such perceived “problems” as rainwater, stormwater, organic matter, fertility, and obstructions to traffic flow. This design often leads to ever-increasing costs for importation of water, flood control, pollution control, heat-island abatement, climate-change mitigation, and health problems.
But a simple shift in perception and design can enable us to see and utilize rainwater, stormwater, organic matter, fertility, and even some obstructions to traffic flow as free, local resources, which can be passively harvested to enhance local water supplies, control flooding, filter pollutants, grow cool-islands, mitigate the effects of climate change, and improve health—while generating more resources and more life.
The key is to see and enhance the free abundance that we already have in a way that transforms more of our built systems into living systems that can regenerate themselves and our communities.
Numerous successful examples will be featured.
*Thanks to Landscape Alberta for bringing Brad to Calgary for their 2015 Green Industry Show & Conference. Event details & registration here.