CLIC Participation at UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign COVID-19 Urban Thinkers Campus #3 “GUD’s Sustainable Innovation Zones/Communities and COVID-19 Resilient Recovery Strategies”

On July 28th 2020, Prof. Luigi Fusco Girard, CLIC Scientific Coordinator, and Antonia Gravagnuolo, CLIC Researcher from CNR-IRISS, took part in the UN-Habitat World Urban COVID-19 Campaign Urban Thinkers Campus, organized by the Global Urban Development Network.

Over the past 9 years, GUD has worked on the creation of “Sustainable Innovation Zones” / “Sustainable Innovation Communities”, a hybrid of an innovation ecosystem, an ecodistrict and a community economic development strategy to foster Participatory Community Transformation and engage citizens in taking actions towards a better urban future, more equitable, sustainable and inclusive.  In particular, starting from April 2020, GUD’s Board of Directors has organized a monthly conversation on post-coronavirus strategies focusing on the definition of a new agenda based on 13 key approaches. In this framework, GUD has started collaborating with the CLIC project, connecting it with the ZISPOA activities (Porto Alegre Sustainable Innovation Zone) in Porto Alegre and other Sustainable Innovation Zones/Communities to present effective new strategies – and specifically the circular economy model – able to increase the quality of life and prosperity in cities and urban regions regions by becoming more sustainable.

The online event was the occasion to discuss the CLIC project activities and results, together with GUD’s Sustainable Innovation Zones in Porto Alegre and Panama City, London Sustainable Innovation Community and GUD’s Working Group on 3D housing construction and other innovative technologies and recycled materials for sustainable and equitable community development.