SolarPunk
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Bioplhilia and the need to fill our cities with nature.
Biophilia refers to the innate human tendency to seek connections with nature and other living beings. It reflects the inherent bond humans have with the natural world, which positively impacts both our physical and mental health.
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Is this a template for the Solar Punk City of the future?
Gelephu Mindfulness City in Bhutan aims to integrate Gross National Happiness principles with sustainable development, creating eco-friendly urban spaces rooted in cultural values. The project emphasizes mindfulness, environmental sustainability, economic diversity, and community-centered design, proposing an innovative model for future cities while ensuring genuine public consultation for success.
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Here Comes the Sun by, Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben has a new book coming out on the 19th of August 2025 called Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization
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Hedonistic Sustainability: Building a SolarPunk City
The real value of the SolarPunk movement has always been in making a sustainable future look desirable. No one is going to buy into the idea of a sustainable future if it looks like a worse version of the world we live in right now. So if we are to build sustainable cities, they really…
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Participatory Urbanism: A beginners guide
I recently did a speech to my local Rotary Club about a Participatory Urbanism project I am working on. To my surprise, the audience appeared equally interested in the whole Participatory Urbanism concept, as much as the project itself. So I thought it would be good to put together a quick explainer, which I can…
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Building a Sustainable home in the Australian Outback
In 2024 Anika Molesworth and her partner set out to build a family home in a remote part of New South Wales. They were looking to create, in Anika’s words, “something comfortable, a beautiful space that complemented the land, and a house that doesn’t cost the planet.” That was the mission. But after speaking with various builders,…
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Peer-to-peer energy in developing nations
It’s estimated that globally 1.18 Billion people are living in energy poverty and 700 Million are living with no electricity at all. [1] Many of them are in rural areas with no chance of ever getting connected to a mains (Fossil Fuel) grid because the electricity/maintenance would be just too expensive. Enter peer-to-peer energy trading…
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Moving from an Egosystem to an Ecosystem
In an Egosystem, the individual is seen as the centre of the universe. Success is defined solely by personal achievement, and the value of community, empathy, and shared prosperity are all relegated to the background. The Egosystem is a world view where people are encouraged to compete at all costs, accumulate wealth for themselves, and…
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Let’s use the word ReGrowth, not degrowth
We know the word degrowth is unappealing, thanks to loss aversion theory.0 Loss aversion theory refers to a cognitive bias in which a situation is perceived as worse if it is framed as a loss, rather than a gain. Losses tend to be treated as if they were twice as large as an equivalent gain.…
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Transforming Lawrence Weston, Bristol, With the Power of Community
This inspiring video came to my attention recently and I felt it really deserved a blog post. For a while I have been thinking about writing a series of posts called “People who got stuff done, and how.” As the name suggests, it was going to be a collection of inspiring stories about Community Lead…
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St. George Rainway: From Vision to Vibrant Community Space
The St. George Rainway in Vancouver is a wonderful fusion of community-driven initiatives and innovative urban design. What began as a vision to transform an underutilised space into a vibrant corridor has evolved into a dynamic area that enhances both the environment and the local community. The St. George Rainway was first envisioned by a…
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Future for All: A vision for 2048
Capitalist realism is dispelled. Today it is easier to imagine the end of capitalism by 2048 than to imagine the end of the world.
Our Wonderful Green Future 