The goal of Solar CITIES is to give households the
ability to solve as
much of their
own energy, food, water and waste challenges as possible, using the
resources available to them. We also strive to give marginalized
individuals a chance to
participate as “green collar workers” in the global “green
economy”
and empower families to form micro-enterprises in renewable energy,
water and waste management that can widen small scale solution
sets to
larger areas.
This way, nobody can claim to "own the sun" or tell us that a
sustainable economy based on urban ecologies "isn't feasible".
|
Solar CITIES
-- Connecting Community
Catalysts Integrating
Technologies for Industrial Ecology Solutions
Solar CITIES is all about
"connecting community catalysts integrating technologies for industrial
ecology solutions" (hence the acronym “C.I.T.I.E.S.”) in areas of urban
and rural poverty. Founded by an urban planner and an educator,
Solar CITIES works at the household and community levels,
training individuals, families and local organizations primarily how to
build their own integrated solar hot water and
kitchen-waste-to-cooking-fuel-and-electric-generator-fuel biogas
systems as well as grey-water systems, composting systems, aquaponics
and rooftop gardening systems, schmutzdecke water filtration systems
and small-scale wind and solar electricity installations.
|
|
 |
Who We Are
Solar CITIES co-founder T.H.
Culhane is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer who has worked in
sustainable development education and technology for 25 years in
Indonesia, Guatemala, Mexico, South Central Los Angeles, Syria and
Egypt. Living in the urban slums of Cairo as part of his Ph.D.
research he and partner Sybille Culhane developed and adapted ways of
using local and recycled materials to provide solar hot water and
biogas for themselves and then for friends and neighbors. The outgrowth
was the formation of their NGO which now brings this tech-knowledge to
poor communities around the world. Besides conducting trainings
in sustainable infrastructure development, the Solar CITIES team, in
cooperation with UNESCO and National Geographic, makes presentations in
schools and conferences and develops applied science educational
materials that use new media, music and drama to make learning
industrial ecology solutions relevant, fun and easy.
Visit our
Blog
In the News:
Sun & Wind Energy did a great job of
capturing our work. Read
the
story here
CLICK
HERE to
listen
to
Solar
CITIES
Zabaleen
project
on
National
Public
Radio, Weekend Edition with
Liane Hansen
CLICK
HERE
to listen to
Solar CITIES Al Azhar Park/Darb Al Ahmar project on National Public
Radio, Weekend Edition with Liane Hansen
See us on ABC News talking about Making Cairo's Garbage City Green
We had fun talking to Boyd
Matson
on
National
Geographic
Radio
on
July 04, 2009 about our
solar hot water project.
We had
a great follow-up
radio
interview
with
Boyd
Matson
at
National Geographic on February 27,
2009 during our trip to Alaska
Our Solar CITIES work was featured in the UCLA
Graduate Quarterly Magazine
Sybille published an article on Solar CITIES "Uber den Dachern
von Kairo" in Papyrus Magazine
Solar CITIES was featured as an External
Collaborator with the
Aga Khan Trust for
Culture in their annual report
T.H. Culhane's early experiments at the L.A.
Ecovillage and in South
Central L.A. ghettoes were
featured on "Living on Earth" with Alan Weisman
T.H. Culhane's early renewable energy work at
the L.A. Ecovillage was featured in the
Christian Science Mointor
T.H. Culhane wrote a chapter in Egypt,
Energy
and
The
Environment,
Chapter
8:
Solar Energy in Egypt: A
Question of Behavioral Economics? AUC Press
Watch us on National
Geographic's
Wild
Chronicles
here.
See our
music-video "Talkin'
Trash"
here.
|
|
