![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/announce\/files\/2019\/10\/Gerben3-150x150.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Expert in sustainable communities to speak at UFV Oct 18 <\/strong><\/p>\n Gerben van Straaten<\/a> believes in a \u201cfundamentally different approach\u201d to sustainable urban development.<\/p>\n Drawing from 28 years\u2019 experience in business, economics, and real estate, he travels the world sharing his \u201cradical hope for the power of collective and collaborative efforts around community development\u201d to tackle the Earth\u2019s most pressing problems \u2014 climate change, poverty, and social injustice included.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>Van Straaten is the founder and CEO of the Netherlands-based World of Wala<\/u>s<\/p>\n He will be speaking on the topic of \u00a0\u201cMission: Earth First\u201d at the UFV Abbotsford campus on Friday, October 18, at 1:15 pm in University House (Building F, Room 124).<\/p>\n Van Straaten founded the Netherlands-based company World of Walas<\/a> in 2010 amidst an economic crisis. Almost a decade later \u2014 25 companies strong, and with partnerships across Europe, China, Canada, and the USA \u2014 World of Wala<\/u>s finds innovative ways to (re)develop struggling cityscapes by looking at the social, cultural, ecological, and financial impacts.<\/p>\n Van Straaten is no stranger to B.C. or the Fraser Valley. He worked with the City of Chilliwack in the mid-2010s<\/a> to generate ideas on how to re-purpose empty commercial spaces downtown, and owns the Dudoc Vancouver Centre for Sustainable Urban Design and Development.<\/p>\n He is also an active member of the International Earth Charter movement, author of Earth Charter Cities Manifesto<\/em>, and a signatory partner of the United Nations\u2019 Sustainable Development Goals.<\/p>\n \u201cMission: Earth First\u201d is free, open to the public, and will feature a Q&A session with van Straaten after his presentation.<\/p>\n The event is presented by the UFV Office of Research, Engagement, and Graduate Studies, www.ufv.ca\/research<\/a><\/p>\n Fri, Oct 18 For more information, contact Danielle Mijo Burch at danielle.mijoburch@ufv.ca<\/a><\/p>\n 10\/18\/2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Expert in sustainable communities to speak at UFV Oct 18 Gerben van Straaten believes in a \u201cfundamentally different approach\u201d to sustainable urban development. Drawing from 28 years\u2019 experience in business, economics, and real estate, he travels the world sharing his \u201cradical hope for the power of collective and collaborative efforts around community development\u201d to tackle … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":20485,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10,2,12,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event","category-myufv","category-news","category-calendar","category-ufv-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/announce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/announce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/announce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/announce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/announce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20484"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/announce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20549,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/announce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20484\/revisions\/20549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/announce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/announce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/announce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/announce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n1:15-2 pm
\nF124, U-House, Abbotsford campus<\/p>\n