Michael M’Gonigle is co-author of Planet U: Sustaining the World, Reinventing the University, has an article in the Toronto Star How universities can help Canada’s troubled cities.  He writes that universities can help cities solve their problems and help build sustainable liveable cities:

The idea of many such cities and regions co-operating directly, as well as globally, is intriguing. To help it happen, I have a strategy, too, one that involves an unlikely ally —one with massive and diverse expertise, potentially boundless youthful energy, a large land base, and lots of power, prestige and wealth

I’m referring, of course, to the university. The “higher education industry” is arguably the most important industry in the world. A recent study of the American industry (with 6,500 accredited colleges and universities) put its economic impact at $1.2 trillion per year. At any time, 20 million Americans either work for, or attend, an “institution of higher education.”

Of Canada’s total R&D, 35 per cent (or $9 billion worth) was done by universities. This investment sustains a million jobs, contributes more to the country’s GDP than pulp and paper, automobiles, or the arts, entertainment and recreation industries combined.

These locally situated colleges are also plugged into countless worldwide networks; they are truly a global intelligence. Indeed, with millions of university graduates staffing the high-tech firms and hospitals and manufacturers that make up today’s knowledge economy, the university is actually the mother of all industries.

Today, universities generate huge traffic problems and massive quantities of greenhouse gases. Yet, some now save millions of dollars by giving every student a free transit pass. Local demand for buses has shot up; the need to drive has dropped. Fifty American universities issue passes to more than 825,000 students and staff.

Now, instead of 50 colleges, imagine 5,000. And, looking beyond just the bus pass, think of all these campuses building only state-of-the-art “green buildings,” revitalizing local farming and food systems, shifting to renewable energy suppliers, and redirecting institutional investments into community enterprises. Where a university adopts a mandate of comprehensive local innovation, its potential is truly Earth-changing.

With this week’s gathering asking how we might create sustainable cities despite the intransigence of national governments and transnational corporations, we have an answer: Look to your own backyard.