Calgary is at a crossroads. The economy that built our city is fading under economic pressures and climate crisis. But a more vibrant Calgary is within our grasp. What can we learn from cities around the world? How can we best leverage our own resource, intellectual and cultural assets? What is our role and responsibility in the global transition? Explore such questions in Sustainability Matters – Calgary in Transition, a new study program facilitated by Dr. Noel Keough, author of Sustainability Matters: Prospects for a Just Transition in Calgary, Canada’s Petro-City.

From the dawn of the Age of the Automobile, we have developed a fairly standard template for city-building. Some call that template car-habitat. For many reasons – health, safety, climate change, economics – that template is under strain. So what next? For 6 weeks this spring, we will be guided by the oft-misunderstood concept (or as some would say, philosophy) of sustainability. Using Sustainability Matters: Prospects for a Just Transition in Calgary, Canada’s Petro-City (2022) as our primary text, we will begin with a broad historical and global perspective and proceed to examine how we (re)build our city with justice, inclusion, human flourishing and harmony with the natural world front and centre.