Lecture

Carton plein: A Story of Social and Environmental Innovation

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

Description

This lecture tells the story of Francis and Antoine, who started a project called Carton Plein to recycle cardboard and create job opportunities for homeless individuals. The project evolved to include activities like bike deliveries and urban agriculture, emphasizing the importance of providing employment opportunities without prerequisites and the positive impact of social and environmental initiatives. The lecture highlights the challenges faced, the importance of community partnerships, and the resilience needed to sustain such projects.

Official source

Related concepts (9)

Urban agriculture

Urban agriculture refers to various practices of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in urban areas. The term also applies to the area activities of animal husbandry, aquaculture, beekeeping, and horticulture in an urban context. Urban agriculture is distinguished from peri-urban agriculture, which takes place in rural areas at the edge of suburbs. Urban agriculture can appear at varying levels of economic and social development.

Homelessness

Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. The general category includes many disparate situations, including: living on the streets, also known as sleeping rough (primary homelessness) moving between temporary shelters, including houses of friends, family, and emergency accommodation (secondary homelessness) living in private boarding houses without a private bathroom or security of tenure (tertiary homelessness) having no permanent house or place to live safely Internally Displaced Persons, persons compelled to leave their places of domicile, who remain as refugees within their country's borders The rights of people suffering from the devastating effects of homelessness also vary from country to country.

Controlled-environment agriculture

Controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) -- which includes indoor agriculture (IA) and vertical farming—is a technology-based approach toward food production. The aim of CEA is to provide protection from the outdoor elements and maintain optimal growing conditions throughout the development of the crop. Production takes place within an enclosed growing structure such as a greenhouse or plant factory. Plants are often grown in a soilless medium in order to supply the proper amounts of water and nutrients to the root zone as well as supplemental lighting to ensure a sufficient daily light integral.

Sustainability

Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long time. Specific definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Experts often describe sustainability as having three dimensions (or pillars): environmental, economic, and social, and many publications emphasize the environmental dimension. In everyday use, sustainability often focuses on countering major environmental problems, including climate change, loss of biodiversity, loss of ecosystem services, land degradation, and air and water pollution.

Sustainable development

Sustainable development is an organizing principle that aims to meet human development goals while also enabling natural systems to provide necessary natural resources and ecosystem services to humans. The desired result is a society where living conditions and resources meet human needs without undermining the planetary integrity and stability of the natural system. Sustainable development tries to find a balance between economic development, environmental protection, and social well-being.

Related lectures (40)

Catastrophe and anthropocene

Delves into catastrophes, from the Lisbon earthquake to the Anthropocene, exploring shifts from providentialist to scientific paradigms and the collapse of industrial civilization.

Urban Agriculture: Resistance and Contradictions

Examines urban agriculture as resistance to the Anthropocene, challenging common misconceptions and exploring its diverse forms and implications.

Planetary Boundaries: Biodiversity and Sustainability

Explores planetary boundaries, biodiversity, and sustainability, emphasizing the impact of crossing boundaries on Earth's system.

Urban Agriculture: Challenges and Opportunities

Explores the significance of urban agriculture in cities and the need for its integration into urban planning.

Post-carbon XL-M-S Manifesto