Contributor(s): Herbert Girardet | Prof. Herbert Girardet’s public lecture was based on his new book, Creating Regenerative Cities, published by Routledge in October 2014. Is an urbanising world a ‘triumph of the city’, or an environmental tragedy in the making? He argued for a fundamental conceptual shift in the way we organise our urban systems, and for thinking and acting beyond ‘sustainable development’. In Girardet’s view large modern cities have effectively tried to declare their independence from nature. We tend to see cities as centres of the universe rather than as appendages of ecosystems and climate systems. How can we assure that modern cities develop a regenerative relationship to the living world on whose health they ultimately depend? Girardet is a prolific author, speaker and consultant. His new book has been described by Huffington Post as one of the world’s three best green books of 2014.