10th Annual Urban Soils Symposium - Metabolism of Cities & Soils

wastED Opportunities

Come celebrate together- the 10th annual urban soils symposium!

We are all part of the metabolism of the planet. The life cycle exists on the processes of breaking down to rebuild. Waste turns to value, and becomes a building block in economic, human, and environmental health and development.

Join the symposium through discussions, workshops, demonstrations, interactive, installations, many think tank, activations, and exchange networks of experience and knowledge and stories.

We will explore wastED opportunities in recycling, remediation, and reclamation.

Friday, November 21 & Saturday, November 22

4W43 Building

4 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036

Call For Proposals

This is a platform for diverse voices to share and exchange across disciplines and sectors, cultures, and backgrounds, with soils as a common denominator, our common language. We invite you to participate through this open call for: presentations, leading a workshop or a discussion, to table, host a demonstration, or offer an exhibit. We encourage participants to be creative in their format and style and especially encourage interactive formats.

Process: Proposals will be reviewed by our organizing committee. Acceptance of proposal is limited to several criteria, and we cannot guarantee that your proposal will be accepted for the live format during the symposium , however, if the content is accepted, there will be an opportunity to present your work on our website and or on our YouTube channel.

Format: One of the biggest limiting factors is time. We have a two-day symposium. Please consider being flexible with the date and the time element of your work. For presentation style formats, we prefer durations of maximum 12 min. We encourage discussions and interactive formats whose duration can be longer depending on the proposals and final schedule.

All work should be relevant to soils and the topics listed under wastED opportunities.

Submit Proposal

Topics

Recycling

Upcycling
Returning to Nature’s cycles
Metabolism of Waste (specific to sector or system)
Nutrients Cycling
Life cycles (Animate/Inanimate)
Compost
Waste Regulations

Remediation

Industrial Approach to Remediation
Earth-Human Connection
Ecosystem Restoration
Policy & Regulations
Economics of Remediation
Energy Sector
Connections to Metabolism

Reclamation

Reclaiming-
-soil
-water
-sovereignty
-health
-voices
-rights
-food
-access
-traditions

Our Approach

USI is a platform developed for exploring urban soils and surrounding disciplines.
We are non-biased in disciplines, sector, angle, audience. You don’t change the world by only working with like-minded people.
We are multi-disciplinary and open background as represented through speakers, exhibitors, and audience.
Soils are the grounding for our work.
We are discussion-driven, for sharing, and inviting holistic approaches and understandings.
Symposium is not the climax or end point - it serves as the launchpad for the year.
We invite collaborations, action items, hypothesis-driven debates, goal-charged roundtables, engagement and experience in workshops, fostering unusual relationships/collaboration, vehicle for working groups.

Collaborators

Privacy Statement: Privacy & Data Statement: When you submit or present your work at an in-person event or virtual event, you agree to allow NYC Urban Soils Institute (USI), and NYC Soil & Water Conservation District to feature your video/presentation/submitted work on the USI website and/or USI YouTube channel and livestream your video/presentation/submitted work if presenting live, unless explicitly requested otherwise. Full authorship credits will be attributed to the presenter and any other entities associated with the creation of the video/presentation/submitted work at the presenter’s behest. Any copyrighted content, including images, audio content and quotes, featured in the video presentation/submitted work is not claimed as property of the NYC Urban Soils Institute, NYC Soil & Water Conservation District, or event collaborators. It is the author’s responsibility to properly source, provide credit, obtain permission for all necessary content featured in their work.

If you are presenting and/or participating in the discussions or workshops held or sponsored by the NYC Urban Soils Institute, NYC Soil & Water Conservation District, or collaborators, you consent to group photos. If you choose not to be included, please inform a staff member that you do not wish to be photographed, and in the case of virtual meetings, turn off your video and use a pseudonym for your Zoom profile.