What a year it's been. These are trying times for those who care about equity, sustainability and climate change—the issues that will shape our common future. And yet, even in these times, there are extraordinary people working to create a fairer, greener world. Here at the Island Press Urban Resilience Project (URP), it is our privilege (and pleasure) to help those people amplify their voices—informing and inspiring us all.
We have come a long way since the project was first launched. This year, we published more than ever before (both articles and books), reached new audiences, and greatly expanded our multimedia offerings. Here are the top URP highlights from 2017:
- URP Hits 50! Short-form content, URP's bread-and-butter, grew in quantity and reach in 2017. We published over 50 articles, op-eds, and blog posts this year (up 13% from 2016), with potential views totaling 240 million.
- Op-Eds Big and Small Building on our short-form success, we established a partnership with the Progressive Media Project this year that enabled us to place op-eds in a variety of newspapers across the country — from red state papers like the Argus Leader to national outlets like USA Today.
- Mr. Speaker, I Rise Today A big milestone for URP this year was discovering that one of our op-eds ("Trump Cutting the EPA WaterSense Program Makes No Sense At All") was submitted to the Congressional Record as part of Rep. Jared Huffman's remarks over the summer. How's that for congressional approval!
- Can You Hear Me Now? Through a partnership with Infinite Earth Radio, URP has now branched out into the realm of podcasting! This new initiative enables us to reach more than 2,000 listeners per episode, while building the platforms of our authors and contributors. Give 'em a listen here.
- Webinars We continued hosting popular webinars, both in-house and through the Security and Sustainability Forum. A record-breaking 1200 people registered for our February webinar Climate Justice Changes Health: Local, Tribal, Global, and Generational.
- Diversifying Urban Design As part of our efforts this year to connect with more diverse audiences, we organized a successful panel at the Congress for New Urbanism conference in May that called for greater inclusiveness in urban design and planning. Catch the video recording of the panel here.
- Spotlighting Injustice This year, more than 18,000 Detroit residents have been at risk of losing their access to clean water. Venturing further into video content, URP helped Grist.org produce a feature on the Detroit water crisis.
- Books with Purpose Social equity is increasingly central to the books we publish here at Island Press. This year, our equity-focused titles included David de la Pena's Design as Democracy, Daniel Lerch's The Community Resiliency Reader, John Cary's Design for Good, and Philip Langdon's Within Walking Distance.
- Power to the People We were especially thrilled to see the publication of Energy Democracy: Advancing Equity in Clean Energy Solutions, co-edited by frequent short-form author Denise Fairchild. It's a book filled with compelling stories of folks on the ground, from Maryland to rural Mississippi, who are bringing locally-controlled renewable energy to their communities.
- There's An App for That Last but not least, we launched our very own app this year! With it, you can find and read the latest URP articles, search inside many of our best-selling books on creating resilient cities, as well as peruse all the Island Press books. Find it on the Google Play and Apple App Store today.
As always, please email resilience@islandpress.org to learn how you can get involved in the project to forge a greener, fairer future. We'd love to hear from you! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Flipboard, Medium and subscribe to our monthly newsletter below.
Kyler Geoffroy is the Online Marketing Manager for Island Press