Joseph Malki, the visionary founder of Green Cities, is currently traveling throughout Florida on a Green Cities Florida “Listening Tour.” He is meeting with business and NGO leaders and calling on governments to identify priorities in building Florida’s ‘green’ economy, and explaining how they can benefit from Florida’s market transformation to sustainability.
Malki met with Marc Mondell, Director of the Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability for the City of Ocala, Florida last week to discuss Ocala’s sustainability initiatives.
Like most cities, Mondell’s team is looking into sustainable incentives from the federal stimulus program. Ocala is also developing a long term strategic sustainable plan for their green trajectory.
Ocala is small city going green with a new green building project with a very interesting new tenant. The federal government is delivering $958,300 to the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Inc., Pensacola, Florida, to renovate a building in downtown Ocala, Florida to establish a Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) Institute research/innovation center to serve the Central Florida region. IHMC is on the cutting edge of new developments in the artificial intelligence, robotics, human-machine interaction, cognitive psychology, and computer science fields. At IHMC, scientists and engineers are rethinking the relationship between humans and machines while at the same time bringing new jobs and investment to revitalize the Central Florida region. The recipient intends to pursue LEED Gold Certification standards as well. This project will create over 100 jobs and generate $2.5 million in private investment.
Members of Ocala city staff are considering attending Green Cities Florida and seeking continuing education credits from the AIA, APA, USGBC, and the Florida Green Building Association.
To follow Malki’s blog during the Green Cities Florida “Listening Tour”, go to http://greencitiesblog.com/.
Malki will be among the expert speakers May 19-21,2009 at Green Cities Florida in Orlando. For the full list of speakers, visit http://greencities.com/usa/florida/orlando/2009/speakers.
Green Buzz 