RSA - Creating Healthy Cities

From The RSA.

First a little background:

Albina Ruiz started worrying about health and environmental problems caused by garbage in Peru when she was an industrial engineer student. Twenty years ago, she came up with an idea for local enterprises to collect and process garbage: charging affordable fees, reducing waste volume in municipal landfills and generating more income by separating recyclables, spinning off additional microenterprises to produce compost and other marketable by-products. After 15 years of promoting her concept while working as a consultant to cities, industrial firms and various international development projects, she founded Ciudad Saludable in 2001.

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS OF 2010

• Establishing waste management systems that are more dependable and less expensive than those provided by municipal governments, Ciudad Saludable has organized over 1,500 waste collectors, creating employment and improving health and living conditions for over 6 million people living in rural and poor urban regions in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and India.
• Ciudad Saludable was instrumental in the creation of the first law in Peru (as well as Latin America) to regulate the activities of waste recyclers.
• Ciudad Saludable has also established two other organizations: Peru Waste Innovation, a consulting firm specializing in solid waste management; and Healthy Cities International (New York), which is in charge of replicating Ciudad Saludable’s model around the world.

Here is the post from RSA.

Creating Healthy Cities

22nd Nov 2011

Listen to the audio (full recording including audience Q&A)

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RSA Albert Medal Event

Albina Ruiz, founder of Ciudad Saludable (The Healthy City Project) is awarded the 2011 RSA Albert Medal for for outstanding contribution to environmental management and micro enterprise.

Albina Ruiz is founder and chief architect of a system of self-reliant, community-run micro businesses that are dedicated to processing urban waste and promoting cleaner and healthier cities across the globe.

Albina will give a lecture highlighting the innovative work of her organization Ciudad Saludable, describing how it grew from its small Peruvian origins into a global non-profit movement. Ciudad Saludable has its own postgraduate university programme and a dedicated foundation geared towards replicating their successful model in other cities worldwide.

Recounting her own experiences of setting up and driving forward this global social enterprise, Albina’s story will strike a chord with many of the RSA’s Fellows who are working in the same field, and will provide inspiration for the RSA’s nascent Enterprise programme.

Chaired by Julian Thompson, director of enterprise, RSA.

RSA Albert Medal

First awarded in 1864, the Albert medal was created as a memorial to Prince Albert, who had been President of the Society for 18 years. It was originally given 'for distinguished merit in promoting Arts, Manufactures and Commerce'. Today, it acknowledges those at the forefront of driving social innovation in action.