Envisioning Sustainability
Urban sustainability became the focus of Berg's thinking in the late 80's and he organized a series of symposia with SF Bay area inhabitants to design a truly sustainable future. The result of these symposia was the book A Green City Program for the San Francisco Bay Area and Beyond which Peter edited with Beryl Magilavy and Seth Zuckerman. The book went through two printings and was the basis for the formation of the SF Department of the Environment. Planet Drum Foundation added the Green City Project to its Bay Area agenda. Berg has done presentations and workshops about bioregional sustainability all over the world, and his essays have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Catalan and Japanese. During the 90's Peter felt it was necessary to really impact Japanese Society, since they were impacting the environment all over the world. In the late 90's Peter was invited to Ecuador to help involve the locals in the First International Mangrove Day. While he was there the city he was working in voted to rebuild from El Nino Flooding and an earthquake's devastation as a sustainable city. They invited Peter to help. So Planet Drum initiated the Eco-Ecuador Project in Bahia de Caraquez. Peter has been a consultant to the mayor ever since. Bergs essays have appeared in (partial listing) City Lights Journal, Chicago Review, Co-Evolution Quarterly, Encyclopedia of World Environmental History, Bienvenidos a Casa, Environmental Action, Landscape Architecture, Not Man Apart, Paper Sky, Resurgence, The Ecologist, Urban Green Tech, Whole Earth Review. He has taught at (partial listing): King Abdul Aziz Univ. (Saudi Arabia), Kennedy Center, Harvard (Massachusetts), Tokyo Univ., Meiji Gakuin, Kyoto Seika, Ryukuku, Aoyama Gakuin, Rikkyo U., Musashi Tech. (Japan), Beijing Academy of Sciences (China),University of Barcelona (Spain),Vasser College (New York),Univ. of California (Berk., SC, SB, Davis), California State (San Francisco, Sonoma),Univ. Espiritu Santo (Guayaquil, Ecuador), The Open University (Norwich, England) In 1998 Peter Berg was the recipient of the Gerbode Professional Fellow Award. In 2001 he was recognized by Greenwood press as an Environmental Activist. He has been the Special Environmental Cosultant to the Mayor in Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador since 2001.