I enjoyed doing a presentation for the University of Manitoba recently. My presentation was on how human settlements in Africa are drawing on culture and tradition as well as innovative organization and technologies to become more sustainable.

Aspects covered include how material banking is used to build housing without mortgages, how traditional materials and construction are evolving to meet new needs, how product-as-a-service entrepreneurs are providing affordable responsive renewable energy, water and other services, and how innovative social organization is used to build local social infrastructure such as schools.

Many thanks to Lawrence Bird for the invitation and to the audience for the interesting questions and ideas to develop in future work.