Peter Plastrik knows cities. He was born in Paris, grew up in New York City, and lived in not one but four Michigan cities. He is cofounder and vice president of the Innovation Network for Communities, was a founding consultant to the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance and has worked closely with the Urban Sustainability Directors Network since its inception in 2008. Pete has also been the lead author on several national reports about cities and climate change and co-wrote the book, Life After Carbon: The Next Global Transformation of Cities, in 2018.

Pete’s most recent book, Connect, Innovate, Scale: How Network’s Create Systems Change, with John Cleveland and Madeline Taylor, looks at over 20 case studies of people and programs, embedded in what Pete calls “networks,” that are actually, in Pete’s view, changing the world, that are making our places and our planet greener, juster and better in a discernible, measurable way.

We invited Pete to share his knowledge about and experience with cities and with these changemakers, the social innovators and social innovations that are having a real and positive impact on urban living today and what the future of cities, and the planet as a whole, might look like.