UC Davis Extension instructor Jeff Loux ventures to Northern Europe this summer for a class on how cities and neighborhoods can be more sustainable.

From July 5 to Aug. 4, Loux and 28 students will visit the cities of Stockholm and Malmo in Sweden; Copenhagen and Odense in Denmark; Freiburg in Germany; Strasbourg in France; and Zurich in Switzerland. Loux, the director of the Land Use and Natural Resources program at UC Davis Extension and an adjunct faculty in environmental design at UC Davis, is teaching the UC Davis Summer Abroad Class titled “Sustainable Cities of Northern Europe.

Loux's blog will include student photos and slide shows to illustrate cutting-edge urban sustainability practices in some of the most beautiful, historic areas of Europe.

Loux said the class will explore how urban places, by creating livable communities that address environmental, economic and social issues, can become more sustainable.

“These communities seek to reduce energy, water and land consumption, reduce or eliminate urban pollutants like production of greenhouse gases, and get people out of their cars and in to a healthy walking and biking lifestyle,” he wrote on his blog.

Every couple of days, the class will choose a theme to explore and write about, and then add combine the copy with photographs or video footage that best illustrates this theme, he said.

“Most of the themes will center around the city we are visiting,” Loux said. “It might explore a part of the city like Hammarby Sjosad in Stockholm, or an element found throughout the city, like parks in Malmo.”

According to Loux, the students come from universities all across the United States and Canada, and represent many different disciplines — planning, environmental science, landscape architecture, architecture, urban design, policy and engineering. Material culled from the trip will be featured in a fall UC Davis Extension course, Sustainability Abroad: What Can We Learn From Europe and the Rest of the World.

 More information.