Aiming to help cities and city-regions grow sustainably and boost health and happiness for their residents, the One Planet Cities initiative will support Tarusa’s leaders in writing a citywide sustainability strategy using the One Planet Living® framework, designed to help move towards a greener, healthier future.

Following several visits to Russia and its neighbouring countries by Bioregional co-founder Pooran Desai OBE, where meetings were held with sustainable development leaders in Moscow and Astana, Tarusa stepped forward and announced its ambitions to become Russia’s first One Planet City.

Partnering in the initiative are UK based Planet 2030 Ltd and Russia’s National Agency for Sustainable Development (NASD).

Guy Eames, Director of Planet 2030, said: “We are delighted with Tarusa’s decision to join the other four cities. Tarusa is a thriving City in the Kaluga Region – known for its artistic and scientific communities. Eco-tourism is growing rapidly – Tarusa is eager to grow economically but is equally anxious that its natural capital is not depleted as a result”.

Svetlana Duving from NASD added: “One Planet Living is exactly what we have been looking for, it offers us the framework to bring together so many local initiatives – with a focus on the ecological footprint, which is so often ignored. Whilst creating better local lives we want to preserve the heritage of Tarusa, with its wooden houses, picturesque river and pristine forest and air”.

Sergei Manakov from the city administration said: “I’m proud that Tarusa is now connected with other communities worldwide. This gives us the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn from each other. I look forward to connecting our schools to those in Oxfordshire, Saanich, Durban & Elsinore, to explore transport solutions in those cities and ways to develop local purchasing”.

Pooran Desai of Bioregional said: “Globally, we are consuming resources and polluting the planet at a level 50% higher than the Earth can absorb. Bioregional’s One Planet Living framework provides a holistic framework to drive and communicate about sustainable transformation. So far there are more than 595,000 people living in, visiting and working at organisations, communities and cities that have committed to One Planet Living. It’s fantastic to see Tarusa embrace the challenge – and opportunity – of becoming a One Planet City.”

Tarusa joins communities in Canada, Denmark, South Africa and the UK who are using the One Planet Living principles to make their cities better places to live whilst working together to accelerate the change needed to achieve happy and prosperous lives for all within the limits of our one planet. The One Planet Cities project is funded by the KR Foundation.

Tarusa’s involvement in the One Planet Cities project is supported by the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office through a grant for “Catalysing growth for sustainable communities through UK-Russian collaboration.”

Image credit: CA Hunter Planet 2030