Ecocities Emerging To support humanity's transition into the Ecozoic Era	Ecocity Builders October 2010

Greetings,

Welcome to the October 2010 edition of Ecocities Emerging, an initiative of Ecocity Builders and the International Ecocity Conference Series.

We've covered a lot of ground since our last newsletter in September -- literally. Ecocity associate Walter Hood from Hood Design and Carl Belliston from Novatek joined us in Nepal where we met with local and regional partners including Sudarshan Tiwari, Shanta Lall Mulmi, Debra Efroymson and Anusuya Joshi. We are working together on an entry to the Living City Design Competition hosted by the International Living Building Institute. We're envisioning Kathmandu as a Living City and are addressing the seven "petals" of the design challenge: site, materials, health, water, energy, equity, and beauty.

Richard Register was a keynote speaker this October at the ICLEI Future of Cities Summit in Incheon South Korea. He also contribued an ecocity drawing for their stage backdrop which turned out to be a big hit at the conference. See his report from Korea and other places around the world in this edition of the newsletter.

Ecocity Builders spent time in Vancouver Canada this month working on the International Ecocity Framework and Standards Project, one of our major initiatives launched this February. We partnered with the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) to host a day-long experts consultation that drew industry representatives, foundations, nonprofits, academics and professionals. The results from the workshop were extremely useful and we're grateful to everyone who participated and to BCIT for hosting, and to the Helen and William Mazer Foundation for supporting our work on the project.

Closer to home, partnering with the City of Berkeley, we are nearly finished with a proposal for next phases of design work for Center Street Plaza. Stay tuned as this project ramps up again in coming months. In West Oakland, we're beginning another round of planning and implementation for the Village Bottoms Cultural District with the Black Dot Artists and Village Bottoms Neighborhood Association. We'll be networking with my class at UC Berkeley Extension in San Francisco and Professor of Agroecology Miguel Altieri's class on the Berkeley campus to help the neighborhood's work on project elements such as an urban CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) project, shipping container storefronts and a "moveable farm" plan.

At Ecocity headquarters here in Oakland, we're pleased to welcome on board, part time, Kelley Lemon and Shivang Patwa. They are both experienced urban designers with great ideas and enthusiasm for working on ecocity projects around the world.

Thank you all for your continued interest and support for our work, it is much appreciated.

Sincerely,

Kirstin_signature

Kirstin Miller for Ecocity Builders

Ecocity Builders
339 15th Street, Suite 208
Oakland CA 94612 USA
www.ecocitybuilders.org

Keeper of the International Ecocity Conference Series

Ecocity Builders is a non-profit organization dedicated to reshaping cities, towns and villages for long-term health of human and natural systems.

The Ecozoic Era refers to a vision, first promoted by cosmologist Thomas Berry, of an emerging epoch when humanity lives in a mutually enriching relationship with the larger community of life on Earth.

Will we be able to make the transition in time to retain a biosphere healthy enough to regenerate living systems now under extreme stress? Our role in exploring ecocities is to clarify a vision of cities that can. And then go out and build them. There is no way to be certain we will succeed, but our position is that there's no time to just sit around and wonder about it: now is time for action.

Maybe one day all cities will be ecocities.

ICLEI Future of Cities Summit
Richard Register speaks and provides conference illustration
link to conference review

register drawing for iclei summit

Ecocity Builders is working with a group of international advisors and experts on the development of International Ecocity Standards (IES). On October 4th, Ecocity Builders and British Columbia Institute of Technology hosted a day long experts IES consultation in Vancouver as part of the Gaining Ground conference. The following is our latest project summary actively shaped and refined with help from our core advisors and experts. We are now seeking partners in funding as we build out the framework, conduct research and pilot the standards with a range of cities around the world.

The International Ecocity Framework and Standards (IEFS) is a guide for cities and citizens seeking to establish an ecologically healthy and culturally fulfilling, restorative human presence on earth.

The call for cities in balance with nature -

Cities, towns and villages provide humans many well-known benefits, including options and opportunities for shelter, education, employment, cultural exchange and community. However, our
current way of building, inhabiting and maintaining our human habitats has resulted in cumulative and widespread environmental damage that is now threatening the fundamental health of earth's living systems. Cities and citizens are being urgently called upon to set a course towards a healthy future. Some cities are already embarking upon the journey.

To advance the call to action and facilitate positive change towards cities in balance with living systems, the International Ecocity Framework and Standards seeks to describe both the conditions for an ecologically healthy and restorative human presence on earth as well as a practical methodology for assessing and guiding the journey through the lens of the ecocity.

What is an ecocity? Simply put, an ecocity is an ecologically healthy city. As far as we know, there
are no true ecocities yet, although some are moving in that direction. And because each city is unique, there is no one-size-fits-all ecocity development model or just one way to get there from where we are now.

However, ecocities share basic characteristics analogous to healthy ecosystems and living organisms. They are also the physical containers for human evolution and creativity.

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Vanessa Timmer, One Earth Initiative and Alexis Morgan, World Wildlife Foundation - IEFS Experts Consultation

An ecocity is -

An ecologically healthy human settlement modeled on the self-sustaining resilient structure and function of natural ecosystems and living organisms.
An entity that includes its inhabitants and their ecological impacts.
A subsystem of the ecosystems of which it is part - of its watershed, bioregion, and ultimately, of the planet.
A subsystem of the regional, national and world economic system.
·The primary human-constructed product providing physical support, shelter and ordering of functions for further creative, compassionate and healthy cultural evolution.

bioregional

Bioregional ecocity illustration by Richard Register

Ecocities as ecosystems
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as
well as all the other basic components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water, and sunlight. Cities, towns and villages are urban ecosystems. They are also part of larger systems that provide essential services that are often undervalued, as many of them are without market value. Broad examples include: regulating (climate, floods, nutrient balance, water filtration), provisioning (food, medicine), cultural (science, spiritual, ceremonial, recreation, aesthetic) and supporting (nutrient cycling, photosynthesis, soil formation).

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Jennie Moore, Director, Sustainable Development and Environmental Stewardship, BCIT - IEFS Experts Consultation

Ecocities are in many ways analogous to living organisms
Like living organisms, cities (including their inhabitants) exhibit and require systems for movement (transport), respiration (processes to obtain energy), sensitivity (responding to its environment), development (evolving/changing over time), reproduction (including education and training, construction, planning and development, etc.), excretion (outputs and wastes), and nutrition (need for air, water, soil, food for inhabitants, materials, and recycling (transferring waste to new resource) etc.

seoul

The Ecocity Framework
The Ecocity Framework is a diagnostic tool for cities and citizens to measure progress towards ecocity conditions. Designed for a wide range of users, including both novices and experts, the Framework charts a city's steps forward - from existing conditions to "threshold" ecocity standards and beyond. A city reaches Ecocity status when it achieves a positive score in all categories.

Link to IEFS draft framework jpg

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Sebastian Moffatt, CONSENSUS Institute Inc. and Dr William Rees, Professor, UBC School of Community and Regional Planning - IEFS Experts Consultation

Certification
Ecocity Certification will be offered to entities applying through the IEFS secretariat. Ecocity Certification will be available to both existing cities and new projects. In order for a city or project to qualify, it must show a positive score for each of the categories included in the Ecocity Framework. Accreditation will be administered by a non-political panel of experts charged with maintaining transparency throughout the process. Scoring and results will be made available to the public.

Who will use the International Ecocity Framework and Standards?
The IEFS seeks to reach out across diverse sectors to reconnect people and human habitats with living systems. The framework is meant for a wide range of users, including citizens, cities, towns and villages, states, provinces, regional districts, nations, global organizations, businesses and corporations, trades and professions, regulatory agencies and educational institutions. It is a means for engaging citizens and constituents as well as a diagnostic tool that utilizes both standards and metrics. The framework is also intentionally flexible to accommodate and encompass a large number of diverse approaches and strategies that fall within its purview.

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Marco Vangelisti, Ecocity Builders - IEFS Experts Consultation

Charting a Course
There is no one-size-fits-all ecocity solution. Many pathways will lead to the ecocity and will be customized based on each cities' unique situation, history, cultural identity, and conditions of place.
Our intent is therefore not to prescribe strategies but to offer a guiding framework with clear and
measurable basic standards (conditions) and metrics (measures) to guide the process. However, in order to help cities and citizens chart a course going forward, we will seek to provide a comprehensive database of proven strategies and best practices heading in the right direction, plus a suggested process of engagement based on assessments, planning, implementation, feedback and evaluation. Some of the existing strategies that can be used and combined with other strategies to chart a course towards Ecocity Certification include LEED, The UN Urban Accords, ICLEI's STAR Community Index, The Ecological Footprint, The Living Building Challenge, the World Bank's Eco2Cities, and Bioregional and WWF's One Planet Living Principles and Framework.

We also acknowledge that some powerful ecocity models will not emerge from any one formal approach but instead will arise from inspiring stories, lessons, events, innovations or ideas that motivate action.

Who will administer the IEFS?
Currently, United Nations accredited nonprofit organization Ecocity Builders is anchoring the development of the IEFS along with a number of core advisors and international experts. The core advisors are simultaneously developing plans for an international secretariat that will eventually oversee the delivery, ongoing assessment and evolution of the IES once it is ready for deployment. The IEFS will be made freely available to the planetary public under a creative commons license.

To date, the IEFS is being shaped by a diverse constituency including representatives, employees and associates of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Manchester, British Columbia Institute of Technology, University of British Columbia, University of California at Berkeley, University of Montreal, Simon Fraser University, Tribhuvan University, The Ecological Society of China, World Wildlife Foundation US, Ecocity Builders, Urban Ecology Montreal, The One Earth Initiative, HealthBridge, Consensus Institute, Urban Resource Systems, Novatek, The Helen and William Mazer Foundation, Ecopolis Architects, Wayne State University ... (more adding).

The International Ecocity Framework and Standards is a project of Ecocity Builders. For more information, contact Kirstin Miller, Executive Director, at kirstin@ecocitybuilders.org. http://www.ecocitybuilders.org

Car Free Journey

By Steve Atlas

walking

This month is the first of a series of columns spotlighting weekend getaways you can enjoy without driving. If you have a favorite place you would like included in a future column, or would like to be a guest columnist and help me spotlight your hometown or favorite vacation spot you can enjoy without needing to drive, e-mail me at steveatlas45@yahoo.com.

Corpus Christi, Texas: A Gulf City With a Lot to Enjoy

Would you enjoy a vacation that includes a downtown with lots to do, trolleys, a Harbor Ferry, and an opportunity to enjoy both popular beaches near downtown, and the unspoiled Gulf beach? Then, Corpus Christi, Texas may be the perfect vacation spot for you.

Getting To Corpus Christi Without A Car

Corpus Christi International Airport is served by three airlines: American, Continental, and Southwest. From the airport, several hotels provide free airport shuttles. Check with the hotel when making reservations.

Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority (CCRTA)'s Route 67 provides three daily trips from the Airport to Corpus Christi City Hall, every day except Sunday. Buses leave the airport at 6:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., and 4:30 p.m. Directly across the street from City Hall is CCRTA's Staples Street Station: the hub of all RTA bus routes.

The Greyhound bus terminal is located at 702 North Chaparral Street in downtown Corpus Christi. The downtown trolley (CCRTA Route 79) stops outside the bus terminal: every half-hour, Monday-Saturday.

Read On

Global Climate Work Party Day Review

Richard and volunteers

In cooperation with 350.org and Friends of Five Creeks, Ecocity Builders cosponsored tours and serious puttering at our Codornices Creek Daylighting Project and Orchard and on the creek just west, bordering Berkeley and Albany.

Read all about it in Citisven's photo diary for Daily Kos: State of the Nation

Codornices Creek is Berkeley's and Albany's only stream with rainbow trout/steelhead. Lots of native trees, bushes, flowers, vines, and usually hummingbirds, dragon flies, butterflies...

"The problem is the present design of cities only a few stories high, stretching outward in unwieldy sprawl for miles. As a result of their sprawl, they literally transform the earth, turn farms into parking lots and waste enormous amounts of time and energy transporting people, goods and services over their expanses. My solution is urban implosion rather than explosion."
-Paolo Soleri

www.arcosanti.org

SAVE THE DATE

ECOCITY WORLD SUMMIT 2011
August 22-26, 2011
Palais des congrès de Montréal, Canada

The 9th International Ecocity Conference
montreal logo

Hosted by Urban Ecology Montréal, Ecocity World Summit 2011 will build on work of past Ecocity World Summits while adding new conference themes, participatory methods, and projects that will last beyond the life of the conference. Detailed conference content and design will be developed in collaboration with local and international partners, making sure that the particular urban ecological expertise of Montréal is highlighted.

Nepal in urban design contest

Himalayan News Service

KATHMANDU: Nepal is taking part in Living City Design Competition hosted by International Living Building Institute, a non-governmental organisation working on creation of sustainable environment.

Kathmandu has been selected as a model city from Nepal.

Non-profit Ecocity Builders and Novatek are partnering with Nepal, Bangladesh and America to enter the competition.

At the competition, design teams from around the world will create visual rendering of sustainable cities based on the imperatives of Living Building Challenges.

"Nepal Valley is a more than 2,000-year-old urban area with historic city planning and urban systems rooted in sophisticated administrative oversight, marketplaces, religious festivals and rites, temples and public spaces, strong urban boundaries and pedestrian cores, " said Kirstin Miller, executive director of Ecocity Builders.

She further said Nepal suffers due to climate change, water shortage, pollution, poor sanitation, energy crisis, health issues and rapid unplanned development.

The interventions prescribed by the Living City Kathmandu team could provide a practical solution to many issues regarding the city design, added Miller.

Shanta Lal Mulmi, executive director of Resource Centre for Primary Health Care, said the government should work with the concept of zero-waste strategy and eco-friendly settlement in the Valley for its sustainable development.

He further said that future generations be taken into account, in relation to environment management and quality of life.

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ECOCITY BUILDERS - here are a few photos from our September site visit to Kathmandu, we're very excited about the project and look forward to developing a compelling entry to the Living City Design Competition with our partners in Nepal.

K_Anil