CP Partners and Benefits

 

City Protocol Society assists all types of organizations to connect, learn, share, collaborate, and implement city transformation.    

 

It enables Cities to:

• identify common challenges and agree to work on these pragmatically and effectively together to deliver tools, methods, pilots etc., to support wide-scale evidence-based transformation
• link up with other cities that have common requirements and, through aggregation of demand, enable greater innovation, with faster, better, cheaper solutions created from product and service providers, who, in turn, will gain access to larger and more dependable markets.

It enables Industry, Research Bodies, Financial Institutions, and Organizations to:  

• work with cities in addressing their challenges and identifying the most appropriate business and financial models to gain the investment needed to enable real transformation
• find city partners to engage in new models of business and pursue joint initiatives
• serve as global distribution channels for existing city transformation efforts already underway.

The City Protocol Society is open to all cities, businesses, research agencies and organizations who are working to understand and deliver change in cities throughout the world.    

 

Visit www.cityprotocol.org  and sign up to get more information about how to become a partner in this global community.  

 

To sign up to City Protocol Society email updates, please email secretariat@cityprotocol.org with "City Protocol newsletter" in the subject line.

Ecocity Builders' Kirstin Miller visits a passive solar building project near the Barcelona harbor

Areti Markopoulou, Director of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, gives a tour of the IAAC lab in Barcelona

Sebastian Moffatt, Consensus Institute, from Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada, discusses project details with Barcelona based research team members

 

The International Ecocity Framework and Standards identifies "Healthy Culture" as one of the 15 essential conditions of an ecocity. Specifically, "an ecocity facilitates cultural activities that strengthen ecoliteracy, patterns of human knowledge and creative expression, develops symbolic thought and social learning" (www.ecocitystandards.org). 

Mobility designed for the human body, not the car.

There is an iterative relationship between culture and its expression in the built environment. We build what we believe, and as we build so shall we live (Register 2006). Therefore, whether a society values the ecological systems upon which it depends becomes evident through the treatment of local ecology within the city and the design of the built environment in relationship to it. Examples include preservation of urban streams and natural topographical features, buildings that are energy efficient and orient to the sun or create shade as local climatic conditions require. Public spaces that provide opportunities for relaxation and "re-creation," and that also function as green corridors or buffer zones to support habitat protection and food production.  

 

Community garden with car planter in foreground.

 

Of course, a city's ecological dependence also rests with its surrounding bio-region and other areas scattered all around the world whence it draws energy and resources. The ways that an ecocity facilitates cultural activities that strengthen eco-literacy with regard to these "urban ecosystem relationships" is critically important (Rees 2010). Indeed, a healthy culture is one that can regenerate itself and adapt according to changing circumstances (Diamond 2005). 

 

Commercial urban agriculture.

 

 

 

Like the city, the culture that built it is also "a living system of human relationships that expresses itself in language, arts, tool-making and social organization, including politics and economics" (Downtown 2012). Downtown uses the geometric notion of "fractals" to explore how healthy culture can both develop and scale-up across a city. A fractal contains within it all the essential characteristics of the larger whole of which it is a part. A small community that contains the values and governance structure essential to a healthy culture can create and re-create an ecocity over time.

Welcoming cycling on neighborhood streets.

References:

 

Register, Richard. 2006. Ecocities: Rebuilding cities in balance with nature. Gabriola Island BC: New Society Publishers.

 

Rees, William E. 2010. Getting Serious About Urban Sustainability: Eco-footprints and the vulnerability of 21st century cities. Chapter 5 in Trudi Bunting, Pierre Filion, and Ryan Walker (eds.), Canadian Cities in Transition: New Directions in the 21st Century. Fourth edition. Oxford UK: Oxford University Press.

 

Diamond, Jared. 2005. Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed. New York: Viking Press.

 

Downton, Paul. 2012. Neighbourhoods and Urban Fractals - the building blocks of sustainable cities, posted on October 17 in The Nature of Cities (online resource) http://www.thenatureofcities.com/2012/10/17/neighborhoods-and-urban-fractals-the-building-blocks-of-sustainable-cities/  (Accessed on November 29, 2012).

 

British Columbia Institute of Technology School of Construction and the Environment is Lead Sponsor of the International Ecocity Framework and Standards Initiative 

 

 

First Night: Raleigh, North Carolina

 

As the holidays approach, many of us wonder how to spend New Year's Eve. One of my favorite New Year's Eve activities is "First Night:" A non-alcoholic arts and entertainment evening available to area residents at little cost (usually a "button" that costs $10-$20 for all programs).  For many years, my wife and I enjoyed 1st Night in Annapolis, MD. One year, we celebrated 1st Night in Alexandria, VA. 

 

One of the benefits of First Night is there is no need to drive. Many programs are within walking distance of each other. Frequently, a free shuttle bus provides transportation between venues. Since many First Nights are held in or near downtown, visitors can stay in one location and enjoy a great New Year's Eve without ever needing to drive.

 

For a complete list of communities throughout the United States that have their own First Night, visit http://firstnightusa.com/.

 

This year, we wanted to celebrate First Night away from home. One community we considered was Raleigh, North Carolina.  (Unfortunately, our plans changed and we couldn't come that evening.) Raleigh is one of many communities that offer First Night for the entire family. In this month's column, we will visit downtown Raleigh, learn about First Night, and suggest a few self-guided walking tours that you can enjoy without ever needing to drive or leave downtown Raleigh.

 

 

You are invited to:

- join the Ecocity tweetchat on Fridays, 2pm-5pm CET (Central European Time)  http://tweetchat.com/room/ecocity

- join our weekly Skype calls on Fridays (each call starts on the hour, between 2 and 5pm CET, add ecocity2013 to their contact lists, calls will be held in English)

- follow the #ECOCITY hashtag on twitter

 

And please help spread the word:

- Retweet the call for contributions to your contacts (please add the #ECOCITY hashtage and please use this link: bitly.com/Qn2B0T)

- join the ECOCITY team on wiserEarth (if in doubt, contact @WiserEarth)

- Post about #ECOCITY on other social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+)

 

10th in the International Ecocity Conference Series

UPDATE: Ecocitizen World Map Project receives endorsement and adoption by Eye on Earth's Special Initiative Secretariat   

by Kirstin Miller, Executive Director, Ecocity Builders 

Map screenshot - Rio de Janeiro area favelas' citizen reports

The Ecocitizen World Map Project, previously affiliated with the Eye on Earth Community Sustainability and Resilience Special Initiative, recently received official full project adoption and endorsement by the Eye on Earth Secretariat. The Secretariat is currently developing a communications and funding strategy for this project and others in their updated 2013 project portfolio.     

Eye on Earth is a public-private partnership bringing together expertise from industry and public organizations. The European Environment Agency (EEA), Esri and Microsoft Corporation collaborated to initially launch the Eye on Earth Network, an online community for discovering and sharing data about the environment. This new cloud computing-based network promotes the principles of public data access and citizen science. Users can easily explore maps and map-based apps made by others, contribute content, and create their own maps and map-based apps, translating complex scientific data into accessible, interactive and visual online representations.   

 

Launched in 2012 by Ecocity Builders along with Esri, Ushahidi, the American Association of Geographers and local partners in Rio de Janeiro's favela communities in the lead up to the United Nations Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable Development, the Ecocitizen World Map Project engages and trains community leaders and citizens, including youth, in applying ecocity principles and mapping, geodesign, and community evaluation methodology to develop evidence-based local urban sustainability advocacy, action plans and projects using tools meant to increase accountability and transparency.

 

Scientific and sociological underpinnings of the Project are based on the International Ecocity Framework and Standards Initiative (IEFS) currently under development by Ecocity Builders and their international expert advisory council, and in consultation with the UNISDR's "Making Cities Resilient Campaign", the UN-Habitat's World Urban Campaign, and Eye on Earth.

 

The Ecocitizen World Map Project presents a whole systems perspective to the urban environment, engaging cities and citizens around the core conditions of the complete healthy and resilient urban ecosystem, including urban design features such as "access by proximity" as well as bio geophysical features such as clean water and air, and socio-culture features such as education and economy.

 

Cities and citizens are trained on how to use simple applications to upload their observations and assessments via their mobile phones or the web. Posts are translated into visual mapping data in order to better assess avenues for improvements. Interactive urban sustainability assessments can then be undertaken, combined with GIS mapping and web applications, allowing widespread citizen engagement and participation in the sustainable development decision making process, implementation through pilots and projects, and with added accountability and transparency through citizen monitored assessments and measurements of the health of their neighborhoods' conditions.

 

In 2013, the project will seek to update the Ecocitizen web portal and map applications so that we can address several technical and user issues identified during the pilot. From there, we plan to test the next version of the Map in several additional favela communities in Rio de Janeiro. We also plan to test the same approach in other locations with partners in Manila, Philippines and Kathmandu, Nepal.

 

Finally, we will seek to showcase the results of the next phase of the Ecocitizen Map Project at Ecocity World Summit 2013 convening in Nantes, France, September 25-27 2013. Ecocity World Summit is the longest running conference series of the subject of ecological cities.