Greetings!
It's been a busy year for Ecocity Builders. Program wise, we launched the EcoCitizen World Map Project with pilots now starting in Morocco, Egypt and Colombia. We're excited about the potential for this project to replicate and grow to support other cities and citizens around the world. The International Ecocity Framework and Standards Initiative evolved and strengthened with focused work on all aspects of defining and measuring what we mean by "ecocity".
We partnered with Consensus Institute and Graphical Memes to help develop and test a next generation urban metabolism visualization software called "City Metaflow". We spent time in Bhutan thinking through a country-wide ecocity program to complement their Gross National Happiness platform. Ecocity World Summit 2013 convened in Nantes, France, and was the largest ecocity conference yet in the series.
Our new local co-working project, Ecocity CoLab, opened in downtown Oakland in a remodeled and light filled studio space. Our Board of Directors met for a retreat at Arcosanti Arizona where we discussed the evolution of the organization and planned for our future growth and impact. We joined UN Habitat's World Urban Campaign and met with the UN Environment Program to discuss how we could cross connect with their Global Initiative for Resource Efficient Cities.
With the guidance of the International Ecocity Conference Relay Committee, we selected the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, facilitated by the Environment Agency of Abu Dhabi, as host for the 2015 Ecocity World Summit. I'd like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of our partners, local and international, our members, staff, advisors, sponsors, funders and interns for their support and guidance in 2013. We are truly privileged to work with such knowledgeable and talented people. And to our friends and members - thank you for being part of our community. Our newsletter is received monthly by well over 13,000 active subscribers around the world. Thank you all for your individual and collective good work out there in the world!As 2013 closes and 2014 approaches, I encourage you to please renew your membership to Ecocity Builders or become a member if you are not already or make a donation to support our work! You contribution, large or small, helps keep our organization up and running as we do our very best to help usher in the Ecozoic Era. Happy Holidays!
 Kirstin Miller Executive Director
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.
Ecocity Builders
339 15th Street, Suite 208
Oakland CA 94612 USA
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Holiday Open House 
FRIDAY DECEMBER 6
5 - 8PM
You are cordially invited to our Holiday Open House in our newly remodeled studio space in the historic White Building in downtown Oakland. We're just a few short blocks away from Oakland City Center and BART. Come mingle and lift up a glass with us as we wish and work for health, happiness, and peace on earth. We may also show a few choice slides from Richard Register's recent month long trip to Bhutan when it gets dark in our conference room for anyone interested!
Location: 327-349 15th Street
/1464-1466 Webster Street, Oakland, California http://oaklandwiki.org/map/White_Building
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Ecocity CoLab includes
 Founded in 1992, Ecocity Builders provides education for ecological design. We are dedicated to reshaping cities for the long-term health of human and natural systems. Green Venues
Since 2008, Green Venues has worked with clients globally to form ideas that drive performance, reduce cost and risk, and address the environmental impact of corporate operations. Our team of LEED professionals, sustainability strategists, architects and engineers, specialize in cost reduction programs, built environment services and strategic planning.
Muller & Caulfield Architects is a small, woman-owned architecture firm. Founded by Rosemary Muller in 1977, Muller & Caulfield specializes in working with local governments in a wide range of projects ranging from historic preservation and simple building repair and accessibility upgrade to the design of new public buildings. Our experience includes high-end residential design, religious and church design and remodel, and school design. We have experience in master planning, architectural analysis and reports, as well as public outreach meetings and public design charrettes.
Energy Solidarity Cooperative democratizes financing and ownership of renewable energy through partnerships in traditionally disenfranchised communities. We work through a localized approach in cooperative governance and community empowerment that combines member equity, community investment and knowledge transfer services to spread community-led clean power projects.
Michael Villaluna Architecture
Specializing in Healthcare design, Sketch-Up, Revit, AutoCad.
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OPEN HOUSE Featured Artist
SUSAN FELTER
showing
DIGITAL THICKET"Feeling frustrated and restricted by the traditional realism of the photographic world, I sort of 'ran away from home' and found an escape hatch down a rabbit hole into a digital thicket somewhere on the outskirts of drawing, painting and print-making."
  Susan Felter grew up in the Bay Area, receiving a BA in Psychology and Art from UC Berkeley, and an MFA in Motion Pictures from UCLA. Susan's photographic work has been exhibited and published in the U.S., France, Germany, India and Japan. She taught Photography at Santa Clara University from 1983 to 2010.www.susanfelterart.com Susan is a long time member and supporter of Ecocity Builders.____________________________________________________________________________ And introducing.... Nicolas Pasteur
Original Photography - Action and Nature 
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 | | Ecocity San Francisco by Richard Register |
The City We Need by Richard Register, President, Ecocity Builders
The following short essay is a response to a request by UN Habitat's World Urban Campaign to help prepare a position paper for their initiative:
The City We Need. Ecocity Builders is a lead partner of the World Urban Campaign. Find out more.
The city we need must contribute to further healthy evolution of life and consciousness on the Earth and thus be -
Compact with complex diversity of activities provided for in its structure accessible by proximity instead of high energy infrastructure, that is, built for people not for cars,
Run on very low demand for energy as much renewable and not competing with food as possible and low demand for land,
Build rather than deplete soils,
Consciously strategize and work for regenerating healthy natural biodiversity,
Provide a just and creative environment for all in society and health for
other species,
Understand and build "ecocity" features that are
a.) passive solar,
b.) pedestrian and bicycle accessible backed up by public transit,
c.) utilize rooftop and terrace accessibility with gardens,
d.) provide linkages for "high pedestrian permeability" in more dense areas with bridges,
e.) celebrate society's connection to and dependence upon nature by providing views to special natural features in and from plazas and from rooftops, such features as signature mountains and hills, coastlines and waterways, forests and plains and,
Attach to these above land use and architectural features items of
a.) best non-toxic materials and
b.) technologies for recycling, energy conservation, natural lighting, as can be achieved at reasonable price,
c.) highly productive and healthy close-in agriculture and
d.)substitution of short lived materials and technologies for ones that amortize over long periods of time,
All the above supported by generous and serious public, private and
personal investment for long term health of the city, town and village, its inhabitants and surrounding living systems and natural plants and animals,
And all the above supported by vigorous and ever-present educational
activities promoting the importance of ecologically healthy urban, town and village design, construction and maintenance.
Richard Register can be reached at ecocity@igc.org. He is a frequent international speaker and advisor to cities and organizations around the world.  Ecocity Builders is a lead partner of the World Urban Campaign
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ECOCITY INSIGHTS
by Jennie Moore, Director, Sustainable Development and Environmental Stewardship, British Columbia Institute of Technology
IEFS - Lifelong Education
Lifelong education that fuels our desire to learn and helps one understand both how to live in place as well as how to contribute to a changing global world is an important aspect of building, sustaining and living in ecocities. The International Ecocity Framework and Standards (IEFS) identifies lifelong education as an important socio-cultural feature wherein: "Residents have access to lifelong education including access to information about history of place, culture, ecology, and tradition provided through formal and informal education, vocational training and other social institutions" (www.ecocitystandards.org).
Access to education is a fundamental human right (PDHRE 2013). Knowledge of one's home place provides both an important context for self-identity and can instill an ethic of care to steward that which sustains us (Martin and Beatley 1993). Bioregionalism provides an orientation to our home place that is informed by nature. Specifically, the watershed provides a framework for locating and learning about the ecological processes that support our cities and villages. The concept and term, originally introduced by Peter Berg in the 1970s, remains an underlying premise for ecocity development (Register 2006).
Ecocity mapping is an important tool for locating centers of vitality within a city, where density and a mix of services to support complete community development should be concentrated. Bioregional mapping expands the scope of social learning to include an understanding of the ecological processes in the territory that surrounds clusters of ecocities. Engaging communities in mapping their bioregion contributes to eco-literacy and the development of a healthy culture (Aberley 1993, 1994; Carr 2004).
David Orr (2004, 11) suggests that "it is possible that we are becoming more ignorant of the things we must know to live well and sustainably." This includes knowledge about socio-cultural history in addition to knowledge about locally appropriate technologies for securing sustenance and stewarding local resources. In a globalizing world, local knowledge is important but potentially insufficient as well. Michael Maniates (2013) argues that it is also important to learn about the political processes and international relations that shape the global processes that shape our world. Without a broader understanding of these things, the ability to use local knowledge may risk being overwhelmed in the face of turbulent times that are to come.
References
Aberley, Doug. 1993. Boundaries of Home: Mapping for Local Empowerment. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.
Aberley, Doug. 1994. Futures by Design: The Practice of Ecological Planning. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.
Carr, Michael. 2004. Bioregionalism and Civil Society: Democratic Challenges to Corporate Globalism. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Maniates, Michael. 2013. Teaching for Turbulent Times in Linda Starke, ed., State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible? Washington DC: Island Press.
Martin, E., T. Beatley. 1993. "Our Relationship with the Earth: Environmental Ethics in Planning Education," Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 12, pp. 117-26.
Orr, David. 2004. Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect. Washington DC: Island Press.
Peoples Movement for Human Rights Education. The Human Right to Education. Online resource: http://pdhre.org/rights/education.html (Accessed August 23, 2013).
Register, Richard. 2006. Ecocities: Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.
British Columbia Institute of Technology School of Construction and the Environment is Lead Sponsor of the International Ecocity Framework and Standards Initiative
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Car Free Journey
BY STEVE ATLAS
Last November (2012),Nathan Landau: a transit planner in Northern California and author of
Car Free in Los Angeles and Southern California (Wilderness Press: 2011), wrote a great guest column for us about where to stay in Los Angeles if you don't want to drive. You can read that column by going to http://www.pubtrantravel.com/cfjwheretostayla.html.
Today, Nathan spotlights Pasadena, California: a very walkable and delightful place to visit-offering far more than the Rose Bowl. (I highly recommend Nathan's book: it should be required reading for anyone considering visiting or moving to the Los Angeles metropolitan area who doesn't want to drive.)  CAR FREE DESTINATION-PASADENA, CALIFORNIA-by Nathan Landau WHY PASADENA? The Los Angeles region is often derided for faceless sprawl, but Pasadena is a distinctive, historic, walkable city. Pasadena offers museums, historic buildings, theatres, and restaurants. Pasadena is an excellent city for the car-free traveler, because most of its highlights are concentrated in a small area easily navigated on foot or by bus. Yet Pasadena is also a good base to see other parts of LA, especially Downtown Los Angeles. Come spend a few car-free days in Pasadena. READ ON |
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Ecocity Updates
News, events and announcements
EcoCitizen World Map Project Launches Pilots in
the Middle East North Africa (MENA) Region and in Medellin, Colombia
The EcoCitizen World Map Project provides tools and data for sustainable development at the urban level and tests a replicable methodology to link community crowd-sourced data and information to national, regional and global data sets. The Project will demonstrate the efficacy of crowd-sourced data at the neighborhood scale and provide tools and training to citizens, public officials and others who want to ensure a more sustainable urban environment through more informed decision-making.
Funded by a seed grant from Eye on Earth, the MENA regional pilots launching in 2013-2014 in Casablanca, Morocco and Cairo, Egypt met recently in Paris, hosted by the UN Environment Program's Division of Technology, Industry and Economics. Academic partners are Mundiapolis University of Morocco, Cairo University in Egypt and the Cultural Practice Lab of Professor Walter J Hood, UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design. Ecocity Builders is lead facilitator for the project. Additional lead partners are the Association of American Geographers, Esri, the US Department of State Office of Space and Advanced Technology, Ushahidi, and, in the Americas, the Organization of American States Sustainable Communities Program. Outcomes and work in progress will be highlighted at the World Urban Forum and the Esri Pavilion in Medellin Colombia in April 2014 and the Eye on Earth Summit in Abu Dhabi in November 2014.
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November 2013. Ecocity Builders' Executive Director Kirstin Miller, 4th from left, poses with the EcoCitizen World Map Project Team, Eye on Earth and UNEP in Paris
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December 2013. Ecocity Builders' Ashoka Finley, representing the EcoCitizen Map Project, comments at a meeting in Medellin Colombia hosted by the Organization of American States' Sustainable Communities Program
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Richard Register meets with delegation from China
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Ecocity Builders' President Richard Register recently met with a delegation from China studying sustainable urbanism, at our studio in downtown Oakland. He is currently in China himself meeting with the Ecopolis Society and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Tianjin Ecocity Project.
Ecocity Builders and Abu Dhabi meet to begin planning for Ecocity World Summit 2015
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Kirstin Miller, Ecocity Builders, and Ahmed Baharoon, Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, discuss Ecocity World Summit 2015 planning
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Ecocity Builders' Executive Director Kirstin Miller represented the Ecocity World Summit Steering Committee for the first meeting with Abu Dhabi to begin planning Ecocity World Summit 2015. The delegation also met with a representative from the 2013 host city of Nantes, France, to discuss maintaining continuity between the two events and ongoing coordination strategies with major events and meetings leading up to 2015. A strong foundation has been established and we're all looking forward to working hand in hand over the next months and years.
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Medellin, Colombia Prepares to Host the
World Urban Forum in April 2014
 | | Medellin's Concept for WUF7 2014 |
Posted
On World Habitat Day this year, the Colombian Minister of Housing, Luis Felipe Henao Cardona, the Mayor of Medellin, Anibal Gaviria and the Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Dr. Joan Clos, oversaw the presentation of the Seventh Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF7) in Medellin, that will be held in the same city from 5-11 April next year.
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The Colombian Minister of Housing, Luis Felipe Henao Cardona, the Mayor of Medellin, Anibal Gaviria and the Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Dr. Joan Clos
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Photos © Municipality of Medellin
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The event opened with an official message by the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, in which expressed the support of the Colombia on the global discussion of sustainable urbanization. The Mayor of Medellin highlighted the theme of the Forum - "Urban Equity in Development - Cities for Life" as a crucial debate for a city like Medellin. Anibal Gaviria said that the World Urban Forum will be the biggest international event held in Medellin ever and he stressed his commitment to the sustainable urban transformation of the city.
Dr. Joan Clos remarked that "cities must be more dense, compact, integrative and inclusive to reduce inequalities and reclaim public space as a common good for all citizens". He added that the Forum will be the key platform for discussing the role of sustainable urbanization within the framework of the Post-2015 development goals and the Third Conference of Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, in 2016.
The World Urban Forum will gather more than 10,000 participants -heads of state, governors, mayors, the international community, professionals and the private sector - from over 130 countries at the Convention Center Plaza Mayor of Medellin.
The celebration had a festive tone with artistic performances and the participation of Medellin's citizens. One of the activities organized for welcoming the World Urban Forum 7 was a flashmob by hundreds of 'city changers', music and dance while the volunteers were waving colorful flags.
Link to story on UN Habitat's website.
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'Cycle March' for Chakra Satyagraha
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From concerned citizens in Kolkata:
Revoke the Cycle & Non Motorized Vehicle Ban in Kolkata
Kolkata Police have banned Cycles and Non-motorized transport (Cycle, Cycle rickshaws, Bakery Vans, Handcarts etc) from 174 thoroughfares in Kolkata - virtually meaning a blanket ban to regulate traffic.
Such a ban is socially non-inclusive, inequitable and environmentally hazardous and is a suicide note for our beautiful city of joy. Thousands will be forced to convert to motorized transport and push to the brink the overstretched infrastructure of the City.
We have run from pillar to post, from the Transport Department to Kolkata Traffic Police to Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Environment Department, and written multiple letters to all concerned authorities. But no actions has been taken yet. In fact most of them said that they can't do anything about it!
The Police Commissioner hasn't even responded despite our consistent efforts to meet him to find a solution.
It's time we stand up against this unjust ban and make sure our voices are heard. Hence we have started this petition to bring together the citizens of Kolkata and demand a revocation of this blanket ban.
On 8th Sept '13 we organized a 'Cycle March' where over 500 cyclists marched the streets with their cycles.On Gandhi Jayanti - we're organized A Creative, Non-violent Protest 'Bring the Wheels Back to the Streets'. Over 3000 people joined us along with Street Theatre Artists and Boul Fakirs in a never before creative protest done in Kolkata.
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ICLEI UNFCCC Cities Event
Raising the level of global ambition through local climate action
 | | (l-r) ICLEI Secretary General Gino Van Begin, Mayor George Heartwell of Grand Rapids, USA, Mayor Gustavo Petro of Bogota, Colombia, Mayor Frank Cownie of Des Moines, USA, City Manager Penny Ballem of Vancouver, Canada, Mayor Julio Gerardo of Recife, Brazil, Deputy Mayor Angelica Kappel of Bonn, Germany, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres, ICLEI President David Cadman, Mayor Tunc Soyer of Seferihisar, Turkey, and Governor Emmanuel Eweta Uduagdhan of Delta State, Nigeria. |
21 November marked an important day for cities and regions as they gathered for the first ever "Cities Day" at the UN Warsaw Climate Conference (COP19/CMP9). It was a joint initiative of the COP Presidency, the UNFCCC Secretariat, the City of Warsaw, and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability.
Emphasizing the shared responsibility of all levels of governments in tackling climate change, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon turned to cities and local governments as ultimate implementers of climate action. "Cities are central in tackling climate change. They are proving grounds for our efforts in ensuring a low carbon future that benefits people and the planet", stressed Ban Ki Moon.
The Cities Day side event presented an overview of the global progress on climate mitigation and adaptation with a specific focus on Nantes Declaration (which followed the Ecocity World Summit) and its follow-up.
Addressing Ban Ki-moon and the ministers, ICLEI Mayors reiterated the urgent need for multilevel climate action and enhanced access to climate finance to fully harness the power of local action.
Pascal Canfin, the Minister for Development of France cautioned that "Without cities and local authorities on board, no agreement will be possible in Paris 2015".
"Every city needs a strategic plan and an emergency preparedness plan,"said George Heartwell, Mayor of Grand Rapids, USA and White House Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience.
"Social inequality challenges will be further challenged by climate change impacts,"highlighted Gustavo Petro, Mayor, Bogotá, Colombia.
Stating support to cities, Rachel Kyte of the World Bank said that "
We need to put the tools to address climate change in the hands of subnational leaders including finance, basic regulations and national support frameworks".
ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, the leading cities network on sustainability and one of the key organizers of the event, will continue to drive heightened interaction between cities and national governments through initiatives like the Cities Day.
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Founded in 1992, Ecocity Builders is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reshaping cities for the long-term health of human and natural systems.
www.ecocitybuilders.org
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