Greetings, 

Our end-of-year giving campaign to support our premiere educational resource, the EcoCompass, is underway. Help us build and deliver global classrooms, scholastic seminars and labs, virtual lectures, barefoot workshops, and eco-citizen bootcamps to more cities and citizens in more regions around the world.

Just visit our campaign page and click donate. You can also count your donation towards becoming a member of Ecocity Builders or renewing your current membership for 2016. And you'll receive a link to order Richard Register's NEW ecocity coloring book for visionaries of all ages at base cost. 

The quest for a livable planet and a healthy and sustainable civilization is going to require active participatory processes and bold innovation built on a foundation of sound information and pragmatic decision making.  

Towards that end we're building resources and tools that enable communities to assess and visualize the actual and evolving conditions of their cities and neighborhoods and identify the areas where ecocity interventions can be applied to help urban systems become more ecologically, economically, and socially healthy. Materials are developed in such a way so as to maximize participation, ensuring that community-based resources are offered in the appropriate language or dialect, framed using accessible terminology and concepts, and delivered in a meaningful way.

Your donation, with optional membership to Ecocity Builders included, will help us set up and curate a global ecocity research group and wiki which will enable us to build and supplement the EcoCompass core learning modules and widen its global contributor base so that we can bring ecocity tools and processes to more cities and citizens around the world. 

Thanks so much for your consideration, your support is much appreciated. 

As we build, so shall we live, 
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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.

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Ecocity Builders 
339 15th Street, Suite 208
Oakland CA 94612 USA
ECOCITY BUILDERS IN 2015
ECOCITY BUILDERS IN 2015
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NEW!
The Ecocity Coloring Book


A delightful sampling of visionary sketches by ecocity pioneer, author and illustrator Richard Register - ready for your imagination and colored pencils. Make a donation to Ecocity Builders and order at base cost. 
And the Climate Solution is...
by Richard Register, Founder and Emissary, Ecocity Builders 

Not to sound like a television game show, and certainly not to offer a $64 billion dollar prize for the answer, as if money would do it all... but what is the best answer? That's in the singular. Is there one? Skip oil; go solar? Are there a dozen? Find deeper causes? Are there as many as there are people on the planet about now?
The latter should be the democratic answer, but maybe they would all converge, the elite and the salt of the earth, in an approach that makes the best sense.

Another question is why would I presume to know something about all that? Welcome to democracy! We are all supposed to have worthwhile, helpful thoughts and exercise freedom of expression to do our best with them and it, thoughts and expression.

Read More

Poster in the SkyTrain metro system in Vancouver, BC, Canada announcing a show on threats to the Arctic from climate change at the Vancouver Aquarium 


Ecocity Insights 
Connecting Lifestyle Archetypes to Ecocity Indicators

by Jennie Moore, Director of Sustainable Development and Environmental Stewardship, School of Construction and the Environment, British Columbia Institute of Technology
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We often focus on the built environment as a solution space for reducing energy and materials demand; however, equally important is the consumption characteristics of the people who live in these built environments that we call cities.

While it is true that the built environment influences the size of a person's home and whether one owns a motor vehicle. It is also true that socio-economic and socio-cultural factors also play a role. For example, if you live in Hong Kong or London, chances are you live in an apartment and do not need a car because everything is relatively close by. Moreover, if you live in a culture that values the automobile, you may choose to own one even though you live in a city where it is not needed.

My favourite example of socio-economic and cultural values overriding built form is the capital city Male in the Maldives. Male is a flat island, only two square kilometers in area. It is a virtual beacon of ecocity development in that it is home to almost 120,000 people, that historically lived without cars or any form of motorized transportation. Until circa 1985, walking and cycling were the only modes of transportation in this car-free city. However, influenced by the perceived prestige of car ownership, the streets of Male were actually widened, most notably at intersections, to allow for the importation of motor vehicles, despite a 100% fuel surcharge and 200% import duty. The president of the country set the tone by driving two blocks from his residence to the parliament. While the majority of vehicles on the island today are scooters, the odd luxury car or four-by-four vehicle can also be spotted. (Recall this is a small, flat, densely populated island?) All this to say that socio-cultural values do matter a great deal.



Male, Maldives 

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Lead Sponsor of the Ecocity Standards
Why China Wants to Build Something Called "Sponge Cities"
 by Sarah O'Meara 

Could sponge cities be the answer to China's floods?

Three years ago, when flooding in Beijing killed 79 people, the Chinese government was quick to blame the size of the storm, not the city's failing drainage system. But the excuse didn't persuade the public. News reports of fatal floods come as regularly to city dwellers as the annual monsoon season.

No longer just a problem for farmers living on flood-prone plains, water has become the nemesis of China's 680 million urbanites, whose concrete landscape was not built adequately to withstand the forces of nature.

Despite presiding over a vast hydro-engineering industry-there are more than 87,000 dams in China, most of which have been built since 1978-Beijing's politicians have yet to prove they can keep their cities safe from flood and drought.

           An aerial view of Yanweizhou Park, which opened in 2014 (Turenscape)
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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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PRINCIPAL SPONSOR OF THE ECOCITY STANDARDS INITIATIVE

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Additional Partners and Sponsors


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Spaces are still available for individuals and groups at the CoLab. Click here.

Become a member of Ecocity Builders  

Ecocity Builders members receive benefits including discounts to all Ecocity World Summits and access to special events. Membership is affordable and easy.

 

Ecocity Global Spotlight
Sustainable stories and highlights

New York Plants Millionth Tree Ahead of Schedule
Urban trees have a number of environmental, social, health - and even economic - benefits. So it's positive to hear, from Fast Co Exist, that the goal of New York's MillionTreesNYC campaign, to plant a million new trees in a decade, has been achieved two years ahead of schedule
Cities Can Save Money by Investing in Natural Infrastructure for Water
By 2030, the world is projected to spend an estimated $10 trillion on repairing and expanding water infrastructure. Dams and treatment plants are aging, water demand is surging, and more frequent extreme weather events threaten our water security-each driving up water management costs.
Natural infrastructure helps to provide high-quality source water and well-regulated flow, which can not only lead to several potential areas of cost savings-such as avoided capital costs, lowered maintenance costs, and reduced treatment costs-but also generate social and environmental benefits. Benefits added from natural infrastructure are estimated at around $29 trillion per year globally.

Return Mexico City to its Ancient Lakes 
The Lakeside City ("La Ciudad Lacustre"), which set out to recover the ancient Texcoco lake in the east of Mexico City, is the most comprehensive urban plan the city has ever seen. Kalach and fellow architect, Teodoro González de León, proposed to limit urban growth, clear and curtail development on the original lake bed, and allow the groundwater and rain to restore the body of water, eventually regenerating an area of some 7,000 hectares (17,297 acres).

SAVE THE DATE
Ecocity World Summit 2017 Melbourne 

Lord Mayor's Welcome Statement
Lord Mayor Robert Doyle's Welcome Statement
Melbourne will showcase its sustainability credentials to experts worldwide when the prestigious Ecocity World Summit comes to the city in 2017. Over 1,000 leading international urban planners, architects and environmental specialists will gather in Melbourne to discuss world-leading sustainable city initiatives.

"Melbourne has excellent eco-city credentials, with many positive changes over recent years, such as investment in new technology that is improving the city's sustainability and which we can profile at the Summit," said Karen Bolinger, Chief Executive Officer of the Melbourne Convention Bureau.