[All] Fwd: Ecocities Emerging - October 2010 Issue

[Robert Milligan]

FYI
R

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Kirstin Miller and Richard Register  
> <kirstin at ecocitybuilders.org>
> Date: October 29, 2010 11:48:14 PM GMT-04:00
> To: mill at continuum.org
> Subject: Ecocities Emerging - October 2010 Issue
> Reply-To: kirstin at ecocitybuilders.org
>
> Link to webpage version of this newsletter http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs072/1100594
> 							
>
>
> 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 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
>
>
> 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.
>
>
> 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 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).
>
>
> 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.
>
>
>
> 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
>
>
>
> 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.
>
>
> 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 at ecocitybuilders.org. http://www.ecocitybuilders.org
> Car Free Journey
> By Steve Atlas
>
> 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 at 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
>
>
> 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.
> _______________________
>
> 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.
>
>
> Anil Chitrakar leads a site tour of Patan
>
>
> Women's cooperative rooftop garden, Lalitpur
>
>
> Ecocity Builders meets with urban planners in Kirtipur
>
>
> Walter Hood and Kirstin Miller in Bhaktapur
>
> World Wandering For Ecocities
> By Richard Register
>
>
> A portion of Richard's drawing for ICLEI
> Well, I'm finally wandered out, here in Oakland to stay a while. I  
> wrote about my trip to historic, fascinating, auspicious Detroit  
> last time, leading ecocity of the future - if it grasps its  
> automobile-to-pedestrian epic transition potential. And following in  
> rapid succession, crowded into a time so short I'll probably be jet  
> lagged 'till New Years, it was Kathmandu, Nepal, Vancouver, Canada,  
> Incheon, South Korea and Santa Fe, New Mexico. About Santa Fe I'll  
> say only this: a very lovely trip to see my family, just completed,  
> with the cherry on top that happened to be the shimmering sunshine  
> yellow forests on the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Several years ago  
> enormous fires covering hundreds of thousands of acres cleared out  
> the dark green climax ponderosa pine and the "quaking" aspen of  
> fluttering leaves in the breeze fame have rushed in to stand their  
> century or two in the great botanical rotation that graces that most  
> graceful of mountain ranges. Those forests that glow brightly in  
> yellow from within, as if the sun were your strolling companion, are  
> a sight to experience.
>
>
> Kathmandu - a Shangri-la for Ecocity Lessons?
>
> The lengths to which some of us go to further ecocities! (About  
> 18,000 miles in this case.) Kirstin had an idea only about three  
> months ago. Why not enter the Living City Design Competition  
> sponsored by the International Living Building Institute and the  
> National Trust for Historic Preservation? We'd see if our fellow  
> ecocity theorist, David Hall, who is also an inventor and  
> industrialist, and his company, Novatek, which holds over 500 US  
> patents, might want to sponsor a trip to Kathmandu. We'd focus our  
> entry on learning the best of Kathmandu Valley urbanism and our own  
> ecocity insights and David Hall's work as well. Kathmandu's urban  
> history is 2,000 years old and - at least in the past, and if one  
> can see beyond present day pollution and rapid population expansion  
> - a serious model of innovation and sustainability that could be  
> considered by cities around the world.
>
> Ecocity Builders has had a close association with Kathmandu since  
> 2006 when Debra Efroymson, Regional Director of HealthBridge, a  
> world health services delivery organization organized out of Ottawa,  
> Canada, Invited Kirstin Miller and I to help with her class on  
> ecocities that was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She also had - and  
> still does - a close relationship with the NGO Federation of Nepal  
> and Shanta Lall Mulmi its General Secretary. Through their  
> arrangements after the Dhaka ecocities class we held a sizeable  
> seminar on their work and ours, Nepalese health and sustainability  
> NGOs' work and Ecocity Builders' in Patan, Kathmandu's next door  
> neighbor city, late in 2006.
>
> The ancient city's layout and pedestrian design is impressive. Its  
> present day problems of poverty, rapid population expansion and the  
> dirtiest rivers we'd ever seen stuck in our minds as well, along  
> with the intense dedication and many low cost and very successful  
> and helpful innovations of the people we met from the health  
> promoting NGOs from all over Nepal. Their work covered clean water  
> and rural sewage and waste composting, small scale solar energy,  
> various clinic  services, anti-smoking education, organic food  
> gardening and other initiatives that effected health. In particular,  
> Dr. Sudarshan Tiwari, an architect and professor with encyclopedic  
> knowledge of the Kathmandu Valley's history and urban ecology gave  
> an extraordinary talk on ecocity design throughout Kathmandu's  
> history. Subsequently, Mulmi spoke at Ecocity 7 in San Francisco and  
> Tiwari spoke at both Ecocity 7 and 8 in Istanbul.
>
> My initial reaction to Kirstin's proposal was, "What a long shot -  
> literally a long, long way from home. Amazing idea." But within days  
> she had David Hall's interest and the result was a series of tours  
> and seminars in Kathmandu and its neighboring cities of Kirtipur,  
> Patan and Bhaktapur. The objective: to research the best in  
> Kathmandu's long history, consider Ecocity Builders' relevant  
> experience and ideas, Novatek's knowledge of leading technology and  
> think through development of a serious ecocity entry to the Living  
> Cities Design Competition. Perhaps we could come up with a synthesis  
> amounting to a major contribution.
>
> Within a few short weeks Kirstin planned the trip and off we went,  
> pretty dizzy with the speed of it all. Kirstin, myself and Marco  
> Vangelisti represented Ecocity Builders. Carl Belliston represented  
> Novatek with his wife Michelle also attending. Debra represented  
> HealthBridge. Walter Hood, Ecocity Builder's designer for the  
> downtown Berkeley Center Street pedestrian renaissance design,  
> a.k.a. Strawberry Creek Plaza complete with open creek, represented  
> pretty much his own his own creative, experienced, accomplished self.
>
> Read on
>
> JOIN ECOCITY BUILDERS
>
>
>
> Ecocity Builders is a non-profit organization dedicated to reshaping  
> cities, towns and villages for long-term health of human and natural  
> systems. Join us and help rebuild cities in balance with nature.
>
> CLICK HERE TO  DONATE AND
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>
>
>
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> Principal Features of an Ecocity
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> Ecocity Builders | 339 15th Street, Suite 208 | Oakland | CA | 94612
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