News

From Arsenal of Democracy to Ecocity Launch Site

by Richard Register [caption id="attachment_1656" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Garden Tour, Genesis"][/caption] What a beautiful day! I’m floating across the vast landscape of Detroit under bright blue skies with big white clouds billowing up, enormous distances between. My rental bike from the Wheelhouse downtown by the river feels like a magic carpet and the air temperature is perfect for a thin shirt, fresh breeze on the skin. One surprise: the waters of the Detroit River are deep and clear blue almost like those of the Bahamas and not at all like the Mississippi and muddy rivers of China, India and Brazil I’ve visited lately.

Editorial September 2010

Our big news item: We just launched our new website! We hope you will take a few minutes to take a look.  http://www.ecocitybuilders.org Our new site makes it easier to learn about our mission and programs. Our sincere thanks to Diana Divecha for sponsoring our website project and to Design Action Collective for creating the design. We like the new clean and light appearance, we hope you do too! Most of all, we'll be able to build up this site to become a real resource for the international ecocity community of students and practitioners. Keep checking back as we continue to upload all kinds of useful information that has been heretofore tucked away in various files, CDs, DVDs and computer drives, just waiting for an opportunity to be properly posted and filed onto our website.

ISOCARP Partners with Philips on Livable Cities Award: Now Open for Entries

The Award is open for entries, with the deadline for submissions being 5pm CET, 28 October 2010. ISOCARP is actively supporting the Philips Livable Cities Award, a global initiative designed to encourage individuals, businesses, community and non-governmental groups to develop practical, achievable ideas for improving the health and well-being of people living in cities - ideas which can then be translated into reality.

Establish an adaptive and livable city – Declaration for Ecopolis Construction, Chengde China, 2010

The world is experiencing rapid urbanization and industrialization, this process has not only enhanced the progress of urban civilization, but also extensively and deeply threatened the urban environment, as well as regional and global life supporting system and ecosystem services, it is a paramount mission for modern cities to seek a socio-economically as well as ecologically harmonious urban society, meanwhile, achieve civilized transformation and innovation.

Ecocity Builders’ Project Update – International Ecocity Standards

We've created an early version of the top tier standards for the following categories: materials, food, water, energy and air. Furthermore, we've created a land use classification to identify areas of concentrated human use (C) and areas to be set aside for relief and restoration (R) like wilderness, natural parks and organic agriculture.