Eco-Cities Take Root
Margie Brand
OR Green Enterprise Workshop)
Eco-Cities Take Root
Source Lara Abrams Melman
The home -- and the neighborhood -- of the future is on its way.
Coming soon to a market near you is a zero-carbon property, surrounded
by a meandering stream that treats your wastewater and recycles it to
you. The heat from the sun generates enough electricity to power the
entire house. The green roof and smart walls of the house provide
natural, radiant heating and cooling. You and your neighbors will bike
or walk to work; you'll also have the option to car-share any of the
electric vehicles at their charging stations.
This home of the future is coming, but you'll find it in China before
it springs up in the U.S.
Ask Harrison Fraker, Dean of U.C. Berkeley's College of Environmental
Design, and he'll tell you that China is the place you can make the
fastest and most aggressive change. In a country where an estimated 60
percent of sewage is discharged untreated, a population that's
soaring, and the rate of environmental destruction at an all time
high, global warming pollution the cause for almost half a million
deaths, with environmental damage costing China to the tune of $200
billion a year, they have reason to stop and make some serious
changes.
Fraker's involvement began when Berkeley was invited to work with the
planning and design institute of Tianjin to work on transit concepts
for a light rail system. The city leaders wanted advice and prototypes
for how neighborhoods could best take advantage of green transit
options such as pedestrian bike shortcuts in developing green transit
oriented neighborhoods.
This request alone marked a significant detour from the current model
used for urban residential development in China: the SuperBlock, a
model that relies on a centralized infrastructure of power plants and
electric power lines, sewage treatment plants and sewers, and a
sanitary water supply provided by the city or provincial utilities.
These are typically gated communities with few entry points, and very
little attention is placed on creating resource-efficient homes in the
SuperBlock model. With 11 million SuperBlock units under construction
per year, and it becomes clear how significant a toll these
communities are taking on China's environment.
Enter the EcoBlock
What happens when you add to this scenario a couple of industry
heavyweights on the level of Arup, the global consulting concern, the
talent from a school like Fraker's, the international scrutiny coming
from the fast-approaching 2008 Beijing Olympics, and a heavy dose of
the best cleantech science can offer, including wind machines, PV
technology and anaerobic digesters? Very quickly, a new model of
development takes the place of the SuperBlock. Call it the EcoBlock.
Designed to be replicable to the masses, a concept that in reality
puts minimal pressure on off-site infrastructure and the natural
environment, this is the vision of the future taking shape today.
Largely self sufficient in terms of energy and water use, EcoBlocks
are carbon-neutral developments. Their layouts encourage walking,
cycling and use of public transport.
A sketch of horizon and overhead views of the EcoBlock from a report
created by Arup.
All wastewater is recycled on-site; energy generation is on-site and
any energy generated on-site from waste, sun, and wind is used to
treat rainwater and gray water and provide residents with high quality
potable drinking water. Even food waste and landscaping waste will be
converted into energy to power residents' homes.
Constructed wetlands and swales collect and treat water for reuse,
serving the dual purpose of enhancing the aesthetic value of each
neighborhood and creating green waste that can be transformed into
energy within an on-site anaerobic digester. And EcoBlocks are
designed to use 40 percent less energy than a standard development of
its size.
Under a program called the Urban Sustainability Initiative, U.C.
Berkeley has been working in China, researching technologies and
design of sustainable communities to make the EcoBlock a reality,
first as a prototype, but soon to spread across China.
A hugely collaborative effort, involving an interdisciplinary team put
together by the College of Environmental Design at Berkeley, the
Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute and the Gordon Moore
Foundation, the team has been working to integrate the best of clean
technologies into the decision-making processes of urban areas
throughout the developing world. In 2006, U.C. representatives met
with officials from central and local governments in China to identify
a site suitable for development of an EcoBlock prototype and settled
on Qingdao, a 600-unit building that will be replicated eight and a
half times across a 23 hectare (56 acre) plot of land.
The potential for environmental, social and health savings that the
EcoBlock can deliver is just huge: if 18,333 600-unit EcoBlocks were
built, it would keep 34 landfills, 42 power plants, 54 water treatment
plants, and 51 wastewater treatment plants from being built, at a
total cost savings of $38,737,185,000. In a pre-feasibility report on
the EcoBlock conducted by ARUP in conjuction with the University of
California at Berkeley and Huahui Designs, the company estimates that
the Chinese government alone would save 1.3 percent of its GDP from
not having to build additional infrastructure to meet demands for
energy, clean water, sanitation and waste disposal - and that's not
counting the savings from costs currently associated with treating
environmental pollution associated health problems, which currently
claims about 10 percent of the country's GDP.
The good news? The city loves the idea. The Ministry of Construction
does, too. And, according to Fraker, the economics are such for at
least one of the new eco-development concepts proposed, a property
manager can turn an EcoBlock into a profitable business by charging
homeowners for maintaining the energy, waste and water systems. Fraker
says a number of big business interests are banking on it working, and
the bidding wars have already begun.
"In the first 5,000 units, Siemens wants to run the neighborhood
system," Fraker said. "And then it turns out that China's biggest
appliance manufacturer -- the Haier Corp. -- is interested in being a
developer, as a way to roll out all their energy conserving appliances
and what they call their 'Smart Home' concept." Approval by the city
of Qingdao and the Ministry of Construction would give such plans the
green light.
>From Fraker's perspective, such eco-city developments will require a
completely different way of doing business -- at least in the U.S. --
because the way the system is set up currently, he says, is slanted
heavily in favor of developing fast and getting out, with minimal
responsibility for environmental impact over the long term. In other
words, the developer relies on a centralized power supply and they
just plug into it, develop, and hand the keys to the home owner, who
ends up being the one who pays the bill(s) going forward, while the
developer just sells and gets out. Eco-city developments, Fraker
believes, will require some sort of property management with self-
interest in operating and maintaining these different, distributed
small scale systems.
Fortunately, it's getting easier to create eco-cities, and the
inherent changes they bring with them conceptually. "Architects and
planners are once again being recognized as key players in achieving a
better word," says John Bilmon, "and we're now seeing some real
progress in eco-building design and development."
Principles for Sustainable Development
Bilmon is Managing Director of PTW Architects and project director for
the Watercube Project China is developing for the Beijing Olympics. In
an interview, he said perhaps the biggest driver propelling the
concept of eco-city design, architectural planning, and urban
development are the Equator Principles, in no small part because they
apply to the whole of project lifecycle and in most cases require
operational monitoring after project completion and final investment
by the firm.
A voluntary set of guidelines, based on environmental and social
standards used by the International Finance Corporation, the Equator
Principles were developed and adopted by banks for identifying and
managing environmental and social issues in project finance lending,
and have become the new market standard transforming project finance.
To date, over 50 banks, based in Europe, North America, Japan and
Australia, have joined the project, and together they are estimated to
have arranged about 80 percent of project finance lending in 2003
alone.
Though the sun is currently shining on urban planners, incentives will
be key to continuing to drive the adoption of green practices, by both
developers and residents. Richard Register, founder of Ecocity
Builders, based in Berkeley, Calif., believes the steps to an ecology
of the economy include some basics like what he calls "The List" -- of
products and services and jobs that build and maintain an [an
ecologically centered] designed economy, as well as those involved in
the recycling of materials, and those that relate to organic and
community farming and restoration of natural areas.
Register believes incentives packages are key to an ecologically
centered economy -- incentives including tax and zoning regulations as
well as other laws and inducements like a personal commitment to
buying "green" that encourages such products, services and
businesses.
"Right now most incentives support vastly destructive automobile
sprawl infrastructure," he says, adding, "we need to redesign our
whole approach to building and maintaining cities if they are to be
sustainable, and there are even more jobs and a higher quality of
prosperity down that path. We have to have the courage to change,
though." And that means changing the way incentives are handed out,
and what incentives are handed down.
The good news is that incentive packages for local businesses (as well
as bigger businesses) are clearly getting better. And because there
are more incentive options available now than ever before, the
business of selling green has become a very good business to be in.
Eco-Cities Now and in the Future
To spread the adoption of truly sustainable communities and spur
shifts in behavior, it's going to be critical to bring down the price
point on all these clean technologies that are cornerstones of urban
design and eco-city development.
While John Bilmon sees a movement back to some of the more fundamental
technologies in architecture -- like the use of natural materials and
water recycling systems, examining how air flow systems work best, and
the impacts of these systems on buildings' occupants -- he stresses
the responsibility firms like his carry in trying to do the right
thing, and trying to convince clients to also do the right thing.
"It is part of our responsibilities as mentors to continue to try to
implement, in sometimes very trying political climates, the principles
we know to be true," Bilmon says. "A foreign firm working abroad
carries an exemplar responsibility to demonstrate appropriate
responses to 'avant-garde' considerations. Foreign firms really can
bring new ideas to projects without the constraints often imposed when
one only works locally and falls into a pattern of providing pragmatic
solutions often aimed at satisfying local considerations alone.
Because of the scale of our projects, we must consider their broader
urban and cultural impacts."
Harrison Fraker also sees cultural challenges as one of the next big
steps in encouraging people to adopt eco-living around the globe. "One
of the cultural issues [with the Chinese EcoBlocks] has to do with how
powerful gated communities are from a marketing standpoint for the
Chinese," he noted. "So we have to make these blocks develop
identities that capture the imagination and satisfy the Chinese need
to belong to a certain segment in the community."
New technologies will help shift patterns of behavior as well as
environmental impact. Three-dimensional computer modeling systems are
enabling architects, designers and planners to realize projects and
structures in innovative ways, and advancements in telecommunications
and energy efficiencies enable the creation of master-planned
communities that are no longer limited by power lines and above-ground
support features.
Eric Corey Freed, principal at the San Francisco-based
organicARCHITECT, believes that looking at basic community principles
is key to make big changes. "In truth," he says, "we need to focus our
attention on public transit more than anything else. There have been
few big ideas in public transit since the 1960s, and we are stuck in
this 'chicken and egg' mentality of not being able to build it without
ridership, not having ridership because it isn't built out. So
technologies such as traffic monitoring and control systems as
extremely important to incorporate into urban planning, architectural
design and development today."
The effort didn't start so recently, and it's going to take a lot more
to continue to re-green what mankind has taken away. And perhaps it's
not so surprising that these next-generation communities are springing
up in China, with its combination of dire environmental need and
authoritarian government. But there's great potential for the future
of eco-cities to take root around the globe.
Eran Ben-Joseph, a professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban
Planning at MIT, will tell you, as he told me, that the interest in
and focus on eco-centric urban planning and architectural design has
never been stronger; his classes on landscape architecture and urban
planning are loaded with students deeply, profoundly concerned with
environmental issues. "I see real reason for hope. These students --
they'll be the decision-makers of tomorrow, affecting change, making
the right choices for the environment, for urban planning, and they'll
do it."
Lara Abrams-Melman is a Silicon Valley-based consultant on strategy
and business development issues.
--
Stanley Tsang
www.ourglobo.com