2009/10 Annual Report

Ecocity Builders Phone: (510) 419-0850 339 15th Street, Suite 208 Email: [email protected] Oakland, CA 94612 Web: www.ecocitybuilders.org Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature Ecocity Builders

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 3

ABOUT ECOCITY BUILDERS 5 Mission and Vision 5 What we do 6

WHY ECOCITIES? 7 An ecocity... 8 Guidelines for ecocity development 9

PROGRAMS & PROJECTS 10 Demonstration projects 10 Center Street Plaza, Berkeley 10 Urban Villages, Oakland 11 Codornices Creek Daylighting, Albany 12 Speaker’s Bureau 13 Planning & design consulting 14 Design & planning charrette 15 International Ecocity Conferences 17 International Ecocity Standards 18 Classes & workshops 19 An Ecological City 20 Ecocities for Kids 20 Policy development & advocacy 21 Writing & publishing 22 Other projects 23

BOARDS OF DIRECTORS, ADVISORS, AND STAFF 24

FINANCIAL UPDATE (2009) 29

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Letter from the Executive Director

Since 1992 and building upon a consistent body of work by our founder going back nearly forty years, Ecocity Builders has been dedicated to reshaping cities for the long- term health of human and natural systems.

In years past, Ecocity Builders was often called “before its time” and “visionary.” Today, we are still referred to as visionaries, but time has now caught up to our core ideas. Global climate change, species extinction, an urban explosion around the world and an awareness that we must act now if we want to leave a viable future to our children have prompted an acceleration in requests for our services, both locally and internationally.

So it has been a busy time for us, and we like that. On the local front, working with celebrated urbanist Walter Hood and Hood Design, we led the public process for our Center Street Plaza project in Berkeley all the way to an endorsement from the City Council in March 2010. This was a major victory for the plaza, which will create the first car-free oasis in the heart of downtown Berkeley featuring a portion of Strawberry Creek and deep green design elements, including underground storm water cisterns and pervious pavers. This project will likely turn out to be one of the greenest streets in North America, and we're hoping to certify it under the Living Building Challenge's “Living Landscape” typology. This is one of the “pieces of the ecocity” that we strive to build — demonstrations that become examples and inspirations, like our earlier creek daylighting, slow street, “live” roof, and urban fruit orchard projects.

In West Oakland, we continue to partner with the Black Dot Artists and Village Bottoms Neighborhood Association to work on plans started under a grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The neighborhood vision falls under a broader concept, Oakland's Urban Villages, launched several years ago. We used GIS mapping and worked with the University of California - Berkeley's Department of City and Regional Planning to develop an evolving ecocity map for Oakland. The work envisions Oakland transforming into a number of culturally and architecturally unique “urban villages” of various sizes, linked to a vibrant downtown core through a network of greenways and transit routes, and enhanced by growing green spaces in between centers for community gardens, parks, open spaces and habitat corridors. Collaborators and supporters for the West Oakland Village Bottoms Cultural District in 2009-2010 included West Coast Green, Kaiser Permanante, Architects for Humanity, Free Design Clinic, and Will Allen and his organization Growing Power for the Village Bottoms Farms project.

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Our consulting work grew in 2009-2010. A major commission was a design charrette and report for the British Columbia Institute of Technology in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver's premier trade school has embarked on an ambitious plan to ramp down its campus' footprint to a “one planet” supportive measure. Our job was to help them think through a complete redesign of the campus into an ecocity environment supportive of the one planet goal, with an emphasis on one section of the campus as a beginning pilot project or “ecocity fractal.”

We travel a lot to get the word out about the ecocity approach. 2009 took us to Istanbul, Turkey for the 8th International Ecocity Conference, the 8th in the longest running conference series on the subject of ecocities, started in 1990 by our president and founder, Richard Register. Ecocity 2009 brought long-time ecocity practitioners together with fresh new talent from around the world to discuss, debate and share projects and best practices. A special emphasis was on ecocity applications in Turkey and the Mediterranean region.

Novatek, a technology concept business patterned after the labs of Thomas Edison, hired us to co-consult with them in Huaibei, China to think through the problems of a city sinking into its old coal mines.

Spreading ecocity ideas around the world within a clear and measurable format inspired the launch of the International Ecocity Standards (IES) project, with start up funding from the Helen and William Mazer Foundation. This project is attracting considerable attention and interest from prominent sustainability practitioners from around the world. We expect the IES to develop into a major educational forum and possibly a highly influential body over the next year, leading up to our first public vetting of the work at the th9 International Ecocity Conference in August 2011, Montreal, Canada.

For such a small organization, the amount of work we manage to accomplish always amazes our supporters and associates. We attribute our success to the power of the ideas and to the considerable personal commitment to the work on the part of our staff, members, interns and associates - plus, pure determination and guts.

Margaret Mead said, “Never underestimate the power of a small group of people to change the world. In fact, it is the only way it ever has.” With a clear mission and our task at hand, we are attempting to do the work we are called upon to do. Maybe one day all cities will be ecocities.

Sincerely,

Kirstin Miller Executive Director

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About Ecocity Builders Mission & Vision

Ecocity Builders is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reshaping cities for the long-term health of human and natural systems.

We believe the form of the city matters, that it is within our ability, and indeed crucial, to reshape and restructure cities to address global environmental challenges.

We envision a future in which healthy biodiversity returns to the heart of our cities, agriculture to community gardens and the streets, and convenience to walking, bicycling and transit. In partnership with communities, developers, and Kirstin Miller consulting to the city of Huaibei, China, 2009 government agencies, we promote and rebuild the human habitat in balance with living systems.

Ecocity Builders represents more than inspired vision. We use a variety of policy, planning, and educational tools to demonstrate our vision through local projects. Our founder and president, Richard Register, is a pioneer in the field of ecological city design; many of his early theories now percolate through urban sustainability planning.

Our approach begins by understanding the place of a city in the evolution of nature and human history. We pay special attention to the key question of accessibility and transportation, and encourage our colleagues to plunge into Richard Register, Jaime Lerner, and Wang Rusong at the 7th International Ecocity Conference, San Francisco, USA, 2008 an ecocity’s economics and politics, the kinds of businesses, planning and leadership required.

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What we do

Ecocity Builders develops and implements policy, design, development and educational tools, projects, campaigns and strategies to:

• Build thriving urban centers based on “access by proximity,” and reverse patterns of sprawl and excessive consumption

• Shift policies to prioritize walking, bicycling, Mapping Yoff, Senegal and transit and to reduce dependence on automobiles • Restore biodiversity in the heart of our cities, in the form of creeks, gardens, parks, farms and greenways

We continuously develop and refine our suite of ecocity design principles and tools that help guide the transformation of cities, from where they are now to the healthy futures they want to achieve.

Through our educational and outreach materials, we promote and help create the built human habitat in balance with living systems.

Through hands-on projects in our community, 5th International Ecocity Conference, Shenzhen, China we build pieces of and demonstrate the real ecocity.

Our research and speaking engagements around the world inform our work in advocacy and policy recommendations to government agencies, contribute to the curriculum of academic institutions, provide inspiration to the building trades and help advance social and environmental justice campaigns and initiatives.

Empowering community leaders at Village Bottoms Cultural District, West Oakland, USA

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WHY ECOCITIES?

Humanity is running up against the limits of a finite But despite such positive signs and efforts, the much planet. We are experiencing rapid global climate larger trend around the world is toward cars and destabilization and the endangerment of entire sprawl. And now we are at a point of crisis in the ecosystems. way we live, which is largely determined by the way we build. This continuing trend is promoting global These life-threatening global environmental warming, species extinction, loss of habitat and problems demand a restructuring of cities, towns, agricultural land, serious public health problems and and villages worldwide for long-term energy even war. efficiency and conservation. Concerned citizens in every community – in every city, town and village – The prevailing strategy for “saving the environment” must get involved in formulating and implementing has largely been to try to improve a dysfunctional new land use and transportation policies and system. But some things cannot be improved practices, preserving agricultural lands and open without causing further and more destructive space, and reclaiming natural habitat. problems.

An ecocity is an ecologically healthy city. No such Ecocity design relates to practically all scales of city presently exists. We do, however, see hints development, and, if applied across those scales, of ecocities emerging in today’s solar, wind and would be a solution of sufficient power to preserve recycling technologies, in green buildings and green and restore the health of the planet. businesses, in urban environmental restoration projects, urban gardening and organic farming, and We have been hearing for some years now that in individuals using foot, bicycle and public modes “more than half the people in the world are now of transportation in preference to the automobile. living in cities.” But what is important to notice is that Car-free urban centers, “mixed use” and “balanced” probably 90% or more of us – almost all of us – live development projects represent land use and in either cities, towns or villages and at all those architectural changes moving in the right direction. scales our built community can be either designed upon the foundation of ecological understanding or without it.

Since the 1950s, sprawl development, dependent on the automobile, has led to overwhelming ecological and climate impacts. Yet, cities have the potential to reverse the negative consequences of climate change and resource depletion.

Illustration by Richard Register

7 Ecocity Builders WHY ECOCITIES?

The concept of the ecocity seeks to provide a practical vision for a sustainable and restorative human presence on this planet and a path towards An ecocity... its achievement through the rebuilding of cities, is a human settlement towns and villages in balance with living systems. modeled on the self- At its core, Ecocity Builders and associates’ definition sustaining, resilient of “ecocity” is conditional upon a healthy relationship of the city’s parts and functions, similar to the structures and functions relationship of organs in living complex organism. of natural ecosystems. We are concerned with city design, planning, It provides healthy building, and operations in an integral way and in relation to the surrounding environment and natural abundance to its resources of the region, utilizing organic, ecological and whole-systems lessons to actually reverse inhabitants without the negative impacts of climate change, species consuming more extinction and the destruction of the biosphere. (renewable) resources Rapidly shift from away from car, sprawl, paving and cheap energy infrastructure over to compact than it produces, without pedestrian oriented renewable energy and land, producing more waste materials and energy conserving ecocities. Instead of trying to improve an unhealthy than it can assimilate, automobile and oil based infrastructure, the problem and without being toxic we’re facing today calls for the city, town and village to be redesigned around the measure, needs and to itself or neighboring potential of the human being and based upon ecological principles. ecosystems. Its inhabitants’ ecological impact reflect Specifically it calls for urban diversity at close proximity, instead of scattered uniformity. It calls for planetary supportive land uses, architecture and a steadily and rapidly growing infrastructure for pedestrians, bicyclists lifestyles; its social order and transit, powered by renewable energy sources reflects fundamental and balanced with preservation and restoration of natural and agricultural lands and waters. principles of fairness,

We have not yet tried such an approach. Its promise justice and reasonable for creative, productive and restorative solutions are equity. enormous. — A working definition adopted by Ecocity Builders and the International Ecocity Standards advisory team, February 20, 2010, Vancouver, Canada.

8 Ecocity Builders WHY ECOCITIES?

Guidelines for ecocity development Ecocity development is a whole-systems approach combining administration, ecologically efficient industry, people’s needs and aspirations, harmonious culture, and landscapes where nature, agriculture and the built environment are functionally integrated. Ecocity development requires:

Ecological security Clean air, and safe, reliable water supplies, food, healthy housing and workplaces, municipal services and protection against disasters for all people.

Ecological sanitation Efficient, cost-effective eco-engineering for treating and recycling human waste, gray water, and all wastes.

Ecological industrial metabolism Resource conservation and environmental protection through industrial transition, emphasizing materials re-use, life-cycle production, renewable energy, efficient transportation, and meeting human needs.

Ecological infrastructure integrity Arranging built structures, open spaces such as parks and plazas, connectors such as streets and bridges, and natural features such as waterways and ridgelines, to maximize accessibility of the city for all citizens while conserving energy and resources and alleviating such problems as automobile accidents, air pollution, hydrological deterioration, heat island effects and global warming.

Ecological awareness Help people understand their place in nature, cultural identity, responsibility for the environment, and help them change their consumption behavior and enhance their ability to contribute to maintaining high quality urban ecosystems.

— Guidelines adopted by the 5th International Ecocity Conference delegation, Shenzhen China, 2002

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Programs & Projects Demonstration projects

Ecocity Builders regularly engages in on-the-ground ecocity demonstration projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. Cities are seeking innovative ideas and new approaches for dealing with priority issues and concerns. Our demonstration projects provide a learning framework for better solutions and development approaches.

Demonstration projects are effective mechanisms for forging partnerships between public, private and especially community sectors, developing new ways of working together, and learning by doing. Project activities and results are highly visible. Such first-hand experiences are especially important in situations where social processes, behavioral Perspective of Strawberry Creek Plaza at changes, and institutional reforms are the keys for Center Street by Hood Design success.

Center Street Plaza, Berkeley - Highlights By creating a distinctive sense of place for the downtown Berkeley core, the project encourages June 2009 Design team presented to the Berkeley walking, bicycling and the use of public transit as a viable alternative to driving. The project will contribute Planning Commission to restoring the local landscape ecology, conservation of energy, and carbon emission reductions. Landscape architect Walter Hood’s ecologically oriented design January 2010 concept will: Design team presented to City Council • Pedestrianize one block of Center Street between and to the public at the Brower Center Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue • Create a small public plaza • Partially daylight Strawberry Creek, currently in an March 2010 underground concrete culvert City Council and Streets & Open • Integrate with surrounding buildings using Space Improvement Plan (SOSIP) sub- sustainable design principles including solar energy committee endorsed the Ecocity Builders plan.

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Urban Villages, Oakland - Highlights The Urban Villages Project combines science and technology with community education, outreach and input to describe, communicate, and achieve a shared June 2009 vision for a just and sustainable city. It is is an integrated Reported to BAAQMD on ecocity approach to transitioning from the current land- mapping of Oakland urban villages, and and energy-intensive patterns of urban sprawl and 67,200 tons of greenhouse gas savings automobile dependence, towards compact, pedestrian- potentially achieved by implementing and transit-oriented communities linked by transit, trails and greenways, and restored natural corridors. ecocity elements in Oakland. Developed with Village Bottoms neighborhood. Urban Villagers enjoy the health benefits, pleasure, convenience, and cost savings, thanks to access by proximity to their everyday retail, services, jobs, October 2009 transportation, and recreational needs within walking Design charrette on Village Bottoms distance. The approach focuses on creating thriving, neighborhood plan at West Coast Green relocalized green economies, decreasing the need for conference & trade show. commuting for its residents and long distance transport of goods and materials. June 2010 Launched with funding from the Bay Area Air Ecocity Builders led mobile workshop Quality Management District (BAAQMD), the model visiting the future Village Bottoms is being applied to Oakland, California and can be Cultural District. adapted to other Bay Area cities, paving the way for the herculean task of reaching the region’s target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through reductions in vehicle miles traveled and land use planning, as mandated by SB 375 and AB 32.

Vision for the Village Bottoms Cultural District Corridor 11 Ecocity Builders PROJECT EXPERIENCE

A typical weekly workday at the Village Bottoms Farm Gaia Arts Building & Cultural Center, Berkeley, CA

Codornices Creek Daylighting, Berkeley The Cordornices Creek daylighting project began in 1995, when a West Berkeley landowner petitioned to pave over a small open section of Codornices Creek to construct an office building. An alert neighbor spotted the notice posted on a telephone pole and notified Berkeley’s Urban Creeks Council, which acted to explore alternatives. A deal was eventually worked out that not only saved the open portion but daylighted an additional 290 feet of Cordornices Creek in Berkeley and Albany, CA.

Ecocity Builders served as the construction supervising firm and volunteer coordinator throughout the project. Volunteers and product donations came from Urban Creek Council, Friends of Five Creeks in Albany, the East Bay Conservation Corps, AmeriCorps, the public schools and the neighborhood itself. The result is a beautiful pocket park with a jewel of a creek flowing through. Since the daylighting project, Ecocity Builders has continued to gather volunteers on Sundays to care for this urban oasis.

Playing with Codornices Creek critters

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Speakers’ Bureau

Ecocity Builders provides experienced and engaging speakers for a wide range of conference and event audiences, including city government, community groups, nonprofits and businesses.

Founder and President Richard Register and Executive Director Kirstin Miller travel nationally and internationally, providing lectures and slide shows on ecocity principles and theory, planning and development for national and local governments, universities, planning organizations, and community organizations.

2009 speaking engagements (partial list): April 100th Anniversary Celebration (Tele Aviv, Israel) May International Ecopolis Forum (Huaibei, China) June Urban Ecology Conference (Montreal, Canada) August Green Management Forum and Ecocity Workshop (Seoul, South Korea) October Gaining Ground Conference (Vancouver, Canada) November UN Global Forum on Human Settlements (Shenzhen, China) December 8th International Ecocity Conference (Istanbul, Turkey)

Executive Director Kirstin Miller (left) in Shenzhen China for the UN Global Forum on Human Settlements organized by Noel Brown, former Director of the UN Environment Program (far right) I want to thank Kirstin Miller for... speaking to my Environmental Issues class (ESPM 10) at Cal on April 1, 2010. The 150 students are learning about urban environments and consumerism, and their environmental impacts. Kirstin gave a truly excellent and exciting talk on how to rethink urban environments, providing excellent local examples and case studies. In my opinion, the biggest challenges facing this organization is a historical lack of sound urban planning in the USA. This trend will eventually HAVE to be broken as petroleum runs out, but Ecocity Builders has the platform to start this process much earlier before a catastrophe develops. —Dr. R. Amundson, University of California, Berkeley 13 Ecocity Builders PROGRAMS & PROJECTS

Planning & design consulting

We provide our clients with exclusive consulting on ecologically sensitive building and development projects. For each project, we may propose to create conceptual illustrative drawings to communicate ecological organization of massing and uses of architecture and space, indicating interrelation between parts and functions. We review drawings and interview developers and architects about plans already in progress, and develop building programs and strategies for winning approvals.

We frequently recommend particular design features and strategies for including ecologically relevant features. We attempt to resolve esthetic problems that arise from use of higher density and ecological design features by providing suggestions for fitting such features into historic and existing Ecocity Zoning Overlay, City of Oakland neighborhood, city-wide, regional and global contexts.

Contact us for more information about our consulting services.

Ecocity sketches for the British Columbia Institute of Technology

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Design & planning charrettes

October 2008 An innovative way to engage the public and key stakeholders in a collaborative process, charrettes are exciting, meaningful and interactive workshops that include community members, design professionals, and other project staff.

The goal of the charette process is to capture the vision, values, and ideas of the community – with designers sketching to create alternatives and ideas as they are generated by the participants.

Ecocity design and planning charrettes are a good way to build positive enthusiasm and energy for a Ecocity charrette for West Coast Green, a regional green building project and capture the knowledge and creativity of trade show and conference the community. Charrettes can take place in a single session or be spread over two or three workshops. October 2009

Contact us for more information about our design and planning charrette services.

Ecocity charrette for British Columbia Institute of Technology, as British Columbia part of Gaining Ground conference, Vancouver, Canada Institute of Technology (BCIT) Approached by the British Columbia Institute of Building upon pioneering conceptual and Technology (BCIT)’s director of sustainability, Ecocity theoretical foundations laid by eco-visionaries Builders began consulting for the BCIT School of such as Richard Register and William Rees, and Construction and the Environment. The School following upon broad initiatives in ecological has adopted a Sustainability framework to inform city design and planning such as Vancouver’s all educational programs research and operational “EcoDensity” program as well as innovation activities, and is taking the initiative to demonstrate the in green building criteria such as the Living framework in its Sustainability Precinct. Building Challenge and LEED, British Columbia

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Institute of Technology (BCIT) School of Construction Coming out of the charrette and informed by and the Environment is seeking to demonstrate their sustainability goals, BCIT administration, the ‘science of ecocity building’. The objective is to faculty, staff and students worked with actual redevelop an existing area of the Burnaby campus as a buildings and landscapes, real numbers and real “living laboratory of sustainability”. data, applied ecocity concepts, and explored pushing the envelope towards achieving The project’s overall goal is to achieve a site specific ambitious 75%-90% reduction necessary to 75% (“Factor 4”) and 90% (“Factor 10”) reductions in practically address the serious impacts of 5-10 years and 20 years respectively in energy and global climate change. These insights should materials consumption. These reductions will be help provide information needed to articulate achieved through a combined approach focused objectives over the next five, ten and twenty on the adaptive restructuring of the Sustainability year periods. BCIT will be able to not only more Precinct’s built environment, along with corresponding fully articulate an achievable vision, but also to environmental restoration projects, energy and prioritize concrete objectives towards achieving materials systems restructuring, and through social and their goals and creating ripple effects on the behavioral change initiatives. surrounding community and region.

Toward the overall goal, in October 2009 Ecocity Builders produced a three-day campus design charrette as a shoulder program to the 2009 Gaining Ground conference in Vancouver. The purpose of the charrette was to explore various scenarios towards short- and long-term goals in materials and energy reductions, first within the Sustainability Precinct and then campuswide. The outcomes of the charrette begin to suggest multiple approaches to achieving these reductions through practical applications and demonstrations of ecocity building principles while maintaining a high quality of student services. BCIT Charrette at Gaining Ground 2009, Vancouver, Canada

Ecocity Builders were fantastic to work with. They managed the entire charrette process with professional attention to detail and a great can- do spirit. Their team was knowledgeable and inspiring, and the charrette deliverables including a final report and resource book were put together in a readable fashion such that everyone from our President through to our students wanted to read it. Now we are implementing, and their willingness to stay engaged and answer questions is appreciated. Thanks Ecocity Builders!

—Jennie Moore, Director of Sustainability, British Columbia Institute of Technology

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International Ecocity Conferences

The International Ecocity Conference Series addresses the way humanity builds its home — its 2011 Montreal, Canada cities, towns and villages. 2009 Istanbul, Turkey Highly motivated and effective change-makers 2008 San Francisco, USA focus on key actions cities and citizens can take to 2006 Bangalore, India rebuild our human habitat in balance with living systems, and, in the process, slow down and even 2002 Shenzhen, China reverse global heating, biodiversity collapse, loss 2000 Curitiba, Brazil of wilderness habitat, agricultural lands and open 1996 Yoff, Senegal space, and social and environmental injustices. 1992 Adelaide, Australia This world-renown series was first held in Berkeley 1990 Berkeley, USA California in 1990. Past conferences have featured a wide range of leaders and innovators, including environmentalist David Brower, Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, Rusong Wang, member of the Chinese Peoples Congress and head of the environmental sciences division of the Chinese Academy of Science, urban research scientist and author Janice Perlman, and Denis Hayes, director of the original national Earth Day in 1970 and keynote for the first Ecocity Conference.

Bottom line: We want to unite people around a new way of living on the planet that provides the best possible cities for people to live in while enhancing, not destroying, the biosphere. 2009 International Ecocity Conference, Istanbul, Turkey

2009 International Ecocity Conference, Istanbul, Turkey

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International Ecocity Standards

With increasing awareness and concern on climate change and urban sustainability, the term “ecocity” February 2010 - IES was launched is fast becoming a buzzword in many places in Vancouver, Canada and is around the world. In some cases, the legitimacy of such self-proclamations has been questionable. an iterative process embracing Just how ecologically healthy are these cities or the following areas: principles, projects? Through developing and establishing the standards, special definitions, city International Ecocity Standards, we hope to provide classification and representative both the vision for an ecologically restorative human presence on earth as well as a practical methodology cities, and certification process, for assessing and guiding the achievement of such outreach and feedback solicitation. vision through the lens of the ecocity. The inaugural meeting was The IES platform adopts a systems view: not only is the built environment one of the elements of attended by representatives and that system, but so are the humans living there, employees of the International the other species sharing the same bioregion, as Ecocity Conference Series, Ecocity well as the human agency in the world through Builders, University of British lifestyle choices, work and investments. Unique from other existing standards, the IES take into account Columbia, University of California “whole-systems,” as well as “end-point” indicators, the - Berkeley, HealthBridge, British carrying capacity of bioregional resources, access to Columbia Institute of Technology, minimum basic human needs, and social equity and justice. The Standards is applicable across scales from Urban Resource Systems, le Centre the ecoblock, econeighborhood, ecodistrict, ecocity d’Écologie Urbaine de Montréal, to the ecoregion. l’Université du Québec à Montréal, and the One Earth Initiative. IES will continue to engage with a group of international advisors within a framework of collaboration, contribution, recognition and protection of intellectual content. We are committed to harmonizing IES standards with all other efforts that are aligned with its values and theoretical framework, and we will seek to engage the best of what is already under development by organizations such as the Cascadia Green Building Chapter, LEED and ICLEI Sustainable Cities. Once developed, we intend to make IES available as broadly as possible internationally.

IES Process Diagram

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Classes & workshops

Ecocity Builders offers classes, presentations and workshops for a wide range of audiences, including students at the university level, city government, community groups and intentional communities, NGOs and businesses. Together, and bringing in diverse perspectives, classes and workshops explore questions such as:

How do we build cities today? What did they use to look like? How could cities be healthier, for people and nature? What do you think an ecocity would be like to live in? Ecocity Workshop for the City of Willits, California Our whole systems approach enhances teaching and learning in social and natural sciences, math, history, economics, engineering and political science. Our Ecocities for Kids programs provide a great educational discussion topic for students of all ages and abilities. Executive Director Kirstin Miller regularly teaches a course on “The Ecological City Structure” for the University of California, Berkeley Extension.

Green City Visions Conference, World Environment Day 2005, San Francisco

A student explains her mapping project during an ecocities class at UC Berkeley Extension

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Ecological Cities Held at the UC Berkeley extension campus in San Francisco, this course familiarizes both students and professionals with strategies to create a sustainable built environment for people and nature by reshaping the built human infrastructure, using principles and methods grounded in ecology and whole-systems thinking. Basic ecocity theory is presented, as is an overview of the city in evolution, the city today, and a step-by-step method for building the low-energy, sustainable city of tomorrow. Slide lectures, selected readings, in-depth discussions, a field trip, mapping projects, and collaborative working groups provide useful knowledge and the confidence around key issues and concepts.

Ecocities for Kids Ecocities for Kids programs provide educational discussion topic for students of all ages and abilities. Critical thinking skills are honed and opportunities for brainstorming and creativity abound. Students become inspired and empowered by new information and ideas. Our basic presentation includes an introductory slide show on ecocities, followed by a guided discussion. Topic covered include:

Transportation: Getting Around Land Use: What Goes Where Renewable Energy: Power Urban Agriculture: Food Systems Watersheds: Water & Nature in the City Local Economy: Goods and Services Greenbelts/Open Space: No Sprawl Social Equity: Diversity and Respect

Public Health: Nontoxic, No Pollution Ecocities for Kids Recycling: Near-Zero Waste

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Policy development & advocacy

We believe in citizen involvement in governance Past and educate ourselves and others on land use and • Oil-Independent Oakland 2020 Action Plan architectural issues. Regularly, we provide policy • UC Hotel Conference Center Task Force, Berkeley guidance to cities by serving on task forces and • Open Space Task Force, San Francicso committees, as well as input and recommendations • Ecocity Amendment, 2001 Berkeley General Plan for local community planning and development • Residential Energy Conservation Ordinance, initiatives. Some of our local, regional, and Berkeley international involvement includes: • Solar Greenhouse Ordinance, Berkeley • Creek stenciling, Berkeley Current • Car Wars campaign • TransFORM, a Bay Area regional coalition • International Council on Ecopolis Development

Richard Register, Jaime Lerner, and Wang Rusong Launch of International Ecocity Standards, February 20, 2010

Creek stenciling, Berkeley Ecocity Mapping using GIS

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Writing & publishing

Our founder and president Richard Register writes books, articles and reports on ecological city design, A review of Richard Register’s Ecocities: and has rendered hundreds of illustrations depicting Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature ecocities and ecocity design elements. His articles about have appeared in numerous publications, Ecocities describes the place of the city in including the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco evolution, nature and history. It pays special Chronicle, Time Magazine, Playboy, Utne, InContext, attention to the key question of accessibility IEEE Spectrum, East Bay Express, and many others. In and transportation, and outlines design addition, our staff and associates regularly contribute principles for the ecocity. The reader is ecocity-related articles and essays to numerous encouraged to plunge in to its economics and additional magazines, newsletters, books, blogs and politics: the kinds of businesses, planning and other online media outlets. leadership required. The book then outlines the tools by which a gradual transition to the ecocity could be accomplished. Throughout, this new edition is generously illustrated with the author’s own inspired visions of what such rebuilt cities might actually look like.

Ecocities takes you on an exploratory journey into the cities of the future. You will wander along streets flanked by clear streams and flowering shrubs where there is no polluting traffic, or traverse bridges linking gardens and fruit trees many stories Distribution: above the ground. Yet this is no 7,668 active readers in half-baked dream, but rather a 73 countries reality based on technologies, architectural designs and Our e-newsletter, Ecocities Emerging, was born out of functioning buildings that actually the International Ecocity Conference Series. Published exist in several places around the monthly, it chronicles ecocity development and globe, and concepts that have projects worldwide and is disributed to approximately 7,670 active readers in more than 70 countries. We been approved by down-to-earth receive emails, articles, updates, and ideas from our city planners. A copy of Ecocities associates from around the world. should be in every school library.

— Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE; founder, the Jane Goodall Institute; UN Messenger of Peace

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Other projects

Please contact us for more information.

• The Integral Neighborhood • Slow Street Project, Milvia Street, Berkeley • Urban Street Orchard Project, Berkeley • Greenhouse Ordinance, Berkeley • Ecocity Amendment to the City of Berkeley General Plan • Strawberry Creek Greenway Plan • City of Willits Community Workshop • Green City Visions Conference, World Environment Day 2005 • Mills College Green Plan

Slow Street Milvia, Berkeley

Integral Neighborhood

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Boards of Directors, Advisors, and Staff Directors Advisors Richard Register, Board President, Founder of Joan Bokaer Ecocity Builders and Urban Ecology Ernest Callenbach Fritjof Capra Linda Levitsky, Board Vice President, Founder Jorge Gonsalez-Claveran and Executive Director of East Bay Depot for John Cobb Creative Reuse Henry Dakin Serigne Mbaye Diene Dr. Isabel Wade, Founder and President, Urban Paul Downton Resource Systems Len Duhl Gil Friend Steven A. Bercu, Esq., CEO, Lime, llc – Lawyers for Peter Harnik Interactive Media & Entertainment Paul Hawken Hazel Henderson Sylvia McLaughlin, Co-Founder, Save-the-Bay, Cherie Hoyle Co-Founder, Citizens for East Shore Parks Huey Johnson Jan Lundberg Mark Baldridge, Co-Founder, Poetry Flash, V. Setty Pendakur Producer, Watershed Festival Deborah and frank Popper Roger Pritchard Gar Smith Georgi Stoilov David Suzuki Brian Swimme Mary Evelyn Tucker Sim Van der Ryn

Finale at Ecocity World Summit 2009, Istanbul, Turkey

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Richard Register, President & Founder Richard is one of the world’s great theorists and authors in ecological city design and planning. He is also a practitioner with four decades of experience activating local projects, pushing establishment buttons and working with environmentalists and developers to get a better city built and running. Among his many “firsts,” he convened the first of the Ecocity International Conference Series in Berkeley, California.

He was founding president of Urban Ecology (1975) and founder and current president of Ecocity Builders (1992), both nonprofit educational organizations.

Richard illustrates his own writing, and his books are considered as pleasurable for his imaginative drawings as profound in their ecological urban philosophies and visions. Register is the He has spoken at the alternative events at author of Ecocities: Building cities in balance all the major United Nations environmental with nature (2002), Ecocity Berkeley: Building conferences, in Stockholm, Rio de Janeiro and cities for a healthy future (1987), and Another Johannesburg, and Habitat II, “The City Summit” Beginning (1978). He is editor of Village Wisdom/ in Istanbul. Universities, architectural firms, Future Cities (1997). transportation experts, futurist conferences, colleges’ associated student body events, Richard is a frequent guest of organizations and business councils, small local creek restoration conferences large and small in his hometown, groups, and city mayors and government the San Francisco Bay Area, and around the agencies have all hosted his talks or classes. world. He has traveled the equivalent of 28 times around the world (as of 2010) advocating Richard was recently appointed to the for the potential for the pedestrian city to International Scientific Advisory Committee save the world — by reducing automobile on Active Ecological Urban Development dependence, global warming, massive sprawl, to the Scientific Committee on Problems in ecological habitat fragmentation, air and water the Environment (SCOPE), an international pollution and other harms. Cities are the largest association of several nation states and two systems that humans build, and we can build dozen major scientific associations. The project them to contribute to humanity’s creative and is led by Rusong Wang, host and co-convener compassionate evolution on a healthy planet, in of the 5th Ecocity International Conference in exciting and rewarding built communities from Shenzhen, China. the village scale to the city scale.

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Staff

Kirstin Miller, Executive Director Towards CarFree Cities III in Prague, Czech Republic, 2003, and The 6th, 7th and 8th Kirstin is an environmental activist, community International Ecocity Conferences in Bangalore organizer, and a writer and editor. She has India, San Francisco USA and Istanbul Turkey. been with Ecocity Builders since 1997 and She was also a plenary speaker at two currently serves as Executive Director. Kirstin convenings of the Global Forum on Human has presented for the organization locally, Settlements in Shenzhen and Hueibi China nationally and internationally. She was a (2008, 2009) and the 4th International Forum speaker at the 7th World Wilderness Congress on Ecopolis Development, Chende China, 2010. in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 2001, the 5th Her articles and essays on ecocities, urban International Ecocity Conference in Shenzhen ecology and the environment have appeared China in 2002, Towards CarFree Cities III in in a number of publications, including Orion Prague, Czech Republic, 2003, and The 6th, 7th Afield, Ecotecture and Wilderness and Human and 8th International Ecocity Conferences in Communities, The Spirit of the 21st Century. Bangalore India, San Francisco USA and Istanbul Turkey. She was also a plenary speaker at two Kirstin works closely with Ecocity Builders’ convenings of the Global Forum on Human President Richard Register in the development Settlements in Shenzhen and Hueibi China of the organization’s “toolbox” of strategies, such (2008, 2009) and the 4th International Forum as car free by contract housing, environmental on Ecopolis Development, Chende China, 2010. restoration transfer of development rights, Her articles and essays on ecocities, urban centers oriented development, ecological ecology and the environment have appeared demonstration projects and ecological zoning in a number of publications, including Orion overlay mapping. Afield, Ecotecture and Wilderness and Human Communities, The Spirit of the 21st Century. She also helps coordinate an alliance of local environmental organizations working to Kirstin works closely with Ecocity Builders’ promote and advance ecologically healthy President Richard Register in the development urban policies and projects, including the of the organization’s “toolbox” of strategies, such development of an ecological demonstration as car free by contract housing, environmental project in the heart of Berkeley, CA. restoration transfer of development rights, centers oriented development, ecological In addition to serving as Executive Director for demonstration projects and ecological zoning Ecocity Builders, Kirstin also teaches a class on overlay mapping. The Ecological City Structure at the University of California, Berkeley Extension in San Francisco She also helps coordinate an alliance of local and is a Board Member of the International environmental organizations working to Ecocity Conference Series Committee. promote and advance ecologically healthy urban policies and projects, including the

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Jane Wardani, Development and time basis for 5 years. Marco obtained aN MFA Projects Associate focusing on the intersection between public art and ecology. He later worked for 6 years Jane brings 10 years of international experience managing investment equity portfolios primarily in urban planning and sustainability, on behalf of large foundations and endowments. focusing on international development, Marco left the corporate world in April 2009 and stakeholder engagement, capacity building, is currently studying permaculture design and and environmental justice. She has worked system theory. in multicultural settings across a range of development topics, from tourism development Richard Smith, Research Associate in Thailand, to neighborhood planning in low-income communities of color in the Rick is a professor at Wayne State University. San Francisco Bay Area. She has lived in Prior to his involvement with Ecocity Builders, Indonesia, France, and Singapore and is a he served as a Presidential Management language enthusiast. In 2008, she graduated Intern at the US Department of Housing and from the concurrent Master of City Planning, Urban Development (HUD) and US Agency for Master of Landscape Architecture program International Development. As a desk officer in environmental planning at University of for the Empowerment Zone and Renewal California, Berkeley, completing her thesis on Community Initiative at HUD, he developed creek and watershed restoration, stewardship performance measures, coordinated information and justice. Jane is active in the Northern systems and advised CEOs and local government California section of the American Planning staff on ways of enhancing community Association, as well as in grassroots nonprofit development strategies. Smith also served in organizations working locally in the San Peace Corps Mongolia, managed the Spring Francisco Bay Area. Institute English Language Center and consulted with the World Bank, UNDP and UNICEF. He is Marco Vangelisti, Co-Facilitator, also a graduate of the University of Michigan International Ecocity Standards and Western Michigan University. Project Christian Runge, Design Associate Marco studied theoretical math (algebra, logic and topology) and applied math (statistics, Christian is a Masters student in landscape operations research and theory of programming architecture at the University of Michigan. He language design) at the University of Padova is interested in urban ecological design and in Italy. He obtained an MBA from the school restoration, community oriented/participatory “Enrico Mattei” in Milan. He was a Fulbright design work, urban design, social justice in scholar in mathematics and economics at design. In addition to his academic work at the University of California in Berkeley. Marco the University of Michigan, he has also studied worked for 11 years at BARRA in Berkeley – a landscape design and horticulture at Merritt think tank developing statistical risk models College. Before returning to school, he worked for equity and fixed income markets around for five years as a K-12 educator in a variety of the world. He worked as visual artist on a full- formats, and with many demographic groups.

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Tawni Aaron, Events David Reid, GIS Specialist

Tawni Aaron is a LEED-certified architectural David Reid – Coastal Geologist / GIS Contractor designer & marketing coordinator of residential, with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Pacific commercial and urban design projects. She is Science Center in Santa Cruz, CA. Dave works currently in the process of opening a coworking on the National Assessment of Coastal Change and small business collective in San Francisco Hazards Project in which he uses historical called OURSpace; a place where independent maps, lidar (light detection and ranging) data, workers, artists and variety of small business and geographic-information-system (GIS) come to work, network, and socialize. She is technology to calculate long-term (120-year) passionate about creating a shared business shoreline-change rates for the entire Pacific community that has an emphasis on Green Coast of the U.S. technology, education and collaboration. Tawni has enjoyed volunteering with many important Max Heim, Webmaster organizations; Meals on Wheels, Green Century Institute, EcoTuesday and Ecocity Builders. Max Heim developed the original design identity for Ecocity Builders’ including the website for Sven Eberlein, Ecocity Media Ecocity World Summit 2008, and Green City Visions (Ecocity Builders’ 2005 conference for Sven Eberlein is a writer, musician and activist World Environment Day). Max is a Principal with living in San Francisco with roots in Germany. Studio L’Image, a collaborative creative studio. As an associate of Ecocity Builders, Sven has been intimately involved in the advancement of sustainable cities and urban design. His essays have been featured in magazines ranging from the SF Bay Guardian to Global Rhythm Magazine. His new book, Dancing on the Brink of the World, weaves themes of ecology, social justice and spirituality onto a canvas of art, music and creative storytelling. He is a founding member of the band Chemystry Set and publishes the creative portal Tuber Creations. You can read Sven’s creative musings at his blog, A World of Words.

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Financial Update (2009)

Revenues Membership Dues & Book Sales 0.1% Contributions 4.3% Donations $64,108

Foundations and Grants $61,330 Speaking Fees 10.7% Donations 28.3% Conference Income $38,926 Fees for Service Fees for Service $27,472 12.1%

Speaking Fees $24,195 Conference Foundations & Membership Dues and Contributions $9,820 Income 17.2% Grants 27.1% Book Sales $315

TOTAL INCOME $226,167

Fundraising Expenses General & 7% Administrative Program Services 7%

Outreach & Education $54,070

Demonstration Projects $46,933

Events & Conferences $12,925

Standards & Policy Development $71,533 Program Services Supporting Services 86%

General and Administrative $15,577

Fundraising $15,347

TOTAL EXPENSES $215,820

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