Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature

Phone: (510) 419-0850Email: kirstin@ecocitybuilders.org

Web: www.ecocitybuilders.org

Annual Report2009/10

Ecocity Builders339 15th Street, Suite 208Oakland, CA 94612

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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 9th 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 MillerExecutive Director

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About Ecocity Builders

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 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 an ecocity’s economics and politics, the kinds of businesses, planning and leadership required.

Mission & Vision

Richard Register, Jaime Lerner, and Wang Rusong at the 7th International Ecocity Conference, San Francisco, USA, 2008

Kirstin Miller consulting to the city of Huaibei, China, 2009

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What we doEcocity 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, 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, 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.

Mapping Yoff, Senegal

5th International Ecocity Conference, Shenzhen, China

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

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WHY ECOCITIES?

Ecocity design relates to practically all scales of development, and, if applied across those scales, would be a solution of sufficient power to preserve and restore the health of the planet.

We have been hearing for some years now that “more than half the people in the world are now living in cities.” But what is important to notice is that probably 90% or more of us – almost all of us – live in either cities, towns or villages and at all those 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.

Humanity is running up against the limits of a finite planet. We are experiencing rapid global climate destabilization and the endangerment of entire ecosystems.

These life-threatening global environmental problems demand a restructuring of cities, towns, and villages worldwide for long-term energy efficiency and conservation. Concerned citizens in every community – in every city, town and village – must get involved in formulating and implementing new land use and transportation policies and practices, preserving agricultural lands and open space, and reclaiming natural habitat.

An ecocity is an ecologically healthy city. No such city presently exists. We do, however, see hints of ecocities emerging in today’s solar, wind and recycling technologies, in green buildings and green businesses, in urban environmental restoration projects, urban gardening and organic farming, and in individuals using foot, bicycle and public modes of transportation in preference to the automobile. Car-free urban centers, “mixed use” and “balanced” development projects represent land use and architectural changes moving in the right direction.

But despite such positive signs and efforts, the much larger trend around the world is toward cars and sprawl. And now we are at a point of crisis in the way we live, which is largely determined by the way we build. This continuing trend is promoting global warming, species extinction, loss of habitat and agricultural land, serious public health problems and even war.

The prevailing strategy for “saving the environment” has largely been to try to improve a dysfunctional system. But some things cannot be improved without causing further and more destructive problems.

Illustration by Richard Register

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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 its achievement through the rebuilding of cities, towns and villages in balance with living systems.

At its core, Ecocity Builders and associates’ definition of “ecocity” is conditional upon a healthy relationship of the city’s parts and functions, similar to the relationship of organs in living complex organism.

We are concerned with city design, planning, building, and operations in an integral way and in relation to the surrounding environment and natural resources of the region, utilizing organic, ecological and whole-systems lessons to actually reverse the negative impacts of climate change, species extinction and the destruction of the biosphere.

Rapidly shift from away from car, sprawl, paving and cheap energy infrastructure over to compact pedestrian oriented renewable energy and land, materials and energy conserving ecocities.Instead of trying to improve an unhealthy automobile and oil based infrastructure, the problem we’re facing today calls for the city, town and village to be redesigned around the measure, needs and potential of the human being and based upon ecological principles.

Specifically it calls for urban diversity at close proximity, instead of scattered uniformity. It calls for land uses, architecture and a steadily and rapidly growing infrastructure for pedestrians, bicyclists and transit, powered by renewable energy sources and balanced with preservation and restoration of natural and agricultural lands and waters.

We have not yet tried such an approach. Its promise for creative, productive and restorative solutions are enormous.

An ecocity... is a human settlement modeled on the self-sustaining, resilient

structures and functions of natural ecosystems.

It provides healthy abundance to its

inhabitants without consuming more

(renewable) resources than it produces, without

producing more waste than it can assimilate,

and without being toxic to itself or neighboring

ecosystems. Its inhabitants’ ecological impact reflect

planetary supportive lifestyles; its social order

reflects fundamental principles of fairness, justice and reasonable

equity.

— A working definition adopted by Ecocity Builders and the International

Ecocity Standards advisory team, February 20, 2010, Vancouver, Canada.

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

Ecological infrastructure integrityArranging 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 awarenessHelp people understand their place in nature, cultural identity, responsibility for theenvironment, 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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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 changes, and institutional reforms are the keys for success.

Programs & Projects

Demonstration projects

Perspective of Strawberry Creek Plaza at Center Street by Hood Design

Center Street Plaza, Berkeley - HighlightsBy creating a distinctive sense of place for the downtown Berkeley core, the project encourages walking, bicycling and the use of public transit as a viable alternative to driving. The project will contribute to restoring the local landscape ecology, conservation of energy, and carbon emission reductions. Landscape architect Walter Hood’s ecologically oriented design concept will:• Pedestrianize one block of Center Street between

Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue• Create a small public plaza• Partially daylight Strawberry Creek, currently in an

underground concrete culvert• Integrate with surrounding buildings using

sustainable design principles including solar energy

June 2009 Design team presented to the Berkeley Planning Commission

January 2010 Design team presented to City Council and to the public at the Brower Center

March 2010 City Council and Streets & Open Space Improvement Plan (SOSIP) sub-committee endorsed the Ecocity Builders plan.

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PROGRAMS & PROJECTS

Urban Villages, Oakland - HighlightsThe Urban Villages Project combines science and technology with community education, outreach and input to describe, communicate, and achieve a shared vision for a just and sustainable city. It is is an integrated approach to transitioning from the current land- and energy-intensive patterns of urban sprawl and automobile dependence, towards compact, pedestrian- and transit-oriented communities linked by transit, trails and greenways, and restored natural corridors.

Urban Villagers enjoy the health benefits, pleasure, convenience, and cost savings, thanks to access by proximity to their everyday retail, services, jobs, transportation, and recreational needs within walking distance. The approach focuses on creating thriving, relocalized green economies, decreasing the need for commuting for its residents and long distance transport of goods and materials.

Launched with funding from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), the model is being applied to Oakland, California and can be 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.

June 2009 Reported to BAAQMD on ecocity mapping of Oakland urban villages, and 67,200 tons of greenhouse gas savings potentially achieved by implementing ecocity elements in Oakland. Developed with Village Bottoms neighborhood.

October 2009Design charrette on Village Bottoms neighborhood plan at West Coast Green conference & trade show.

June 2010Ecocity Builders led mobile workshop visiting the future Village Bottoms Cultural District.

Vision for the Village Bottoms Cultural District Corridor

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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.

PROJECT EXPERIENCE

Gaia Arts Building & Cultural Center, Berkeley, CA

Playing with Codornices Creek critters

A typical weekly workday at the Village Bottoms Farm

Codornices Creek Daylighting, Berkeley

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PROGRAMS & PROJECTS

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)

Speakers’ Bureau

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)

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

I want to thank Kirstin Miller for...

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PROGRAMS & PROJECTS

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 neighborhood, city-wide, regional and global contexts.

Contact us for more information about our consulting services.

Planning & design consulting

Ecocity sketches for the British Columbia Institute of Technology

Ecocity Zoning Overlay, City of Oakland

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PROGRAMS & PROJECTS

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 project and capture the knowledge and creativity of the community. Charrettes can take place in a single session or be spread over two or three workshops.

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

Design & planning charrettes

Ecocity charrette for West Coast Green, a regional green building trade show and conference

British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT)

Ecocity charrette for British Columbia Institute of Technology, as part of Gaining Ground conference, Vancouver, Canada

October 2008

October 2009

Approached by the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT)’s director of sustainability, Ecocity Builders began consulting for the BCIT School of Construction and the Environment. The School has adopted a Sustainability framework to inform all educational programs research and operational activities, and is taking the initiative to demonstrate the framework in its Sustainability Precinct.

Building upon pioneering conceptual and theoretical foundations laid by eco-visionaries such as Richard Register and William Rees, and following upon broad initiatives in ecological city design and planning such as Vancouver’s “EcoDensity” program as well as innovation in green building criteria such as the Living Building Challenge and LEED, British Columbia

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BCIT Charrette at Gaining Ground 2009, Vancouver, Canada

PROJECT EXPERIENCE

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

Institute of Technology (BCIT) School of Construction and the Environment is seeking to demonstrate the ‘science of ecocity building’. The objective is to redevelop an existing area of the Burnaby campus as a “living laboratory of sustainability”.

The project’s overall goal is to achieve a site specific 75% (“Factor 4”) and 90% (“Factor 10”) reductions in 5-10 years and 20 years respectively in energy and materials consumption. These reductions will beachieved through a combined approach focused on the adaptive restructuring of the Sustainability Precinct’s built environment, along with corresponding environmental restoration projects, energy and materials systems restructuring, and through social and behavioral change initiatives.

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.

Coming out of the charrette and informed by their sustainability goals, BCIT administration, faculty, staff and students worked with actual buildings and landscapes, real numbers and real data, applied ecocity concepts, and explored pushing the envelope towards achieving ambitious 75%-90% reduction necessary to practically address the serious impacts ofglobal climate change. These insights should help provide information needed to articulate objectives over the next five, ten and twenty year periods. BCIT will be able to not only more fully articulate an achievable vision, but also to prioritize concrete objectives towards achieving their goals and creating ripple effects on the surrounding community and region.

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The International Ecocity Conference Series addresses the way humanity builds its home — its cities, towns and villages.

Highly motivated and effective change-makers focus on key actions cities and citizens can take to rebuild our human habitat in balance with living systems, and, in the process, slow down and even reverse global heating, biodiversity collapse, loss of wilderness habitat, agricultural lands and open space, and social and environmental injustices.

This world-renown series was first held in Berkeley 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.

International Ecocity Conferences

2011 Montreal, Canada2009 Istanbul, Turkey2008 San Francisco, USA2006 Bangalore, India2002 Shenzhen, China2000 Curitiba, Brazil1996 Yoff, Senegal1992 Adelaide, Australia1990 Berkeley, USA

2009 International Ecocity Conference, Istanbul, Turkey

PROGRAMS & PROJECTS

2009 International Ecocity Conference, Istanbul, Turkey

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With increasing awareness and concern on climate change and urban sustainability, the term “ecocity” is fast becoming a buzzword in many places around the world. In some cases, the legitimacy of such self-proclamations has been questionable. Just how ecologically healthy are these cities or projects? Through developing and establishing the International Ecocity Standards, we hope to provide both the vision for an ecologically restorative human presence on earth as well as a practical methodology for assessing and guiding the achievement of such vision through the lens of the ecocity.

The IES platform adopts a systems view: not only is the built environment one of the elements of that system, but so are the humans living there, the other species sharing the same bioregion, as well as the human agency in the world through lifestyle choices, work and investments. Unique from other existing standards, the IES take into account “whole-systems,” as well as “end-point” indicators, the carrying capacity of bioregional resources, access to minimum basic human needs, and social equity and justice. The Standards is applicable across scales from the ecoblock, econeighborhood, ecodistrict, ecocity to the ecoregion.

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.

International Ecocity Standards

IES Process Diagram

PROGRAMS & PROJECTS

February 2010 - IES was launched in Vancouver, Canada and is an iterative process embracing the following areas: principles, standards, special definitions, city classification and representative cities, and certification process, outreach and feedback solicitation.

The inaugural meeting was attended by representatives and employees of the International Ecocity Conference Series, Ecocity Builders, University of British Columbia, University of California - Berkeley, HealthBridge, British Columbia Institute of Technology, Urban Resource Systems, le Centre d’Écologie Urbaine de Montréal, l’Université du Québec à Montréal, and the One Earth Initiative.

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Classes & workshopsEcocity 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?

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.

Ecocity Workshop for the City of Willits, California

PROGRAMS & PROJECTS

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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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 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 AroundLand Use: What Goes WhereRenewable Energy: PowerUrban Agriculture: Food SystemsWatersheds: Water & Nature in the CityLocal Economy: Goods and ServicesGreenbelts/Open Space: No SprawlSocial Equity: Diversity and RespectPublic Health: Nontoxic, No PollutionRecycling: Near-Zero Waste

Ecological Cities

Ecocities for Kids

Ecocities for Kids

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We believe in citizen involvement in governance and educate ourselves and others on land use and architectural issues. Regularly, we provide policy guidance to cities by serving on task forces and committees, as well as input and recommendations for local community planning and development initiatives. Some of our local, regional, and international involvement includes:

Current• TransFORM, a Bay Area regional coalition• International Council on Ecopolis Development

Policy development & advocacy

Creek stenciling, Berkeley

PROGRAMS & PROJECTS

Richard Register, Jaime Lerner, and Wang Rusong

Ecocity Mapping using GIS

Launch of International Ecocity Standards, February 20, 2010

Past• Oil-Independent Oakland 2020 Action Plan• UC Hotel Conference Center Task Force, Berkeley• Open Space Task Force, San Francicso• Ecocity Amendment, 2001 Berkeley General Plan• Residential Energy Conservation Ordinance,

Berkeley • Solar Greenhouse Ordinance, Berkeley • Creek stenciling, Berkeley• Car Wars campaign

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Our founder and president Richard Register writes books, articles and reports on ecological city design, and has rendered hundreds of illustrations depicting ecocities and ecocity design elements. His articles about have appeared in numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Time Magazine, Playboy, Utne, InContext, IEEE Spectrum, East Bay Express, and many others. In addition, our staff and associates regularly contribute ecocity-related articles and essays to numerous additional magazines, newsletters, books, blogs and other online media outlets.

Writing & publishingA review of Richard Register’s Ecocities: Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature

Ecocities describes the place of the city in evolution, nature and history. It pays special attention to the key question of accessibility and transportation, and outlines design principles for the ecocity. The reader is encouraged to plunge in to its economics and politics: the kinds of businesses, planning and 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 above the ground. Yet this is no half-baked dream, but rather a reality based on technologies, architectural designs and functioning buildings that actually exist in several places around the globe, and concepts that have been approved by down-to-earth city planners. A copy of Ecocities should be in every school library.

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

PROGRAMS & PROJECTS

Our e-newsletter, Ecocities Emerging, was born out of the International Ecocity Conference Series. Published monthly, it chronicles ecocity development and projects worldwide and is disributed to approximately 7,670 active readers in more than 70 countries. We receive emails, articles, updates, and ideas from our associates from around the world.

Distribution:7,668 active readers in 73 countries

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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

PROGRAMS & PROJECTS

Slow Street Milvia, Berkeley

Integral Neighborhood

Other projects

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Boards of Directors, Advisors, and Staff

Richard Register, Board President, Founder of Ecocity Builders and Urban Ecology

Linda Levitsky, Board Vice President, Founder and Executive Director of East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse

Dr. Isabel Wade, Founder and President, Urban Resource Systems

Steven A. Bercu, Esq., CEO, Lime, llc – Lawyers for Interactive Media & Entertainment

Sylvia McLaughlin, Co-Founder, Save-the-Bay, Co-Founder, Citizens for East Shore Parks

Mark Baldridge, Co-Founder, Poetry Flash, Producer, Watershed Festival

Joan BokaerErnest CallenbachFritjof CapraJorge Gonsalez-ClaveranJohn CobbHenry DakinSerigne Mbaye DienePaul DowntonLen DuhlGil FriendPeter HarnikPaul HawkenHazel HendersonCherie HoyleHuey JohnsonJan LundbergV. Setty PendakurDeborah and frank PopperRoger PritchardGar SmithGeorgi StoilovDavid SuzukiBrian SwimmeMary Evelyn TuckerSim Van der Ryn

Finale at Ecocity World Summit 2009, Istanbul, Turkey

Directors Advisors

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Richard Register, President & FounderRichard 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 author of Ecocities: Building cities in balance with nature (2002), Ecocity Berkeley: Building cities for a healthy future (1987), and Another Beginning (1978). He is editor of Village Wisdom/Future Cities (1997).

Richard is a frequent guest of organizations and conferences large and small in his hometown, the San Francisco Bay Area, and around the world. He has traveled the equivalent of 28 times around the world (as of 2010) advocating for the potential for the pedestrian city to save the world — by reducing automobile dependence, global warming, massive sprawl, ecological habitat fragmentation, air and water pollution and other harms. Cities are the largest systems that humans build, and we can build them to contribute to humanity’s creative and compassionate evolution on a healthy planet, in exciting and rewarding built communities from the village scale to the city scale.

He has spoken at the alternative events at all the major United Nations environmental conferences, in Stockholm, Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg, and Habitat II, “The City Summit” in Istanbul. Universities, architectural firms, transportation experts, futurist conferences, colleges’ associated student body events, business councils, small local creek restoration groups, and city mayors and government agencies have all hosted his talks or classes.

Richard was recently appointed to the International Scientific Advisory Committee on Active Ecological Urban Development to the Scientific Committee on Problems in the Environment (SCOPE), an international association of several nation states and two dozen major scientific associations. The project is led by Rusong Wang, host and co-convener of the 5th Ecocity International Conference in Shenzhen, China.

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Kirstin Miller, Executive Director

Kirstin is an environmental activist, community organizer, and a writer and editor. She has been with Ecocity Builders since 1997 and currently serves as Executive Director. Kirstin has presented for the organization locally, nationally and internationally. She was a speaker at the 7th World Wilderness Congress in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 2001, the 5th International Ecocity Conference in Shenzhen China in 2002, Towards CarFree Cities III in Prague, Czech Republic, 2003, and The 6th, 7th and 8th International Ecocity Conferences in Bangalore India, San Francisco USA and Istanbul Turkey. She was also a plenary speaker at two convenings of the Global Forum on Human Settlements in Shenzhen and Hueibi China (2008, 2009) and the 4th International Forum on Ecopolis Development, Chende China, 2010. Her articles and essays on ecocities, urban ecology and the environment have appeared in a number of publications, including Orion Afield, Ecotecture and Wilderness and Human Communities, The Spirit of the 21st Century.

Kirstin works closely with Ecocity Builders’ President Richard Register in the development of the organization’s “toolbox” of strategies, such as car free by contract housing, environmental restoration transfer of development rights, centers oriented development, ecological demonstration projects and ecological zoning overlay mapping.

She also helps coordinate an alliance of local environmental organizations working to promote and advance ecologically healthy urban policies and projects, including the

Towards CarFree Cities III in Prague, Czech Republic, 2003, and The 6th, 7th and 8th International Ecocity Conferences in Bangalore India, San Francisco USA and Istanbul Turkey. She was also a plenary speaker at two convenings of the Global Forum on Human Settlements in Shenzhen and Hueibi China (2008, 2009) and the 4th International Forum on Ecopolis Development, Chende China, 2010. Her articles and essays on ecocities, urban ecology and the environment have appeared in a number of publications, including Orion Afield, Ecotecture and Wilderness and Human Communities, The Spirit of the 21st Century.

Kirstin works closely with Ecocity Builders’ President Richard Register in the development of the organization’s “toolbox” of strategies, such as car free by contract housing, environmental restoration transfer of development rights, centers oriented development, ecological demonstration projects and ecological zoning overlay mapping.

She also helps coordinate an alliance of local environmental organizations working to promote and advance ecologically healthy urban policies and projects, including the development of an ecological demonstration project in the heart of Berkeley, CA.

In addition to serving as Executive Director for Ecocity Builders, Kirstin also teaches a class on The Ecological City Structure at the University of California, Berkeley Extension in San Francisco and is a Board Member of the International Ecocity Conference Series Committee.

Staff

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Jane Wardani, Development and Projects Associate

Jane brings 10 years of international experience in urban planning and sustainability, focusing on international development, stakeholder engagement, capacity building, and environmental justice. She has worked in multicultural settings across a range of development topics, from tourism development in Thailand, to neighborhood planning in low-income communities of color in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has lived in Indonesia, France, and Singapore and is a language enthusiast. In 2008, she graduated from the concurrent Master of City Planning, Master of Landscape Architecture program in environmental planning at University of California, Berkeley, completing her thesis on creek and watershed restoration, stewardship and justice. Jane is active in the Northern California section of the American Planning Association, as well as in grassroots nonprofit organizations working locally in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Marco Vangelisti, Co-Facilitator, International Ecocity Standards Project

Marco studied theoretical math (algebra, logic and topology) and applied math (statistics, operations research and theory of programming language design) at the University of Padova in Italy. He obtained an MBA from the school “Enrico Mattei” in Milan. He was a Fulbright scholar in mathematics and economics at the University of California in Berkeley. Marco worked for 11 years at BARRA in Berkeley – a think tank developing statistical risk models for equity and fixed income markets around the world. He worked as visual artist on a full-

time basis for 5 years. Marco obtained aN MFA focusing on the intersection between public art and ecology. He later worked for 6 years managing investment equity portfolios primarily on behalf of large foundations and endowments. Marco left the corporate world in April 2009 and is currently studying permaculture design and system theory.

Richard Smith, Research Associate

Rick is a professor at Wayne State University. Prior to his involvement with Ecocity Builders, he served as a Presidential Management Intern at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and US Agency for International Development. As a desk officer for the Empowerment Zone and Renewal Community Initiative at HUD, he developed performance measures, coordinated information systems and advised CEOs and local government staff on ways of enhancing community development strategies. Smith also served in Peace Corps Mongolia, managed the Spring Institute English Language Center and consulted with the World Bank, UNDP and UNICEF. He is also a graduate of the University of Michigan and Western Michigan University.

Christian Runge, Design Associate

Christian is a Masters student in landscape architecture at the University of Michigan. He is interested in urban ecological design and restoration, community oriented/participatory design work, urban design, social justice in design. In addition to his academic work at the University of Michigan, he has also studied landscape design and horticulture at Merritt College. Before returning to school, he worked for five years as a K-12 educator in a variety of formats, and with many demographic groups.

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Tawni Aaron, Events

Tawni Aaron is a LEED-certified architectural designer & marketing coordinator of residential, commercial and urban design projects. She is currently in the process of opening a coworking and small business collective in San Francisco called OURSpace; a place where independent workers, artists and variety of small business come to work, network, and socialize. She is passionate about creating a shared business community that has an emphasis on Green technology, education and collaboration. Tawni has enjoyed volunteering with many important organizations; Meals on Wheels, Green Century Institute, EcoTuesday and Ecocity Builders.

Sven Eberlein, Ecocity Media

Sven Eberlein is a writer, musician and activist living in San Francisco with roots in Germany. 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.

David Reid, GIS Specialist

David Reid – Coastal Geologist / GIS Contractor with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Pacific Science Center in Santa Cruz, CA. Dave works on the National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards Project in which he uses historical maps, lidar (light detection and ranging) data, and geographic-information-system (GIS) technology to calculate long-term (120-year) shoreline-change rates for the entire Pacific Coast of the U.S.

Max Heim, Webmaster

Max Heim developed the original design identity for Ecocity Builders’ including the website for Ecocity World Summit 2008, and Green City Visions (Ecocity Builders’ 2005 conference for World Environment Day). Max is a Principal with Studio L’Image, a collaborative creative studio.

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Financial Update (2009)

Revenues

Expenses

Donations $64,108

Foundations and Grants $61,330

Conference Income $38,926

Fees for Service $27,472

Speaking Fees $24,195

Membership Dues and Contributions $9,820

Book Sales $315

TOTAL INCOME $226,167

Program Services

Outreach & Education $54,070

Demonstration Projects $46,933

Events & Conferences $12,925

Standards & Policy Development $71,533

Supporting Services

General and Administrative $15,577

Fundraising $15,347

TOTAL EXPENSES $215,820

Donations28.3%

Foundations & Grants27.1%

Conference Income17.2%

Fees for Service12.1%

Speaking Fees 10.7%

Membership Dues & Contributions 4.3%

Book Sales 0.1%

Program Services86%

General & Administrative7%

Fundraising7%