What Makes an Ecocity?

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This week, the writers at EcoWorldly will explore ecocities around the world. Stay tuned to this topic by checking in daily at EcoWorldly, or subscribe to our RSS feed to receive email updates.

Having just heard from Keith Rockmael at San Francisco’s Ecocity World Summit 2008, we decided to take a closer look at ecocities, starting with the question “what makes an ecocity?”

Protraveller offers these guidelines:

• Deters Transportation Pollution: No-car cities or zones, great public transportation and government support for hybrid vehicles are ways that a city can deter the use of private transportation.

• Natural Landscaping / Xeriscaping: The entire city is landscaped in such a way as to maximize nature. This benefits the city in several ways; for example, the need for heating and air conditioning is reduced.

• Renewable Energy: It’s a given that ecocities will use wind power, solar power and other renewable energy sources.

• Small Cities: Ecocities are small in size which helps keep everything sustainable and reduces the need to travel extensively.

• Urban Agriculture: By growing food within the city, there’s little need for transport so pollution is reduced. Encourages the local food movement and organic eating.

With this in mind, we’ll set out to bring you back stories from revolutionary ecocities and ecovillages around the world.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to catch a train and a ferry to the semi-tropical island of Jeju, South Korea, where I’ll visit an ecovillage generating renewable energy and biofuel.