studio630: In The Future, We Will All Live in Ecodistricts “Llewellyn Wells, founder of Living City Block, argued that our continued efforts to go after the low-hanging building efficiency fruit often reduces the bigger gains from deeper innovation because once an investment is made in efficiency, it reduces the viability of a subsequent, larger-scale initiative. He also had one of my favorite quotes from the summit: “Don’t waste your time with incrementalists, they are the enemy of the future.” As one participant noted, a “sustainability Arab Spring” needs to happen city by city, district by district.  Keynote speaker Jeb Brugmann, the founder of ICLEI (one of the most influential municipal networks in the world) and the cofounder of The Next Practice, an urban sustainability consulting firm (full disclosure: I am in the middle of collaboration with Brugmann), explained how ecodistricts should be customized to their local condition and ideally become net producers. For example, an ecodistrict in a local food-centric community could become a net producer of local food through a range of solutions such as rooftop and community gardens and vertical farms. Others could be net energy producers, leveraging smart buildings and smart grids as well as distributed renewables to generate enough energy to meet all the needs of the ecodistrict—while also selling energy back to the grid. By combining rich local networks with international networks of cities, ecodistricts can provide access to the world’s resources.Ecodistricts are not only here to stay, but are likely to become the biggest form of city building. Over time, leading cities will be composed of a patchwork of ecodistricts, all interconnected to each other as well as to ecodistricts and cities in other parts of the world. It’s entirely possible to imagine a future where every resident of a city lives an ecodistrict.”

studio630:

In The Future, We Will All Live in Ecodistricts

“Llewellyn Wells, founder of Living City Block, argued that our continued efforts to go after the low-hanging building efficiency fruit often reduces the bigger gains from deeper innovation because once an investment is made in efficiency, it reduces the viability of a subsequent, larger-scale initiative. He also had one of my favorite quotes from the summit: “Don’t waste your time with incrementalists, they are the enemy of the future.” As one participant noted, a “sustainability Arab Spring” needs to happen city by city, district by district. 


Keynote speaker Jeb Brugmann, the founder of ICLEI (one of the most influential municipal networks in the world) and the cofounder of The Next Practice, an urban sustainability consulting firm (full disclosure: I am in the middle of collaboration with Brugmann), explained how ecodistricts should be customized to their local condition and ideally become net producers.

For example, an ecodistrict in a local food-centric community could become a net producer of local food through a range of solutions such as rooftop and community gardens and vertical farms. Others could be net energy producers, leveraging smart buildings and smart grids as well as distributed renewables to generate enough energy to meet all the needs of the ecodistrict—while also selling energy back to the grid. By combining rich local networks with international networks of cities, ecodistricts can provide access to the world’s resources.

Ecodistricts are not only here to stay, but are likely to become the biggest form of city building. Over time, leading cities will be composed of a patchwork of ecodistricts, all interconnected to each other as well as to ecodistricts and cities in other parts of the world. It’s entirely possible to imagine a future where every resident of a city lives an ecodistrict.”