by Rick Pruetz, Vice President, Ecocity Builders Land use is essential to climate action. We need diverse, compact communities where people can meet their daily needs without a...
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Proximity is the New Mobility
by Rick Pruetz, Vice President, Ecocity Builders Mobility is not an end in itself but rather a means of reaching destinations. Placing trip origins and destinations closer to one...
Local Action on a Global Emergency
by Rick Pruetz, Vice President, Ecocity Builders “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.” That statement won’t surprise anyone who has...
Ecocities versus Wildfire
by Rick Pruetz, Vice President, Ecocity Builders Almost 40 percent of all US housing lies in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) and consequently experiences increased risk from...
Bikes Make Vermont a Little Greener
by Rick Pruetz, Vice President, Ecocity Builders Vermont’s roads treat bicyclists to spectacular scenery, particularly in fall for muscle-powered leaf peeping. The Green Mountain...
Ecocities and the Power of Compact Redevelopment
by Rick Pruetz, Vice President, Ecocity Builders In the May issue of Ecocities Emerging, I wrote that compact urban form, by itself, can cut resource and energy use in half. Three...
Ecocities and the Power of Greenspace
by Rick Pruetz, Vice President, Ecocity Builders Compact urban form, by itself, can cut resource and energy use in half concludes a report prepared by the International Resource...
Becoming a Biodiverse City: bridging the urban-rural divide
The International Ecocity Standards revolve around four pillars, and at the base is the pillar concerned with ecological imperatives for: i) healthy biodiversity, ii) Earth’s...
Reconciling the Climate Emergency to the Reality of Cities as Dissipative Structures
Last April, Earth Day celebrated its 50th anniversary. Since its inception, the world has experienced massive change with more than half the global population moving into cities...
Cultivating Climate Action
by Rick Pruetz, Vice President, Ecocity Builders The generation of food emits almost as much greenhouse gas (GHG) worldwide as the generation of electricity. Yet the food...