The Future is Here: Model Environmental Communities in China!

Following the call for a “greener” community in China’s                                                                                12^th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), “sustainable architecture”                                                                           has become the latest fashion here to stay. Tianjin Eco-City                                                                             marks a new era in the way in which people will live!

Construction began in 2008 on the Tianjin Eco-City, a 30 square kilometer                                                     development designed to showcase the newest green technologies and                                                                   to serve as a model for future developing Chinese cities.

Designed by Surbana Urban Planning Group, the city is being built 10                                                                 minutes away from the business parks at the Tianjin Economic-Development                                                       Area, an easy commute with its advanced light rail transit system.

The community’s expected 350,000 residents will be able to choose diferent landscapes                                  ranging from a sun-powered solarscape to a greenery-clad earthscape pictured above.

Its strategic location makes the Tianjin Eco-City  poised to realize its                                                                       vision to be a center for eco-activities and businesses that will involve                                                                              companies that provide services in green financing, energy efficiency                                                                      consultancy and eco-solutions.

The Taoyuan Model Eco-Community will develop around the Yuan River in Hunan Province.                                       The Yuan River is a lush zone of biodiversity, the natural habitat of thousands of native plants                                and animals, including the Qiusha Duck, a class-one endangered species. The Taoyuan MEC                                   will address the economic and social welfare of the community through: 1) formation of a chicken                              farming cooperative, 2) initiating an ecotourism program  3) establishment of a community center                               offering healthcare, environmental and life skills trainings and 4) rebuilding and education and                        healthcare facilities. The goal is to preserve the diverse natural habitat of the Yuan River while                                   at the same time empowering the rural community to become economically viable through                              sustainable means. Now that’s what I call SEEing Society, Environment and Economy as                                                 the triple bottom-line considering People, Planet and Profit!

The Germany-based company Knauf, a leading producer of gypsum boards, opened                                                 its fourth plant in Taicang, Jiangsu province this year!  The company contributed to 75                                              percent of the projects in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and supplied plasterboard                                    products to 15 pavilions at the 2010 Shanghai Expo. As China becomes more and more                                 urbanized, people are ready to raise the standard of living. The use of plasterboard in                                              housing is increasing as construction companies move away from brick-framed buildings                                           to timber- and steel-framed buildings. Its raw material, gypsum, is a type of rock more                                              than 200 million years old that weighs little and is flexible!