Over the past two weeks I have been contacted by several journalists all looking to learn more about China’s “Eco Towns/ Green Villages”. It is apparently the subject of favor lately, as highlighted by Ethical Corporation’s recent piece Special Reports: China’s eco-towns: Green communities – To go eco, think small.

A subject I have covered before, and worked with, what I have always found amazing about these eco-towns is how seemingly easy it is for people to (1) taut these as a sign of China’s commitment to the environment and then (2 )be surprised when things fail.

French’s article, while well written, misses a few key points though:

1) The process is not locally driven.

The fact that McKinsey (a lare consulting firm) should be the masterminds of greening an island should provide some clues as to why Dongtan should serve as the best example of how a process like this gets off on the wrong foot.

This was not something that the locl community was asking for, initially supported, and it required a great deal of negotiation and education before “buy in” as achieved.

2) Reliance on foreign design, program management, and certification

Eco-towns designed by foreigners are surely far more likely to garner the attention of politicians and the press than were it some small developer, but this is also a problem.

Arup and McDounugh have little motivation for making these villages “green” as they are not the ones who are going to live there. They are there for the pictures, perhaps an international award, and that is it for them. It is a means to an end.

3) Poor planning

Further to #2, the needs of these villages are vastly different than McKinsey, Arup, and McDounugh

They must live in these villages, work in these villages, and find value in these villages… and should their value/ price not be met, they will reject these villages.

Huangbaiyu is a classic example of this as the farmers were left without gainful employment, the houses did not provide an area suitable for gardens, and the sense of community was all lost.

Problems well documented by the PBS report Field of Dreams

For French, this means that walking away from eco-villages is the best thing to do, and perhaps he is right. At least in the current sense.

I am a firm believer that in order to develop a water solution, you need to be drinking dirty water, and it is clear that to this point the primary decision makers have been drinking from glacial melt.

Were a hamlet, like the one I am in right now (10 km outside of Beijing), to approach a developer, engineering firm, or their city government and actually ask for this, then I would say that would be a good start… and a start that I believe could well end in a success.

Sure, it probably would not garner the same level of media attention that Dongtan would, but good programs really brand themselves long term, and to be honest… the current media coverage on Dongtan is not all that good anyway.