Investing in sustainability

Two recent blog posts examine the potential for foreign investors to capitalize on sustainable building projects.
Steve Dickinson from the China Law Blog recently explained how some recent changes to China’s real estate laws will restrict foreign investment.

“Foreign Investment In China, Part II: Can You Say Last Nail In The Real Estate Coffin?”
By Steve Dickinson
China Law [...]

Dongtan - where’s the news?

(Illustration via Arup)Arup, a U.K.-based global business and design consulting firm, got plenty of play in The Independent this week, as the firm’s director, Peter Head, wrote an article about Dongtan, what he describes as “Arup’s masterplan for the world’s first eco-city.” Basically, this is the message: “Ah, Arup, the green pioneer! The chivalrous eco-knight [...]

EcoBlocks in China

(Photo via Green Dragon Media Project)
My recent interview with Caroline Campbell from the Green Dragon Media Project (podcast pending, I promise!) inspired me to learn more about green buildings in China. (Browse an image gallery from the Green Dragon Media Project’s recent tour of China here.)
Conventional city planning in China usually involves “the SuperBlock, [...]

Utopias are not sustainable

(Photo via What is Enlightenment? magazine.)
Ah, how wonderful life would be if we could just start from scratch?
Well, that’s exactly what architects and engineers are trying to do with utopian “eco-cities,” environmental havens complete with solar panels, windmills, built-in water filtration systems and other sustainable, energy-saving designs.
China’s currently boasts three major eco-cities–Rizhao, Huangbaiyu, [...]

Local angle: China competition leads to Chicago Green Exchange

One factory’s downfall is another business’ success
In a subtle twist of irony, Chicago’s Frederick Cooper Lamp factory was shut down in 2005 because of increased competition from China’s booming manufacturing economy, only to be reborn into the Chicago Green Exchange, “an epicenter for green businesses and organizations in the [...]