#OpenFinnovation

http://www.vtt.fi/proj/ecocitychina/

http://www.google.com/search?q=eco+ci...

Eero "Paloheimo is presently busy with projects to develop ecological cities to China (see opening for a talk in English, given in Tianjin, China 17.04.2007), which are based on the ideas presented in his book titled The Way Towards a New Europe."

link to talk: http://www.eeropaloheimo.fi/EcoCity.h...

link to the book: http://www.eeropaloheimo.fi/neweurope...

quote in from the talk: "As far as I understand, Chinese decision-makes do not have the same constraints and are not as easily steered by the media. Major, radical decisions may be easier to take when you believe they are correct and need not suffer from irrelevant criticism. Making such a radical decision as to build an eco-city is possible in China. It would not be possible in Finland or other European countries."

important point which is why i am very skeptical about attempts to create market driven, "capitalist" solutions for sustainability that create the radical change needed.

thanks @viilee

EDIT: uups - changed the message language to english - @viilee: could you too?

I've been talking with some people involved in the EcoCity project. Paloheimo is certainly a central figure. The idea is great. There are tons of things we could do in collaboration. @viilee, I think we would need to start building local / national prototypes. There is a great example in Kempele where a group of home owners are building their own independent heat and power production. Biogas and power from bio-waste will be used in a new plant in Kitee.

There are several small scale developments going on. A lot could be done with biotechnology solutions in water treatment plants. All these could fit into the EcoCity concept, but the knowledge and examples are scattered all around the country. SME's are not powerful enough to make their inventions visible. Social Media could have a role in increasing public awareness.

Municipality decision makers would need new "role models" for a better future. What could we do in this field? @hyvaelama might have ideas about to finance a grass roots EcoCity modeling and piloting. China is just one possible area. Russia could become a big market as well.

We've a great national infrastructure, but exporting the key-elements is a complex task. I work with a think tank group where these issues have been on the table for several years, but we've to admit that we still powerless in how to move from ideas and concepts to implementation. And it's IMPLEMENTATION that matters.

BTW: is Qaiku still working so that English speaking users will not in any way be notified of the four first messages in this thread, because they are set to Finnish? ping @eholmila

My idea is that the Open Innovation Train could cover issues like EcoCity. We could bring up good examples from Cities and Municipalities along the railway from Helsinki to Oulu. To give good examples publicity. Station One is doing some fine work in the field of biofuels by using food and agricultural waste to produce biofuels. We have to move from Qaiku-talk to a decision concerning The "Oulu-trip". There seems to be quite a few suggesting around November 12.

Guys keep up good work this following text is by no means meant to slow things down. But I have to comment to Paloheimo's sayings.

Bu tong yi - I don't agree!

It might be true that no European city could build up trial eco city project like Tianjin and especially in such a short time. But looking only this one example not thinking holistically what happens in China, is giving very false picture what is happening there. It is not possible to pick up raisins from a bun. Dictators might be efficient to get through examples like this. But at the same time you take other "benefits" of the authoritarianism. When there is no human rights you can't expect animal rights. It is very clear that China way produces bigger environmental disasters than democratic European system. E.g. The Three Gorges project would have never been possible in Europe.

What bothers me in discussion here in Finland is that we are too humble with China and we see things too positive there. Some happenings, like 2 billion euro investement celebration on last June, looks to me like a Soviet Union relationship on 70s. Letting people understand that China is doing more in environmental sustainability than e.g. Europe is just not true. More typical is nowadays economical discussion authoritarianism vs. democracy. I see how people admire 8-10% economic growth in China and take that as a proof that democracy is not the most efficient system. Nalle had very good comment to this. Problems are huge in China. Poor education, pollution, short life expectancy, poverty (central bank reserves is not a right way to measure wealth) to name few.

Wo hen gaoxing wo Fenlan hui lai le - I'm very happy I'm back in Finland.

If you need contacts in the area of academic research in this Tianjin project, ping me. There is one PhD research in Finland ongoing focusing to this particular project. Not in our family thou:-)

@jounikj I see that proper execution of the intended EcoCity projects is also requiring a more democratic infrastructure to handle the social problems. It's not going to be easy to enclose political stability into the programs. Finnish municipalities and local democracy (kunnallinen itsehallinto) could be a part of the model. I see the "whole" as bigger than a building project. The challenge is to move from idealism to pragmatic implementation.