About The Village
Along with our food systems, urban development has such a profound impact on ecological and human health that it must be transformed holistically and comprehensively.
Green Village Philadelphia believes that to survive the environmental crisis we must go beyond LEED’s highest Platinum standards and revolutionize the redevelopment of our urban communities in such a way that we effect a change in consciousness around land use and development.
In order to preserve ourselves, and our planet, we require a system for urban redevelopment that will actually enhance the function of natural systems while we address and improve the physical, social, and economic wellbeing of all our citizens and revitalize our communities.
The Green Village Philadelphia eco-village will be a model of regenerative or integrative development *, with integrated systems that mimic nature in efficient production and reuse of resources; a built environment that will generate renewable energy, conserve, clean and reuse water, provide space for both wild habitat and urban agriculture, minimize or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, and implement closed loop systems that eliminate waste, to create a net positive impact on the living environment.
In addition to cutting edge environmental strategies the Green Village Philadelphia eco-village will be beautiful, inclusive, diverse, and ensure equitable access to green affordable housing, local business ownership, and green collar jobs.
* “Regenerative development conceptualizes projects as engines of positive or evolutionary change for the systems into which they are built. Rather than looking at how to minimize the impact on wildlife habitat and corridors, for example, regenerative designs look at how to increase habitat quality. Similarly, regenerative development takes into account the importance of delivering new capability into the communities that surround a project. And it recognizes the need to integrate the economic activities associated with development into the ongoing economic health and stability of local communities. Learning how to apply a regenerative approach begins not with a change of techniques but rather with a change of mind—a new way of thinking about how we plan, design, construct, and operate our built environment. Regenerative development recognizes that the site into which a building is embedded is a complex and dynamic system of systems. Each site has a distinctive character arising from its underlying landform and the climatic, ecological, historical, and social forces that have shaped it. Taken together, these influences give a site its sense of place and a way of assessing its inherent potential. Understanding this dynamic picture enables us to match human activities and aspirations to the land, integrating what we build into the living fabric of a site to create a successful marriage of built and natural systems.”
Excerpt from “Regenerative Development”, by Ben Haggard, Bill Reed, and Pamela Mang http://www.regenesisgroup.com/development.php
