Sustainable Affluence
A Concept Paper for Meixi Lake
Changsha, Hunan

INTRODUCTION
It is the government of Hunan Province*s intent that the West Changsha Pioneer Zone will be a growth pole that will spearhead economic growth for the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiantan city group, and by extension, the Hunan province and the central-south China region. Within the Pioneer Zone, Meixi Lake is assigned three key mandates:

• Meixi Lake will be a model of the ※Dual-Oriented Society§ - a paragon of energy efficiency and environmental protection;
• Meixi Lake will be an incubator for innovative and high-tech industries;
• Meixi Lake will offer a healthy and vibrant life-style.

The balanced attainment of these three goals will enable the city to develop in harmony with the environment, the economy and society 每 the ※Triple Bottom Line§ of sustainable development.
As the developer of Meixi Lake, Gale International aims to exceed these mandates and define a new model for the 21st century Chinese city:

• A city in which the environmental, economic and social goals do not conflict with one another but reinforce each other in a virtuous cycle of growth.
• A city in which collaboration among Gale, its global partners, the government and the future citizens of Meixi Lake generates a combined effort that is greater than the sum of its parts,
• A city in which a framework of integrated planning, design, development and management promotes continuous adaptation and innovation, and propels growth.

Welcome to Meixi Lake, an innovative city model for Hunan, China and the World 每 a model of Sustainable Affluence.

MEIXI LAKE: SYNERGY THROUGH INTEGRATION
Meixi Lake seeks to address the challenge of Sustainable Affluence in a holistic manner, through the integrated planning, design, development and management of the critical elements that affect a city*s environmental performance, productive capacity and quality of life. These include the city*s land use, transportation, energy, water, food, waste, telecommunications, ecological and social systems, among others. Integrated solutions can bring about system synergies that produce dramatic, multiple benefits.
Here are a few examples that illustrate how this holistic process helps to achieve the project mandates.

DEVELOPMENT MANDATE #1: HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT
Healthy air, water and food provide key ingredients for healthy living at Meixi Lake. Urban gardens along the ※Green River§, the 3,000-mu Meixi Lake itself, and the southern Yuelu Mountain combine to create a biologically diverse natural environment, abundant recreational opportunities and a serene counterpoint to the urban setting. Linking all three natural amenities is a north-south nature corridor that will serve as a springboard for local eco-tourism, agro-tourism and cultural tourism.
Maintaining
Meixi Lake*s environmental quality requires a coordinated strategy to curtail automobile pollution, mitigate water pollution, and manage urban waste.

INTEGRATED ENERGY, FOOD AND WATER MANAGEMENT
With increasing population, cities must address the critical relationships between energy, food and water, and their impact on the environment. Agriculture and power plants are the two largest users of freshwater. It takes energy to extract, treat and transport water, sometimes across vast distances, while the production of energy requires large quantities of water. Dwindling water supplies will impede the ability to generate more energy, while rising energy prices will hamper efforts to supply more clean water.
Food production consumes 70% of the world*s freshwater, while growing, processing, storing and transporting food require considerable energy. Global warming exacerbates the problem: for every rise of one degree Celsius above the norm, wheat, rice and corn yields fall by 10%. While
biofuels such as corn-based ethanol can boost energy supply, they consume 20 or more times as much water for every kilometer traveled as the production of gasoline. Therefore, in any effort to scale up food or biofuel production, water may well be a limiting factor.

The interdependence of food, water and energy means that water shortages can result in food and energy shortages. By addressing these problems in an integrated manner, Meixi Lake can help to boost each resource without adversely impacting the others:
• Harvesting rainwater and reusing municipal and industrial wastewater for agriculture, park irrigation, industry and cooling power plants.
• Reducing agricultural water consumption by adopting more efficient irrigation and water recycling systems, and other high-performance farming strategies, including locally produced, pesticide-free, organic food.
• Adopting or designing a holistic energy management plan that cuts carbon dioxide emissions by:

a) Building decentralized co-generation or tri-generation power plants to reduce energy loss through transmission, reuse the waste heat for district heating and air-conditioning, and increase the overall resilience of the system;
b) Raising the energy, water and land efficiency of buildings;
c) Investing in high efficiency equipment;
d) Installing automatic sensors and integrated building management systems;
e) Harnessing renewable energy: solar thermal, wind farms, geothermal heating and cooling, water-efficient biofuels, waste-to-energy plants, urban bio-digesters, among others.
f) Investing in ※Smart Grids§ that allow multi-directional energy flow, optimal energy distribution and grid-accessible energy storage.

INTEGRATED RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
An integrated urban resource management system can turn a city*s waste into a resource, helping to save energy and water, recycle nutrients, reduce pollution, minimize landfill space and create a source of green jobs. Some examples include:
• Using inorganic waste as the raw material for new products and packaging.
• Converting solid waste to energy through gasification or incineration.
• Using urban bio-digesters to recover biogas and nutrients from sewage and organic waste.
• Converting restaurant and commercial grease waste into biodiesel.
 Using compost centers to convert food and garden waste into organic fertilizers.
A healthy environment is a resilient environment, one that can fortify a city*s capacity to withstand natural or man-made disruptions to its water, food and energy supply systems. Through integrated resource management, Meixi Lake promotes a healthy environment and provides for water, food and energy security.


DEVELOPMENT MANDATE #2: CIRCULAR ECONOMY
INNOVATIVE
In studies of high-growth, high-tech, creative cities in the United States, social economists such as Richard Florida have found that, ※Creativity has become the principal driving force in the growth and development of cities, regions and nations.§
The three hallmarks of such creative cities are:
• Talent (Human Capital)
• Technology (Hi-Tech Companies)
• Tolerance (Social Diversity)
Of these, Talent is a key factor in attracting hi-tech companies and generating high regional incomes. Research indicates that Talent is attracted to socially diverse cities that offer a high quality of life.
With strong contemporary design, a 3,000-mu crystal-clear lake, a meandering ※Green River§ and a backdrop of rolling hills, Meixi Lake provides a high quality urban and natural environment that offers physical and biological diversity, accessible amenities and abundant opportunities for outdoor recreation and social activities, important elements of an overall program to attract the necessary talent to build a innovative economy.
In turn, attractive natural amenities generate tourism, while the services and products required to support a ※dual oriented society§ and maintain a healthy environment help to create jobs for a green, ※circular§ economy. Meixi Lake*s healthy environment thus provides not only a foundation for a creative economy, but also a catalyst for a circular economy.

COMPETITIVE
Apart from attracting talent, a city must also provide cost-effective services and resources to be competitive. Streamlining the flow of energy, traffic, people, goods, capital and information, and providing efficient delivery of public services are key measures of a city*s competitiveness that the McKinsey Global Institute calls ※Urban Productivity§.
Urban productivity initiatives 每 for example, promoting the efficient use of energy, water and land resources, and the implementation of transit-oriented development 每 can reduce a city*s annual public spending up to 2.5% of GDP, and generate savings for the private sector, in particular its utility bill, an additional 1.7% GDP.
In short, urban productivity initiatives help a city improve its competitiveness while improving its quality of life. For example:
• High-density, mixed-use, ※Transit Oriented Development (TOD)§ helps to reduce the reliance on automobiles, encourage walking, biking and the use of public transportation, thereby reducing energy consumption, GHG emission, urban congestion and pollution.
• Implementing web-based e-Government systems will streamline the delivery of public services, improve management of infrastructure and public emergencies.
• Embedded intelligence within a city*s infrastructure enables the city to manage its transportation, energy, water, public safety and security systems on an integrated platform, vastly improving efficiency. For example, roadway sensors can streamline traffic, ease congestion and improve environmental quality.
 By providing timely information to users, embedded intelligence helps to create educated, engaged and empowered citizens, allowing them to ※interact§ with the city and use its resources more efficiently. For example, Wi-Fi enabled public spaces can promote knowledge sharing and social collaboration, important components of a creative economy.

In bolstering Meixi Lake*s creative and competitive capacity, the city will expand investment, business and employment opportunities in the region's service, cultural, creative and green industries, enriching the ecosystem of a robust, circular economy.

DEVELOPMENT MANDATE #3: HARMONIOUS SOCIETY
HIGH-AMENITY, HIGH-QUALITY
A creative, competitive economy seeks the best and brightest of talents. Research has shown that, as a group, talented individuals value high-amenity, high-quality environments that exhibit a high level of social diversity. At Meixi Lake:
• The lake and the mixture of residential/commercial/entertainment functions that surround it, the pedestrian environment, the waterfront promenade, the finger canals, the river parkway and outdoor recreational facilities jointly provide a high level of amenity and a high-quality life-style.
• Public spaces and community facilities around transit nodes help to foster a vibrant community.
• Mixed income, affordable housing promotes socially diverse neighborhoods.
• Smart ※G-Cards§ can promote green consumerism by tracking and rewarding green consumer behavior, as when consumers use green transportation or patronize Ecosystem Service providers. The result is a sustainable, healthy and high-quality environment.
In short, Meixi Lake embodies the three harmonies of ※Heaven, Earth and Man§ 每 a city that develops in harmony with the environment, with the economy and with society 每 the epitome of a Harmonious Society.

GOVERNMENT SYNERGY
The unique opportunities and challenges presented by Meixi Lake will require a new generation of public-private partnerships to enable additional capital and knowledge infusion from the private sector. Government*s policy support is needed to:
• Create an integrated policymaking framework that can address planning, design, development and management issues holistically, thereby promoting continuous adaptation, innovation and growth of Meixi Lake.
• Promote environmental services such as integrated resource management.
• Promote green consumption to create a market for green products and services.
• Offer floor area bonuses for green building design.
• Offer floor area bonuses for affordable housing.


CONCLUSION
The Meixi Lake that emerges from this model is a city in which the environmental, economic and social goals reinforce each other in a virtuous cycle of growth.
 A clean and healthy environment sustains a high quality of life that attracts the best talents, which in turn supports a creative and technologically advanced economy.
 An innovative and competitive circular economy generates well-paying jobs and provide goods and services that benefit society and protect the environment;
 An affluent and harmonious society where educated, engaged and empowered citizens actively participate in supporting green living.
In short, Meixi Lake will be a competitive, resilient and livable city that defines the term, "Sustainable Affluence".