Building the Best(Eutteum) Neighborhood

Background Information

To prevent the environmentally-destructive effects of industrialization and build a sustainable EcoCity, Changwon has issued a declaration stating Changwon as the “Environmental Capital” of the world, along with a policy roadmap to achieve this. As part of these policies, Changwon has begun to implement “Building the Best(Eutteum) Neighborhood” through joint partnerships with local citizens, NGOs, and local professionals. City government adopted a resolution and established legal support for this new initiative by legislating the “Changwon Environmental Capital, Best(Eutteum) Neighborhood Regulation."

Goals of the Initiative

With the creation of the “Building the Best (Eutteum) Neighborhood” project, the city focused its effort on bringing together a coalition of local citizens, NGOs, and local professionals. This project was developed to give citizens a voice in the shaping of the community development project, with the goal of creating an improved quality of life for the citizens, who would organically nurture community leaders through the project’s success. Citizen participation was integral to the success of this project. To ensure the project’s success, The City of Changwon sought to increase project awareness throughout the community by applying a variety of outreach methods, with hopes of increasing local citizen action and participation. The city emphasized the importance of home and community maintenance through various participation programs and direct/indirect advertisements. The city encouraged support from local community leaders. The project was citizen-led, which means that the entire process, from the planning stages, to project implementation, to ultimately the actual physical improvement of facilities, was entirely a result of citizen effort. In other words, the City of Changwon provided an overall framework for the project, while citizens took ownership of this project by helping improve their local environment. In order to overcome the damage of years of industrial pollution and to erase its reputation as merely an “industrial city,” the City of Changwon set the following goals as part of its “Building the Best (Eutteum) Neighborhood” project: creating more pedestrian-friendly streets, instilling a greater sense of community amongst residents, and increasing Sincheon Creek’s water quality to a Level 1. After these successes, Changwon expanded its city’s aspirations, seeking to become South Korea’s “Environmental Capital.”The City of Changwon also implemented the Ten Million Tree Planting Movement and the Carbon Point System to stimulate environmental efforts and local community participation.

Innovation for the Initiative

It was the first citizen-led local government project in South Korea

•City government roles are very insular and dominant in South Korea, leaving citizens with limited resources to tackle local problems. This led to a culture of passivity among local residents in solving local problems. The goal of this project was to reverse these norms, providing citizens an active role in government.

•In the “Building the Best (Eutteum) Neighborhood” project, the city supported the neighborhood with financial resources and helped the community form a project implementation committee. The citizens found existing problems, organized, and lead the project themselves, while NGOs and local government assisted, assuming a supporting role.

•This kind of project can bring about the vitalization of citizen autonomy and can ignite community spirit by granting citizens the authority to determine the solutions to their local problems. Furthermore, this is particularly innovative because returning the opportunities for decision-making and action to citizens can bring about balanced development of public and private areas, and can help further elicit change to South Korean society.

The Green City Ten Million Tree Planting Movement

To increase recreational space within the city and to help Changwon achieve its goal of becoming the “Environmental Capital” of South Korea, a parks and green spaces project was initiated. This project resulted in the planting of 3.88 million trees, largely made possible thanks to active citizen participation. The effort helped reduce air pollution, as well as urban noise. Additionally, it helped reduce the average summer temperature by about three to seven degrees Celsius, significantly decreasing the effect of suffocating summer heat. 

Reducing Greenhouse Gases and Helping Families

The Carbon Point System helped improve living conditions and increase family incomes, contributing significantly to “voluntary green practices” among citizens. After being introduced, the system reduced over 21,261 tons of carbon dioxide (the equivalent of planting 117,335 20-year-old nut pine trees). Thanks to the Carbon Point System, over the course of two years with this program, Changwon families consumed 46,054 Mwh less electricity and 5,238,000 m3 less water.