Toward a Sustainable Technopolis - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 163

Toward a Sustainable Technopolis
Fred Phillips
Abstract The chapter offers observations on what makes a technopolis sustain-
able, and how a technopolis contributes to the sustainability of society outside the
technopolis' boundaries. Each technopolis project must attend to sustainability in
the scientific/engineering arena, in the social arena, and in the arena of environ-
ment and the triple bottom line. The chapter offers criticism of common concepts
of sustainability, suggesting that technopolis designers and scientists are well
positioned to sharpen our views and practices regarding sustainability.
1 Introduction: Sustainability and Technopolis
It has been my privilege, over the course of a long consulting career, to visit many
of the world's technopolis projects, including, here in East Asia, Hsin-Chu,
Daeduk, Kansai Science City, Tsukuba, and Oita Prefecture. In 2006, I wrote down
much of what I learned in these travels, in a book called Social Culture and High-
Tech Economic Development: The Technopolis Columns (Phillips 2006 ), a book
which emphasized the vital role of social capital in technopolis development. In
this chapter, I would like to share, in keeping with the theme of this volume,
observations on what makes a technopolis sustainable.
I take a broad view of sustainability, as indeed each technopolis project will
have to attend to sustainability in the scientific/engineering arena, in the social
arena, and in the arena of environment and the triple bottom line. I will go further,
criticizing the foundations of our concepts of sustainability. I feel confident that