Innovation

Ecotono Urbano is an architectural and urban landscaping firm in Monterrey, Mexico that wanted to improve the environment and make the the city green and beautiful with regional plants and trees. To accomplish that, it created three initiatives: BUM, Biozoteas & Biopared, and a guidebook of trees and other native plants.

• BUM is an online inventory of Monterrey's trees and parks that measures their environmental impact, facilitates the identification and care of regional plants, and encorages appreciation of the area's natural beauty. Feeding on the participation of local citizens, institutions and governments, the platform documents the heritage, quantity, and quality of area plants and trees to create a catalog of characteristics that includes: flowering, size, foliage, and watering needs. To prevent a tree from being registered more than once, a cardboard sign with a BUM logo is placed in the tree's trunk so it can be easily identified. More than 150,000 trees have been registered.

• Biozoteas & Biopared is the design and creation of sustainable systems of green roofs and living walls to capture CO2 and recycle oxygen, control the areas' extreme temperature fluctuations, and attract more birds and butterflies to Monterrey. Architect Oswaldo Zurita Zaragoza, founder of Ecotono Urbano, says another goal of this initiative is to build a bond between society and nature. "In the public space is where you can interact with everything and everyone no matter their power or position in society. It only matters that you are a citizen and you can interact with everything." As of 2017, more than 5,500 square meters of city space have been transformed using regional plants.

• The book, "Guide of Trees and Other Native Plants," has become a regional guide to landscaping and architecture in Monterrey, selling more than 9000 copies. In addition to providing an inventory of local vegetation by name and type, the book provides care tips and information on the benefits and uses of each plant. Zurita says the book was created to help people appreciate the advantage of having regional plants and how to use that knowledge to help Monterrey become a better city.

Inspiration

Company founder, Oswaldo Zurita Saragoza, got the idea for creating Ecotono Urbano thanks to his career and passion for nature. While studying architecture at Universidad de Monterrey, he developed a passion for landscaping and appreciation of nature from his many trips to the mountains surrounding the city and international travel to exotic countries.

Hiking became a passion. Saragova liked to hike to the top of the city's mountains and admire the peaceful horizon and vegetation below. As he did this over the years, he noticed the mountains had fewer trees every time. This helped him build his future vision of what he wanted to do in the world.

His first project was to build a department complex next to Parque Fundidora, the biggest urban park in Monterrey. The building would be totally sustainable, starting from the materials for the construction to its bioclimatic design. Unfortunately, this was a very difficult project with obstacles he couldn't overcome because of the economic crisis with our neighboring country, the United States, and the Mexican crime crisis.

The experience marked the beginning of a wave of ideas for Saragova's now successful initiatives which have the purpose of bringing back to modern society the beauty of nature and respect for its values and benefits.

Overall impact

When we think about nature, we have this idea of it being wild and uncontrollable and that when we create spaces for people to live we need to take space away from nature. Ecotono Urbano has a different way of doing things. It creates a balance between the two, using sustainable landscaping to build urban spaces that merge nature and architectonic beauty.

The company has created three initiatives with the goals of reducing CO2 molecules and recycling oxygen, reducing fluctuations in the Monterrey's extreme temperatures, and educating society about the need to respect and take care of nature. Ecotono Urbano's founder, architect Oswaldo Zurita Saragoza, says "this has the purpose of inspiring people to want to do something and make a difference."

Business benefit

Ecotono Urbano's initiatives have helped the firm grow in reputation as a responsible organization that advocates a healthy and tolerant coexistence with the environment. It has created a new model for other landscaping and architecture firms that promotes viewing plants and nature as more than just living entities, but as a part of something bigger.

The company has developed an expertise on the topic of sustainable landscaping and reforestation, with a specialty in using native vegetation to recover city spaces and improve environmental quality. This expertise benefits Ecotono Urbano's customers and gives the company an edge in competing with other landscaping and architecture firms. By using sustainable nature care methods, they differentiate themselves and provide solutions guided by the company's key values; transcendence, excellence, dynamism, ethics and empathy. Saragoza and the Ecotono Urbano team have been recognized for the effort and passion they put into every new project.

The company's edgy and fashionable landscaping style has created a following among millennials, bringing in loyal new clients with a nature conservation perspective.

Social and environmental benefit

Society has benefited the most from Ecotono Urbano's initiatives because they return something to earth. The company's efforts have reduced environmental contamination in Monterrey, improved sustainability, and helped the public understand the need to be kind to nature.

As it has been said before, at the core of of Ecotono Urbano's initiatives is its harmonic merging of nature with modern architecture. This approach has had a massive impact on nature preservation and the regional climate. It has helped reduce the wild climate changes and temperature fluctuations in Monterrey, reduced CO2 emissions, and restored the balance of nature with the city's need for technological advances. This has had the benefit of putting miniature reforestation processes in place, helping to make Monterrey more sustainable. The community has learned alternative ways of creating beautiful spaces without compromising nature.

In addition, Ecotono Urbano's "A Guide of Trees and Other Native Plants," has helped to enlighten citizens about the uses and benefits of regional plants and trees, how to promote their healthy growth, and why it's important to conserve these natural resources.

The business model is scalable. Ecotono Urbano's initiatives can easily be applied to projects in other cities around the world as a way to control climate change, help society fix what it broke, and heal the world.

Interview

Oswaldo Zurita Zaragoza, Architect