Seoul's 'Mr. Green'

Gangdong-gu district office head Lee Hae-sik waters a tree planted by a girl at Gangdong Areum forest in Myeongil-dong. The forest has some 132,000 trees planted by volunteering citizens in an effort to resuscitate greens in the district after it was affected by typhoon Kompasu in 2010. / Courtesy of Gangdong-gu District Office

Gangdong district mayor leads environmental initiatives

By Ko Dong-hwan

Residents of Gangdong in eastern Seoul are getting their hands dirty in the district’s urban farms. They’ve begun planting lettuce, chicories, potatoes, tomatoes, radishes and 50 other crops as a hobby.

These urban farmers, who include both children and adults, cultivate and harvest all of these natural products on eco-friendly farms in Myeongil-dong, Sangil-dong and Dunchon-dong in the district. Geographically, Gangdong is 40.3 percent green and has long been identified by experts for its environmental potential.

“Our urban farmers grow mostly crops that ripen within a year,” explained Lee Hae-sik, the mayor of the district office, who has been promoting an eco-friendly lifestyle to residents since taking office in 2008. “Those who the office recognizes as outstanding urban farmers can challenge themselves to cultivate crops that take two years to grow, such as garlic and onions. Myeongil Neighborhood Park boasts the most diverse range of crops of any farm in the district, including bellflowers, barley, wheat and beans, as well as herbs such as basil and mint.”

The urban farming program run by the district office offers three farming packages. For 26,200 won ($23), a person receives a 94,500-cubic-centimeter box, 50 liters of soil and other basic farming products, including seedlings, fertilizer and a trowel. If one can afford the 926,000 won ($820) package, one gets a 3.3-square-meter arable field that can be set up on rooftops of low-rise buildings or public office buildings but not apartments. If 10 or more households from the same residential building would like a shared field on their rooftop, they get an 80 percent discount on the package (900,000 won). Finally, for 103,000 won ($91), a person gets a 12-square-meter patch of land on an urban farm in the district, as well as fertilizers.

“Our office provides two mentors to each beginner farmer,” Lee said. “People can also request for experts to teach them about farming and protecting crops from diseases and pests. They can also visit the office’s official webpage (www.gangdong.go.kr/cityfarm) to get extra tips.”

Lee’s office works round-the-clock to reach people interested in urban farming. It creates and uploads videos on how to grow various types of crops, gives tours around urban farms under a program called Green Tour, and operates various community classes on eco-friendly urban farming, recycling as well as bee farming. Lee estimated that if each household in his district committed to urban farming by 2020, resulting in 10,000 patches of cultivated land in urban farms and 180,000 boxes of crops, the district will secure as much as 250,171 square meters of green land and eliminate 52.3 tons of carbon dioxide.

The 52-year-old governor, who is serving his third consecutive term, started his political career in 1995 as a congressman for Gangdong-gu. He began to take interest in environmental causes that same year, when he, as a longtime district resident, participated in a district civic panel to protest the city’s plan to build a garbage disposal plant in the district. The issue made environmental activists of the Gangdong residents, and encouraged them to start recycling. The residents’ initiative prompted the city government to scrap its disposal plant plan and prompted the introduction of a volume-rate garbage disposal system — which charges people fees according to how much garbage they discard — nationwide in the same year.

Lee, who is also the chairman of the health-promoting governmental organization Korea Healthy Cities Partnership, frequently rides his bicycle to work to contribute to the green movement he started. “It is good for health and lowers carbon emissions,” Lee said. He promoted the two-wheeled transport district-wide by building a Bicycle Service Center in Godeok-dong in 2010, which lends and repairs bicycles for free, and Gangdong Bike School in 2012, which teaches cyclists how to ride bicycles safely.

Gangdong-gu district office head Lee Hae-sik accompanies children visiting an urban farm to pick potatoes from a field.

Farm to table

Urban farming not only symbolizes Gangdong’s environmental initiative but also benefits local consumers by providing them with affordable produce. The crops are sold at grocery store Sing Sing Dream in Godeok-dong in the district. The store receives the produce from the urban farms and those from an eco-friendly farmers’ community. It cleans the produce to rid them of any remaining fertilizers and insects, registers the suppliers of the produce and stacks the produce for sale. The inventory process takes less than two hours.

“Compared to eco-friendly products sold in major grocery stores like E-mart and Homeplus, those sold at Sing Sing Dream are 50 percent cheaper on average and 60 to 70 percent cheaper than those from grocery stores,” Lee said. “Compared to conventional, non-eco-friendly products, those sold at Sing Sing Dream are 20 to 30 percent cheaper.”

Selling over 100 types of fruit and vegetables as well as farming tools and organic fertilizers, the store has gained 5,270 registered customers and made 275 million won ($247,000) in sales as of the end of 2014 since its establishment a year before.

(Sing Sing Dream is located at 922 Dongnam-ro, Godeok-dong, Gangdong-gu. The store can be reached at (02) 442-6560 or (02) 3425-6560.)

Crux Town, an energy self-sufficient community

In Cheonho-dong in Gangdong is Crux Town, a small community consisting of 46 households. The national government reserved it in 1974 for families of Vietnam War veterans. In 2012, however, the town emerged to become a symbol for the future, being recognized by the Seoul government as an energy self-sufficient town. Of the 30 households that have installed solar panels on their roofs, eight generate all the electricity they need and thus, do not pay a dime to the nation’s major electricity provider, Korea Electric Power Corporation. The number of households choosing to install solar panels is steadily rising.

“Crux Town has 38-percent energy self-sufficiency, compared to an average of 4.2 percent across all Seoul districts,” Lee said. “The residents strive to conserve energy, running their air conditioners, refrigerators, washers and light bulbs with electricity generated from the solar panels. They are also keen on using energy-efficient home appliances, such as heat-insulating materials, high-efficiency heaters and LED lights.”

Lee emphasized that the town residents wholeheartedly participate in Gangdong’s energy conservation campaign. They check the electricity meter board displayed in the town hall indicating how much electricity each household with solar panels is spending. They encourage one another to improve their energy saving, reminding themselves that such practice is not optional but mandatory. That’s what elates Lee more than anything else - he appreciates the town residents more because they voluntarily roll up their sleeves to save energy and promote other environmental causes.

Many people outside the town are also starting to save energy. In Kolon apartments in Seongnae-dong, 23 solar panels have been installed, the most among all apartments in Seoul, and in Hansol Solpark apartments in Dunchon-dong, 246 LED lights have been installed in underground parking lots and stairwells. On November 2014, Lee signed joint partnership agreements with local communities with 100 to 300 households each, public offices, welfare offices, schools, daycare centers and religious groups in his district to increase the number of energy self-sufficient communities like Crux Town. He plans to increase the number of such communities up to 30 by the end of 2015 and 100 by 2016.

All the eco-friendly businesses in the district — Lee calls them “prosuming” businesses, a compound of the words “produce” and “consume” which emphasizes people’s self-sustainability — are part of his long-term, human-centric policies that aim to make the district environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. The district boasts a rich portfolio of eco-friendly parks: Gangdong Areum forest in Myeongil-dong, which consists of 132,000 trees planted by volunteers to repair the damage from typhoon Kompasu in 2010; Seoul’s first carbon-reduction forests in Amsa Ecological Park and near Godeok-cheon, with another one to be built in Mount Ilja city park on Mar. 28; and a high-end ecological stream park currently under construction in the vicinity of Godeok-cheon, in a location formerly housing sustainable energy facilities using fuel cells, solar power and biodiesel.

Even with all these current and upcoming environmental projects, Lee continues to push forward ideas to make more neighborhoods green.

“I will make Gangdong a district that is fully aware of climate change, which is hard to predict these days,” Lee said. “Our district’s eco-friendly image is its strength.”