As one of the earliest scholars in the late 19th century to engage with and embrace evolutionary biology and ecology, Patrick Geddes was also among the first to systematically apply ecological principles to the analysis of human society and the development of civilization. For a long time, Geddes has been primarily recognized within the limited scope of urban planning studies. His environmental thoughts, grounded in an ecological holism worldview, emphasizing the interactive totality of “environment-function-organism”, has received relatively little attention. However, in the development of his environmental thoughts, there lies an implicit early exploration of ecological civilization. Notably, building on a profound critique on traditional Western industrial civilization, Geddes proposed as early as the early 20th century a pivotal idea that society must move beyond the “paleotechnic” stage of industrial civilization toward a “Neotechnic Civilization” founded on ecological principles. This forward-looking vision can be seen as an early expression of what is now called ecological civilization. A deeper exploration of Geddes’s environmental thought and his concept of Ne otechnic civilization will significantly expand the intellectual genealogy and historical understanding of ecological Civilization, providing a richer theoretical foundation for its global promotion.