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Author's personal copy

Sustainable Development for Cities
and Citizens: Green Housing, Employment
and Transport
Asif Kabani and Maliha A. Kabani

Abstract This chapter focuses on three key urban management initiatives by which
smart growth and climate change adaptation are mobilized towards the production
of a sustainable urban environment. Significant headway has been made and opportunities for further progress revealed in building energy retrofits, green workforce
development and transport-oriented development. In their identification as local
priorities, such urban management initiatives have proven a new resource for
sustainable development. While such initiatives are encouraging and indicative of
the opportunities that sustainable urban development provides, the authors also
contend that cities must prioritize the needs of their low-income population as part
of their green strategies and programs.
Keywords Climate change Smart growth Green economy Sustainable
development

A. Kabani (*)
Founder and Hon. VP, International Sustainable
Development Resource Centre, Geneva
Head of Research and Project Management, Ministry
of Information and Broadcast, Govt of Pakistan
e-mail: kabani.asif@gmail.com
M.A. Kabani
Founder and Hon. President, International Sustainable
Development Resource Centre, Geneva
Manager, Education - IKEA, Save the Children
International (SCI), Country office, Pakistan
e-mail: kabani.maliha@gmail.com
R. Simpson and M. Zimmermann (eds.), The Economy of Green Cities:
A World Compendium on the Green Urban Economy, Local Sustainability 3,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-1969-9_8, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

71

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A. Kabani and M.A. Kabani

Introduction

On one hand, recent developments in urban sustainability have been encouraging as

most cities of the world begin to seize the opportunities that sustainable urban
development provides. We have found that few cities prioritize the needs of their
low-income population as part of their green strategies and programs in making
policies, plans, programs and projects for sustainable development.
Over the past decade climate change has moved from a scientific theory to a
reality all over the world from Global context to local reality. Governments and
communities around the globe are moving quickly to cut greenhouse gas emissions
in the hope of warding off the most devastating impacts of climate change. Most
cities do not always need to wait for action from central or regional government to
begin turning themselves into green laboratories, testing ways to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and building healthier, cleaner, more sustainable environments. Many cities have or will soon have detailed plans on how they will reduce
greenhouse gasses; many are calling for emission cuts of between 10 and 20% in the
next 510 years. Cities, it seems, have seen the future and are embracing it sustainability has become a priority.
It is no longer a question of if the nations of this world will begin the challenging transition to a greener economy but how we will get there. As this chapter
reveals, the answer to that question lies in large part within cities around the world.
Cities are on the vanguard of developing climate change solutions. It will be vital
that as cities green efforts are scaled up, it is also ensured that all residents, including
the poorest, have access to the benefits of urban development initiatives especially
developing countries.

Green Buildings

Cities have made green buildings a priority amongst other early efforts towards
sustainability, but often require help with retrofitting current structures (Kabani
2011). Roughly half of all greenhouse gases emitted are produced in order to build,
heat, cool and power the structures in which we live, work, shop and play (Pew
Center on Global Climate Change 2005). It is no surprise therefore that many cities
have devoted considerable resources in attempting to make buildings more efficient.
The green building industry has grown immensely and green building techniques
progressed substantially in the last 20 years. This is partly because, in the face of
rising energy costs and with the aid of city-level authority over municipal and local
building codes, greening buildings is often one of the first steps taken by city officials
in order to green their cities. Many cities have made considerable progress with
green buildings and have put tough new codes in place particularly with new city
structures and commercial projects. This is a significant accomplishment and has
made a serious dent in building related emissions. These efforts must not only target

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73

commercial and institutional buildings however but also include the residential
sector. In this regard a particular effort must be made to include low-income households, who may lack resources and require extra help in order to insulate houses and
replace appliances as part of the drive towards reducing emissions.
Such efforts can build on the experience of central and regional government as
well as various agencies and their local partners which run programs helping the
poor to weatherize their homes. Green retrofitting cannot only help cities achieve
real and meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, it can also create new
green jobs for blue-collar workers. By addressing the low- and mid-skilled job
losses which have resulted from the current global financial crisis, investments in
retrofitting can produce immediate economic impacts, a key consideration for
policymakers and green initiatives (Satterthwaite 2010).
Cities will need to take great care to ensure that low-income residents have access
to energy efficiency upgrades. Navigating the complexities of the various loans,
utility bills and tax credits involved with retrofitting a home is a difficult task even
for middle-income households. Households faced with particular financial difficulty
may find retrofitting a home virtually impossible. While low-income households
may face the biggest challenge in creating greener dwellings, these households are
proportionally best placed to benefit from such changes and from their resulting
cost and energy savings.
Many large cities are mandating that new public buildings should be built to
green standards. Cities such as Karachi and Singapore go even further, requiring the
same for private constructions (Kabani 2011). This focus on new buildings is however limiting especially where urbanization is slow or stagnant. Mass retrofits of
existing structures are therefore key to significant greenhouse gas reductions. While
many cities would like to encourage mass retrofits, paying for them is another enormous challenge, especially given that cities will need to ensure that such programs
reach low-income neighborhoods.

Cities and Green Jobs

Smart growth in green cities will only be made possible if green jobs are made a
priority. Cities are poised to help implement policy in this direction but the field is
still in its inception. The notion that a vibrant green jobs sector can revitalize the
economy has garnered significant attention in recent years especially from the
media, politicians and NGOs. Even as economic recovery is underway, the greencollar job movement is in need of programs and leadership that can turn this promise
into a reality. The shift to a green economy will test cities, as most economic and
workforce development systems are outmoded, fragmented and unprepared to
adequately respond to new opportunities. The green economy and green jobs have
the capacity to become a real vehicle for engineering vital improvements in these
sectors and for ensuring that underemployed low-income residents become a strong
focus of new workforce efforts.

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A. Kabani and M.A. Kabani

City officials and planners are well aware of the promise that a green jobs
sector and green collar jobs and industries hold. Most however have only recently
begun to take preliminary measures, aided by partnership with surveying companies, universities and other interested parties. Such collaborative efforts have led
to progress in at least some cities. For example, to help retrofit existing affordable
housing units, Chicago recently instituted the Chicago Energy Efficiency Building
Retrofit Program, a public-private partnership to provide financing and technical
assistance to owners of affordable multiunit rental properties. The program will
provide loans to building owners for energy and water efficiency measures that
will be repaid from the operating savings those improvements make possible
(Satterthwaite 2010). Despite this promise however, the number of green
businesses and jobs remains modest.
As this chapter has indicated, one solution particularly in the short term would
be to provide employment through green building and mass retrofits, thereby
employing laid-off workers from the construction sector and simultaneously
making buildings more efficient. Effective finance structures will be key to unlocking
this opportunity. While most cities are currently exploring the potential of green
jobs, nascent programs have led to just a handful of jobs so far. The task of developing and enabling a green jobs sector to thrive will test both economic and
workforce development, two arenas in which cities have traditionally struggled.
It will however present an opportunity to re-engineer and adapt current systems
especially in the employment sector and particularly regarding low-income workers
and the unemployed who desperately need skills.

Transportation

Perhaps the most significant step a city can take towards becoming a green city is
improving public access to greener forms of transportation. Traffic is a massive
source of greenhouse gas emissions. in recent years, cities across the world are now
started to have invested in multiple public transport projects, from the expansion of
light rail networks to the addition of bus lines and cycle paths. The drive to extend
and improve transport is not only informed by the desire to tackle climate change but
also to revitalize neighborhoods, improve air quality and help the local economy.
These policies have simultaneously made urban areas more efficient and more desirable places to live. A range of public transport projects are underway across the
world in both developed and developing countries, even in the cities where highways
have traditionally been prioritized. Despite these positive trends however, public
transport remains a complex fiscal and logistical puzzle for many cities and regions.
Cities have also struggled to address questions of equity in their planning for
public transport. It is likely that most new projects are not reaching poorer neighborhoods, limiting their ability to benefit from such schemes. Poorer neighborhoods
are also more likely to be exposed to car fumes due to a lack of public transport in
these areas, exposing residents to a higher risk of asthma and other illnesses linked
to car and truck traffic. New transport systems can also act as a magnet for local

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development which can drive up retail and property prices. This can adversely affect
poorer neighborhoods when lower-income residents and small business owners can
no longer afford rents and are forced to move away.
In recent years rising energy costs have dramatically increased the popularity of
public transport in virtually every city. As Kelly Rayne, policy advisor to the mayor
of Shelby County, US, observes, Before, the public viewed mass transit as something poor people take but Once gas prices [started rising], people had standing
room only. That has done wonders for perception (Rayne 2011). The popularity of
public transport has also increased in areas of urban sprawl as city dwellers incur
the cost of travelling long distances by car. Such areas often lack developable land
for the provision of public services, and residents may need to travel long distances
for access to such services. As a result areas of urban sprawl can become particularly congested. Weve seen that that kind of spread-out development isnt feasible
There has been a cry from the community for walkable neighborhoods and alternative
transportation (Rayne 2011).
As cities have begun to question their love affair with the car, they are also changing
the way transportation serves cities. Cities are studying, expanding, and investing in
public transport, particularly inter-city transport and rail networks. This is a huge
task for any city, and requires building consensus with regional partners to get such
large scale projects built. While one of the main sources of funding cities transportation needs are federal grants and taxes, these funds are rarely awarded to individual
cities directly. They are instead often given to planning bodies which typically include
representatives either from city areas or from other municipalities and government.
Governance structures are rarely a major obstacle to the implementation of public transport systems, especially when partnerships between local governments and
stakeholders are successful. About one in four cities do report difficulties however,
especially when cities and government do not have adequate consultation with
stakeholders and as a result different transport systems are poorly coordinated,
making it hard to live without a car in much of the region. People want a coordinated transport service and are ready to work together at every level, but right now
we dont have clear leadership or institutional support to help get us to that next
level of collaboration. A new light rail system was even more costly due to the need
for extensive tunneling. Officials have made transport a priority, and while money is
not always forthcoming a million in new revenue each year is creating a fresh and
reliable income source for public transport and roads.
It remains to be seen which counties will levy a tax towards such initiatives and
how funds will be spent. Finding the funds to expand public transport will be
especially challenging for individual cities given that there is national competition
in this area cities across the world are investing in public transport and other
strategies to reduce car use in order to spur neighborhood development. Where
federal transportation policies complicate regional coordination and funding
allocation, cities struggle to implement successful transport systems. As an
additional challenge, cities also need to make sure that new transport systems benefit
low-income communities and to work against the displacement of local residents,
thus ensuring that sustainable development benefits all residents in adjoining neighborhoods as well as protecting the environment.

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Conclusions and Recommendations

Green Cities are well positioned to lead the way towards an economic recovery that
will launch the green economy. A growing number of cities are on the vanguard of
addressing climate change issues, creating new mechanisms to simultaneously
reduce energy waste, cut carbon emissions and create new economic opportunities.
Despite this determined approach, such efforts at the city level are limited in isolation.
Financing for public transport and building retrofits is exceedingly complicated and
difficult to obtain. Initiatives aimed at providing green jobs and assisting low-income
or unemployed workers are still very much in the nascent stage. Cities can, however,
make far greater progress with the support of active and engaged stakeholders, of
administration committed to both transport and energy retrofit programs, and by
targeting workforce development funds specifically towards green-collar jobs. The
agenda on energy and environmental issues must include a commitment to cap
greenhouse gas emissions, deploy smart grid technologies and invest in sustainable growth and transportation. While cities should be able to count on assistance
from central, regional and local government, they must continue to innovate and
evolve in themselves. To make this transition successful, cities need to work with a
wide range of local partners including business, service providers and charitable
organizations.
Sustainability issues are inherently interconnected, and any thoughtful approach
also requires cities to think across sectors (for example housing, transportation,
economic development, education and workforce development, energy policy) and
to act collaboratively in order to construct feasible sustainability plans. Consultation
between experts, practitioners, and city and local administration is essential in order
to advance greener buildings, greener jobs and smarter transport for low-income
people. These recommendations do not purport to be comprehensive. Rather, we
intend that these ideas help set the stage for cities in partnership with local
stakeholders and regional and central government, to forge a comprehensive set of
policies that help to create greener and more equitable communities. In each of
these areas we recommend a thematic approach to policymaking, as follows:
To achieve the energy savings and green job opportunities possible through green
buildings, cities must retrofit through systems that can achieve scale.
To create green-collar jobs at scale, cities must re-engineer their local economic
and workforce development systems.
To spur more equitable transport-oriented development, cities need to reorient
their local real estate markets.
We are acutely aware that none of this will be easy. In many cases incremental
progress and piecemeal solutions are the only option. We believe however that
larger visions and sustained political commitment at the local level will be
required to seize this moment of opportunity.

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References
Brown MA, Southworth F, Stovall TK (2005) Towards a climate-friendly built environment. Pew
Center on Global Climate Change, Arlington. Available via: http://www.pewclimate.org/
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Kabani A (2011) Smart growth, green cities, with climate change and adaptation. Paper presented
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Presentations/Tech%204b_1-SUE_Mr.AsifKabani.pdf
Rayne K (2011) Speech presented at Pakistan Urban Forum in Lahore
Satterthwaite D (2010) Green cities report cities and climate change. Living Cities, New York