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The Future of Sustainable Cities

In two hundred years, a city the people know today will be recognized as the same city

then. Humans do more polluting than any other species. The population of the human species

only continues to increase. There are more people living in urban areas rather than rural in 2018,

so urban cities are more populated than rural ones. Populations of cities as well as infrastructure

amounts increase annually and consistently. Building and bringing about sustainable and eco

friendly cities could extend life spans, save money in the end, and expand the life span of Earth

itself.

A sustainable city is a city that is built to hardly have any negative effects to the

environment in it and around it. “An ecocity is an ecologically healthy city”(Downton 1). It

reduces the inputs of required energy and the outputs of waste. A sustainable city does not

employ further renewable resources than it produces. A city that is self sustainable utilizes its

own renewable resources.

The benefits of building and living in a sustainable city include but are not limited to: 1.

improves the quality of life for people in the community as well as the other species of life in or

around the area, 2. conserves vital resources like coal and oil, there is a lot of natural and green

space, the air quality is increased, and 3. resources such as solar power panels require less

maintenance than the other systems being used and increase the lifespan of the entire building.

Other benefits of sustainable cities goes hand in hand with the economy of that city as well as the

cities surrounding it. These benefits are the idea that jobs would be created in turning a city into

a sustainable city and invested money will eventually return through energy-saving possibilities.

Cities should have waste systems that are not polluting the place that they reside in. An

eco-friendly, sustainable city does not produce more waste than it could assimilate. It has ways
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to eliminate waste that is healthy for the environment and cost efficient. One of these ways

include a landfill that speeds up the process of decomposition with use of natural energy such as

sunlight. The majority of the decomposed waste is then cleaned and reprocessed to be reused

through several sources of packaging. This waste does not become toxic to itself or neighboring

ecosystems.

The idea of a sustainable city came about when researchers started noticing different

effects on living things. “With 90 percent of our time spent indoors, building design and its

impact in the workplace, schools, and even hospital settings has been an emerging area of

research” (Walsh 2). Research of the idea began in 1999 which brings attention to the fact that

not much has been done since then to prevent these effects. “It is conceived in aspirational terms

because we don’t yet know even half of what we need to know to make the concept real

(Downton 1).” The reason for this lies in the cons of building a sustainable city. They are

expensive to create and require steady funding to maintain.They include a higher cost of living,

and most people only see how long it would take to make every city a sustainable city.

Only a few cities have experimented with ways to build a cleaner, more sustainable city.

“[A healthy city] requires urban design that respects the land and the area’s ecosystem: the

topography, bodies of water and vegetation (Lerner 4).” Examples of these cities include,

Vancouver, BC, Canada, and San Francisco, California, in the United States. In Vancouver,

ninety percent of the power supply comes from hydroelectric power. There are two hundred and

forty-eight miles of public bike lanes throughout the city and incorporate ride sharing programs

for the people to utilize. All of this has an outcome of the city producing the lowest CO2

emissions of any city in North America. San Francisco also has amenities for going green.

Twenty percent of their land is used for green space to promote clean air. More than seventy
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percent of all waste in the city is recycled and they offer eco-friendly services to commute

through the city.

Eco cities are more efficient than smart cities. The difference between a smart city and a

sustainable city lies in the use of energy. Being a smart city does not always make a city eco-

friendly, which is the ultimate goal when restoring any infrastructure. Utilizing technology in

most aspects of the city could potentially waste energy. Smart cities focus on improving the

quality of life for the human but lack addressing the quality of other lives that live within the

planet.

People of the city require transportation, way to obtain energy, and a way to excrete

waste throughout the community. To ensure that these people are living healthy lives, it's best to

start with the things they could control but do not exactly pertain the resources on their own.

Transportation in the twenty-first century has been polluting the air for decades. The burning

process of fuels immediately releases toxins into the air that living things breathe in naturally. In

order to eliminate these toxins, a better system of transportation must be developed.

With all information noted, the question of why sustainable cities should be incorporated

all over the planet remains. “Global warming, drought, migration and population growth have

put our cities under heavy strain”(Lerner 1). Urban cities are responsible for seventy-five percent

of greenhouse gas emissions. “...the process of urbanization will only increase in the decades to

come — with an enormous impact on biodiversity and potentially on climate change” (Walsh 1).

With that being said, the human species are the ones that will be responsible for the world itself

ending. The majority of the world's population lives in cities which makes it obvious that the

people are the root of the problem for polluting the air they share with other living beings. “In
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2008, for the first time in history, the global urban population outnumbered the rural

population”(Sustainable Development 1). Environments are having to adapt in order to hole

more and more people. “Humans are the ultimate invasive species” (Walsh 3).

There are many ways a civilian can provide help and support in making a city more eco-

friendly and sustainable. People must take priority over their vehicles. “Cars are the cigarettes of

the future (Lerner 2).” A car itself takes up more space than any human. If thought about, two

parking spaces are made up for every person who owns a car; one at work and one at home.

Reducing the amount of cars, which reduces the amount of parking spaces, which means there is

more room for housing and other developments as well as gardens and green space. Humans take

advantage of space and do not utilize it to its full potential. A sustainable city has an effective

layout that uses all its open space. The grocery store should be in walking distance, as well as the

school for the children.

Even the average person can contribute. They can use a car less, live closer to where they

work, recycle and compost. Everyone can utilize underused capacity through planting of plants,

encourage small scale infrastructure, and use existing urban land rather than expanding the city

outward. People can help by biking to work, carpooling, and taking public transportation. As a

community, the people can begin by replacing older houses with newer ones to reduce the

amount of heat that is used in the older homes. The sources of energy can be replaced with

cleaner ones such as solar and hydro, or water, power. The city can build or improve bike lanes

and incorporate them in more parts of the town, and lastly provide easier and more efficient ways

to relieve waste which includes the recycling of goods and materials.

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Increasing sustainability of our planet starts with urban cities. It takes a community to

make an effort and make the change, and since humans are doing the most polluting, it’s up to us

to put an end to it. Every one person is responsible for the negative impacts we are facing today.

Each and every person has the potential to make a difference within their community which has

an abundant amount of benefits in the long run. The lifespan of cities relies on the people of

planet Earth, and it is up to the people to make a change and make their cities more sustainable.

Works Cited

Downton, Paul. “Seven Things You Need to Know about Ecocities – The Nature of

Cities.” The Nature of Cities, 9 Mar. 2017,

www.thenatureofcities.com/2017/03/05/seven-things-need-know-ecocities/.

Hoff, Mary. “10 Ways to Build More Sustainable Cities.” Ensia, Ensia,

ensia.com/notable/sustainable-cities/.

Houspic/Flickr, Thibault, and Marianne Lavelle. “How Do We Make Cities Sustainable?”

Big Energy Question, 3 Oct. 2015,

www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/energy/great-energy-challenge/big-

energy-question/how-to-make-our-cities-more-livable-and-sustainable/.
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Lerner, Jaime. “Opinion | How to Build a Sustainable City.” The New York Times, The

New York Times, 21 Dec. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/opinion/how-to-

build-a-sustainable-city.html.

“Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements .:. Sustainable Development Knowledge

Platform.” United Nations, United Nations,

sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/sustainablecities.

Walsh, Bryan. “Urban Planet: How Growing Cities Will Wreck the Environment Unless

We Build Them Right.” Time, Time, 18 Sept. 2012,

science.time.com/2012/09/18/urban-planet-how-growing-cities-will-wreck-the-

environment-unless-we-build-them-right/.

“What Is an Ecocity?” Ecocity Builders, 10 Mar. 2018, ecocitybuilders.org/what-is-an-

ecocity/.