Posts Tagged ‘sustainable city’
The City that Ended Hunger
Posted in Models by Devin Maeztri on June 11th, 2009
This article discusses how a city can be self-sustained. Original article written by Frances Moore Lappé, published in YES Magazine.
“The city agency developed dozens of innovations to assure everyone the right to food, especially by weaving together the interests of farmers and consumers. It offered local family farmers dozens of choice spots of public space on which to sell to urban consumers, essentially redistributing retailer mark-ups on produce-which often reached 100 percent-to consumers and the farmers. Farmers’ profits grew, since there was no wholesaler taking a cut. And poor people got access to fresh, healthy food.”
To read more of the article visit YES Magazine.
Build Bright Green Cities is one of the 10 Big, Really Hard Things We Can Do to Save the Planet
Posted in Movements by Devin Maeztri on May 8th, 2009
As part of this Worldchanging post is a section on sustainable cities.
Traditionally, [Earth Day] is a day devoted to making green accessible to all. It’s a day when each of us is invited to take small, individual steps toward reducing our carbon footprints, limiting our waste, or restoring the environment. See how easy it is – and how fun – to do your part to save the planet? (Worldchanging Team)
9. BUILD BRIGHT GREEN CITIES
We are now an urban planet. In general, urbanization offers many benefits. But we need to design cities that allow people access to their greatest potential within a framework of sustainable prosperity. Bright green cities are designed so that residents have access to public parks, basic goods, entertainment, services and jobs within walking distance. Bright green cities include transit systems and mobility options to allow people to get from one place to another comfortably and on time without the use of a private vehicle. Bright green cities feature carbon-neutral buildings that are healthy for the people who live and work inside them. They use strategies like zero-waste plans and producer takeback laws to channel materials in closed loops.
Problems This Helps Solve: Because people who live close together use infrastructure and space much more efficiently, cities may just be our most powerful weapon against global warming. As the human population continues to grow on a planet that remains the same, our urban centers will continue to grow to accommodate those people’s needs for shelter and employment. If we design our cities well, they will become places where people can live in bright green prosperity, enjoying access to a larger number of goods and services. And with people concentrated in comfortable, happy, healthy cities, these urban centers will become incubators for the best ideas and innovations of the centuries to come.
To read more of the article visit WORLDCHANGING
What sustainability should look like in Valley by 2025
Posted in Visions by Devin Maeztri on May 1st, 2009
“With visionary planning, we created a practical oasis” – original article by Rob Melnick posted in The Arizona Republic.
“Cities would need innovative regional sustainability plans and would have to create economies of scale when purchasing sustainable technologies for public benefit, such as solar-energy products.”
Rob Melnick is executive dean, Global Institute of Sustainability, and Presidential Professor of Practice, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University
To read more of the article visit The Arizona Republic
Liveable City
Posted in Models by Devin Maeztri on November 10th, 2008
The section below is republished with permission from the Going Solar Transport Newsletter #84, 4 November 2008, compiled by Stephen Ingrouille. Going Solar newsletter provides an excellent commentary on local sustainable transport issues in Melbourne.
“What makes a liveable city?
1. A liveable city has walkable, mixed use, higher-density, mixed-income neighbourhoods where it is a pleasant, short walk to a store, an office, a transit stop, a friends’ house, a school or a park.
2. A liveable city has vibrant, exciting, sociable, human-scaled pedestrian experiences.