Sustainable Cities
Cities
are already a major source of raw materials, recycling more than 400
million tonnes a year of paper and metal from their urban ore. In some
particularly good countries more than 90 percent of their discarded
aluminum cans are ‘mined’ and recycled into new aluminum. In a few
cities, old landfills have even been mined to recover past discarded
metals. Another link between cities and the mining industry might be
replicating contests held by two important mining companies.
Be Proactive.
There’s much any city can do today. Even without sufficient budget or
authorization from ‘senior levels’ of government, every city has a full
menu of things that can be carried out immediately, generating positive
momentum and goodwill. Business rewards the active entrepreneur, and
the public desperately wants active cities. The rewards are great. 
Detroit: A Biography
by Scott Martelle provides a unique glimpse into the life and history
of one of America’s used-to-be, and maybe-again, great cities. From the
outset you can tell that Mr. Martelle is more than an observant
journalist; he’s a native. He’s got skin in the game.
On
cities and GHG emissions, what is the message we really need to
communicate? First, it’s true, if you add up all the GHG emissions –
direct (e.g., out the back end of our car) and indirect (e.g., the
trees cut down for pasture or the belches from the cattle used in our
hamburgers) – residents of cities are responsible for more than 70% of
the world’s GHG emissions (and likely more than 80%). This should not
be much of a surprise, as these same people are responsible for more
than 80% of the world’s economy. GHG emissions are a by-product of the
stuff we buy and do.Collaborative consumption – a trend for the young, the hip, the urban
Moving
from California to Washington DC, I did not expect to find revolution;
but I have. Fellow city-dwellers are overthrowing old models of
consumption (through which their cities became extractors and importers
of natural resources and exporters of waste products) by simply
changing their habits. One by one, urban citizens are choosing collaborative consumption instead, to save money, resources, and time.Though sharing is not new – in fact, historically, people lived and consumed resources in groups – it is an innovation in the modern city. A diverse set of sharing mechanisms has sprouted – for-profit, non-profit, informal, and formal – many of which use the web to match supply and demand.
Instead of purchasing cars, consumers are using car-sharing companies (like Zipcar), which allow them to rent vehicles by the hour, or stopping by to get a ride from the Casual Carpool in San Francisco or the Slug Line in Washington DC, two informal, citizen-organized carpool sites that match car-free commuters with drivers looking to enter High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes and save on toll fares.
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Hi Eroo !! Whats your Views on this ?