sustainability posts, articles, and infographics

Should we shift from 'Sustainable' to 'Regenerative'?

February 10, 2012 by Zachary Hirschfeld
with 379 views

"Is your marriage sustainable?"That was a hypothetical question posed in an evening discussion at the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR) Association in September. The panel discussion featured prominent figures in Sustainable Design: Robert Thayer, Sandy Mendler, and Sim van der Ryn. In the middle of the forum, the... [read more]

The Importance of Legacy to Sustainability

December 23, 2011 by Kaid Benfield
with 116 views

When we think of “sustainability,” we usually are considering the viability of a place or action into the future – as my friend Steve Mouzon puts it, “can we keep it going in a healthy way into an uncertain future?” But I increasingly think that, when we consider that nourishing the human spirit is just as important... [read more]

South African Leaders Speak on Sustainability at COP17

December 6, 2011 by This Big City
with 73 views

In a country which still generates 90% of its electricity from burning coal, acting on sustainability is clearly yet to become a major priority in South Africa. But the country’s leaders are watching COP17 closely. President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, got straight into the subject during his opening address: For most people in the developing world and Africa, climate change is a matter of life and death. Durban must take us many steps forward towards a solution that saves tomorrow today. [read more]

It's Alive!!! Purdue's INhome and the Future of Biological Interiors

October 14, 2011 by Planet Forward
with 192 views

A good plant can really tie a room together. A fern here, a cactus there, plants are the living fixtures of the day-to-day. But what if we used plants above and beyond decoration and minor air freshening? In this year's Solar Decathlon, Purdue's INhome—the competition's second place winner—uses the biology of plants to make part of the... [read more]

Creating Balanced Cities – An Interview with Tia Kansara

September 14, 2011 by This Big City
with 179 views

Sustainability activist Tia Kansara hopes for a future made up of cities that prioritise people and support nature. Along with Melissa Sterry, Tia is part of Earth 2.0, a movement which aims to re-establish a harmonious relationship between humanity and nature. I was recently lucky enough to interview Tia and her Earth 2.0 colleague Melissa on future urbanism, and how African cities can thrive, despite challenging natural conditions. [read more]

Scientific American's "Better, Greener, Smarter Cities Special" Issue

August 23, 2011 by Donovan Gillman
with 555 views

The special issue of Scientific American has a vast range of topical articles on the issues of cities and how they could become “better” and “smarter” both laconic buzz words of media and big business fixation, most of the content is on line as well as much that is not in the newsstand version – well worth perusing both the... [read more]

How To Implement Sustainable Practices on Key Urban Issues

August 15, 2011 by Kaid Benfield
with 225 views

NRDC’s work for sustainable communities at the neighborhood scale and on regional planning is designed to address multiple environmental issues simultaneously. But, at the same time, moving toward sustainability requires work on selected individual issues in a focused way, bringing significant resources to bear on a limited... [read more]

The Biology of Cities

July 28, 2011 by TheCityFix - produced by EMBARQ
with 514 views

Click on the above image to watch Geoffrey West's TED talk. In a TED talk this month, physicist Geoffrey West explained his application of universal mathematical laws that define the growth of organisms—from multi-cellular ones to the ecosystem—to the growth of cities. “Cities are the crucible of civilization,” he said to introduce his... [read more]

We Need To Fix The Food System. But how?

July 25, 2011 by Marc Gunther
with 171 views

“Today’s food system is unfair, ineffective and operates beyond ecological limits,” Mark Lee says, via email. “Unfair in that some 925 million are malnourished… “Ineffective in that there are enough calories out there to feed everyone, but we fail to do so (and if we fail to do so for 7 billion, how will we cope with 9-10 by mid-... [read more]

Town Crowdsources Green Solutions

July 14, 2011 by Neil Takemoto
with 247 views

There’s a plethora of books on crowdsourcing out there, but only one documents the crowdsourcing of a city’s entire downtown. In other words, it shows you how far crowdsourcing has come along, from T-shirts to now cities. Here’s the full excerpt from the book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Crowdsourcing by Aliza Sherman, published July... [read more]

Report: Centers, Cities, Clusters

July 12, 2011 by ECPA Urban Planning
with 139 views

The report, “Centers, Cities, Clusters: Encouraging Innovation Through Sustainable Urban Design,” focuses on sustainable economic development through case studies from Barcelona, Boston and Curitiba highlighting innovative strategies for economic development in urban cores. The report includes interviews from experts behind the projects... [read more]

Are Big Suburban Corporate Campuses Over?

May 31, 2011 by Kaid Benfield
with 299 views

In the late 1990s, when Don Chen, Matt Raimi and I were researching our book, Once There Were Greenfields, we lamented the flight of business from America’s central cities to increasingly outer suburbs and farmland. In that book we frequently turned for data to metropolitan Chicago where, for example, Ameritech had built a... [read more]