Cities
With more than half of the world’s population living in urban areas, and cities being the highest bubbles of emissions, introducing new urban systems and layouts could promote sustainable and equitable solutions to mitigating the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental justice issues.
Characteristics of Sustainable Cities (2020): This article outlines different urban sectors which can be restructured as cities transform to be more sustainable. The progress and development of these areas are dependent on governments and fundraising among other factors, but can be a helpful starting point to uncover solutions to achieve “green cities”.
Can Cities be Sustainable (2017): a detailed summary and review of the World Watch Institute’s publication Can a City be Sustainable?.
Sidewalk Labs: An urban innovation company with a goal of improving the quality of city life globally through product development, with special consideration for social and environmental aspects.
World Resource Institute: Ross Center: The WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities is a program dedicated to leading the shift towards Zero-Carbon CIties. With a strategy to “Optimize, Electrify and Decarbonize”, the Ross center is working internationally to promote sustainable urban landscapes.
C40 Cities: a collaboration of city mayors to promote knowledge in sustainable practices which can be adopted in the growing urban landscape. Member cities have a goal of halving their carbon emissions within a decade of committing to doing so. The C40 2020 annual report indicates how, even with the COVID-19 pandemic, city leaders worked towards establishing safer and more sustainable urban areas.
Smart Cities Dive: In-depth journalism into aspects of smart cities*, providing users with a wide range of topics including transportation, building and infrastructure, governance, and more!
*Smart cities refer to urban landscapes which use gathered data and findings as a basis for improving their functions and organization.
Global Environment Facility (GEF): Sustainable Cities Integrated Approach Pilot: This sustainable cities initiative launched by the GEF in 2016 provides a brief but coherent explanation of the downfalls of our current system and their inability to withstand the incoming climate disasters. GEF as a whole provides grants and co-finances projects and programs to promote urban solutions for areas such as “green mobility, clean energy, climate adaptation and solid waste & chemical management”.
European Environment Agency - Urban Cities: Brief overview of Europe’s urban landscape and climate change adaptation initiatives. Included are additional assessments conducted by the EEA to further enhance knowledge on urban environmental sustainability.