Sustainable City Guide: How To Make Your City More Sustainable in 2022

Only 2% of the world's land mass holds 55% of the world’s population, 78% of global energy consumption, and 60% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. That’s how resource-intensive the cities of the world are today, and why a shift toward urban sustainability is so essential. Sustainable city development will be an integral part of addressing our climate and energy challenges, and urban planners are already taking steps to make cities cleaner and greener for all. 

In this article, we’ll look at what constitutes a sustainable city, and how urban areas can go green today. 

From streamlining transit networks to keeping waste out of the landfill, there are many steps that planners can take to move toward a sustainable city today. 

What Is a Sustainable City? 

Sustainability is often viewed as pertaining strictly to the environment, but the issue is bigger than that. Sustainable city design must address the social and economic impacts of urban planning and should improve the well-being of both its residents and our world. Some factors that planners should take into consideration when they develop sustainable cities are:

• Traffic flow: Commute times continue to rise as cities become more congested, and that hinders both the economy and the environment. Investing in public transportation can reduce the number of vehicles on the road, and micro mobility solutions like ridesharing can meet commuters where they are.

• Economics: Sustainable cities should be able to navigate complex supply chain dynamics, and should cultivate economic solutions that help their citizens thrive. Urban farming programs can also improve food security and can promote local business growth.

• Physical health: By growing healthier foods and facilitating walking or biking, sustainable city improvements can help citizens live healthier lives. A lower carbon footprint means less air pollution, too.

• Mental wellness: Environmental degradation is known to have an impact on mental health. A greener, well-lit landscape can decrease residents' stress, which makes a positive impact on their mental health.

When designing environmentally sustainable cities, urban developers should consider the health, economic, and sociological impacts that their decisions will have on the residents that they serve.

4 Practical Ways To Make Your City More Sustainable

From sustainable infrastructure in cities to renewable energy power sources, there are many ways that urban planners can make their cities more sustainable. Some are long-term efforts while others require legislation that keeps the environment in mind, but all are part of a strategy that will help make your city more sustainable. Here are four sustainable city design strategies that urban planners should consider. 

A Convenient Commute 

The pandemic skewed the data, but crowded cities have made traffic time miserably long for commuters. Lockdowns, restrictions, and remote work caused traffic delays to drop by nearly 50% in 2020, but the most recent pre-COVID data shows that residents of the 15 most populous cities in the U.S. spent 83 hours stuck in traffic each year. As cities transition to a post-pandemic state of mind, they can expect traffic delays to return to normal, too.

The solution is to create sustainable infrastructure in cities. City planners should consider modern commuting solutions to make their city more sustainable, some of which are:

• Building better biking paths: Copenhagen has been ranked in some studies as the most sustainable city in the world. Only 29% of residents even own a vehicle in Denmark's capital, as expansive bicycle paths have reduced traffic flows and also pushed it toward CO2 neutrality.

• Investing in mass transit: The most populous cities need more than bicycle paths to relieve congested traffic — they need transit systems. Some mass transit systems have fixed routes that are difficult to expand, but they can still be upgraded to make more commuters want to ride. 

• Implementing micromobility solutions: Mass transit systems convey residents to central city hubs, but the first and last mile is often the least accessible. Micromobility solutions like e-scooters or rideshares make peripheral destinations easier to manage so that commuters can reach central transit systems.

• Building charging stations: Electric vehicles accounted for 2% of total light-duty vehicle sales in 2020, and that number rose to 5% in a single year. This shows that electric vehicles are an emerging trend as drivers understand the importance of a clean commute, but charging stations must become commonplace before their sales leave fuel-powered vehicles in the dust.

Automated vehicles that receive input regarding the most efficient route will also help streamline the traffic flows of tomorrow's urban centers, but whatever approach developers take, they must come up with ways to make their infrastructure match their sustainable city hopes.

Urban Agriculture

Food security is essential in every part of the world. The world's population is expected to grow to 10 billion people by 2050 — many of whom will live in cities — and that will cause food demand and emissions to rise along with it. That means policymakers are faced with the challenge of securing a food supply for more people, without further straining the environment.

If cities are going to meet the food supply challenge, urban farming programs will be part of how they do it. No matter what form they take, local agricultural initiatives can help make cities more sustainable in several ways, like:

• Localizing the supply chain: Supply chain dynamics have been strained across all industries for many reasons, and at the height of the pandemic many stores were left without highly demanded food items. Urban farming programs bring a sustainable food source to local communities, shortening the supply chain and reducing the demand for imports.

• Improving economics: Residents in many cities are struggling to make ends meet, and urban agriculture provides an affordable way to buy the groceries that citizens need most. Community gardens can grow many food items, and jobs can be created at restaurants and greenhouses for additional revenue streams.

• Raising awareness: Consumers often make damaging environmental decisions when they are unaware of the consequences of their purchasing actions. Urban farming programs show consumers where their food is being sourced, and agricultural subsidies can create educational initiatives to show citizens the importance of going green.

• Fostering better health: City residents are more likely to make healthy eating decisions when they have a local food source available. Urban agriculture like rooftop gardens, school gardens, and local farmers' markets give participants healthier food options, improving their quality of life.

The benefits of urban farming show how intertwined sustainability efforts are. For example, the shorter supply chain created by locally-sourced food also lowers emissions and reduces traffic flows, further relieving the problems caused by congested roads.

Recycling and Conservation 

Their high population and economic activity make urban centers a major waste producer, and that makes recycling and conservation efforts an essential part of developing environmentally sustainable cities. As of 2018 — the most recent year for which data was available — the U.S. produced 294 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW), the equivalent of 4.9 pounds per person per day. Of this, only 32% was recycled. 

Thankfully, urban planners and policymakers have come up with many innovative strategies for sustainable cities to address their waste management needs. Some of them are:

• Recycling centers: While most cities already have some form of recycling center, some have placed more focus on waste management and have achieved greater waste reduction than others. San Francisco has led the way in waste reduction and has made recycling a common practice in homes and businesses alike. 

• Waste and water management: Solid waste is only part of the problem that conservation initiatives must address. Potable water will only become scarcer as populations rise, so developers must focus on minimizing water consumption, and on recapturing the water they use. 

• Policy shifts: Legislation plays a key role in fostering a city-wide sustainability culture. Federal subsidies can incentivize renewable energy use, and local policies like bans on single-use shopping bags can keep solid waste from ever entering the waste cycle. 

As helpful as conservation and waste management programs are, many of them only delay the inevitable. Recycling plastics often degrades their quality until they can eventually be repurposed no further, which makes upcycling an essential part of a circular economy where nothing is wasted. 

Outdoor Solar Lighting for Public Lands

Proper lighting is an essential component of creating sustainable cities and is a prerequisite to making other sustainable city designs work. Lighting up the landscape can help cities become more sustainable in several ways, like:

• Improving safety: Citizens are less likely to use mass transit routes when they feel unsafe. Installing solar lighting at bus stops, parking lots, and micromobility hubs reduces crime rates, making commuters more willing to use public transit routes. 

• Beautifying the landscape: Whether it's community gardens, local farmers' markets, or parks and recreational sites, residents are more likely to enjoy the greenery that sustainable cities provide if they remain well-lit. Installing solar lighting improves visibility, making urban greenery more accessible to all. 

• Conserving electricity: By operating on solar power instead of fossil fuels, solar lighting helps cities reduce their dependence on non-renewable resources. The result is fewer emissions, and significant savings over the life of each light installed.

Safer transit, urban agricultural use, and energy conservation are all empowered by outdoor lighting solutions, and that means solar lighting should be considered an integral part of sustainable city design.

Go Green in 2022

Urban planners and policymakers have many challenges to face as cities continue to grow — but with more challenges come more opportunities to go green. Sustainable city design can help satisfy world resource demands, reduce consumption, improve accessibility, and make urban centers a better place for all. 

At Greenshine, we care about environmentally sustainable cities. We help cities and towns of all sizes become more sustainable with outdoor solar lighting that makes other sustainability improvements possible. If you'd like to light up the future and take a step toward making your city more sustainable, contact us today, and we'll show you how we can help.