What makes a town sustainable

Digital technologies such as mobile money can change that. In Kenya, smart metering enables payment for utilities and transportation by means of mobile money, thereby providing more equal access.

Furthermore, the mobile money services facilitate transfers between urban and rural areas and are particularly helpful for female-headed households. Urban sustainable development needs to be a top priority not only in cities but beyond urban boundaries.

For this purpose Brazil enacted a City Statute and implemented a Ministry of Cities in to direct urban planning and to make it more sustainable and inclusive. While good ideas are getting implemented in different cities around the world, it is this kind of collaboration that can make a difference globally.

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Key features of a sustainable city Resources and services in the city are accessible to all. Public transport is seen as a viable alternative to cars. Public transport is safe and reliable. Walking and cycling is safe. Areas of open space are safe, accessible and enjoyable.

Wherever possible, renewable resources are used instead of non-renewable resources. Solar energy: The ability to use dye-sensitive PV coatings on building cladding to generate electricity is being pioneered in Swansea by Tata Steel for instance, and will become available and cost effective in just a few years. The advantage is that surfaces do not need to point at the sun to be efficient and the panels don't take up land space.

Solar coling will become more widely available, together with Passivhaus construction. Anaerobic digestion.

More power will come from anaerobic digestion of organic and green waste to produce natural gas that may be injected into the mains, used in local network combined heat and power plants or to power transport, with the digestate being used as a fertiliser. Food Urban growing. On the individual level of city dwellers, after energy consumption, food consumption is the biggest source of carbon emissions, then transport, consumables and housing.

Urban growing can include: rooftop and vertical gardens, allotments, teaching children to grow food in schools, community-supported agriculture, farmers markets, and, on the horizon, growing food intensively indoors, both traditional and novel engineered foodstuffs.

Making space for nature: if space is to be made for the natural environment — to improve biodiversity and local air quality, reduce the 'heat island' effect, and improve well-being — why should the plants and trees not be edible: nuts, fruit, herbs, decorative brassicas, and so on? Let's see an end to the use of plants just for 'low-maintenance green cover' and have more useful plants managed by community groups. All rights reserved. View our other publications Privacy policy Terms of use Take down policy.

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