Essay: Creating sustainable cities and communities

The Sustainable Development Goal of creating sustainable cities and communities was created by the United Nations in 2015 and listed as a goal to be completed locally and globally by 2030. The formal goal of this Sustainable Development Goal is, ‘to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable’ (United Nations, 2015). In simpler terms, this goal focuses on creating safe and tight-knit communities, promoting local businesses and forms of transportation, and protecting the environment from the overuse of resources and pollution. The term sustainability can be defined as the, ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (United Nations, 2015). The creation and success of sustainable cities lies in the aspects of temporal and social scales, stakeholders, and environmental, economic, and social change. Without these many factors, cities would suffer in their economies, their environments, and their populations which would ruin these cities for future generations-the opposite effect that sustainability should have.
Temporal and Spatial Scales for Sustainable Cities
The idea of making cities and communities sustainable on temporal and spatial scales is not only confined to local areas, but the idea has expanded globally. Since ‘more than half of the world’s populations live in cities’ (United Nations, 2015), the United Nations must focus on the implementation of sustainability in order to prevent factors such as unsafe neighborhoods due to poverty. Another challenge for the United Nations is keeping most of the human population out of slums. The slums are considered to be the worst areas of neighborhood due to their pollution and dangerous living conditions, mostly resulting from poverty. The United Nations reports that ‘Globally, more than 880 million people were living in slums in 2014. This estimate does not include people in inadequate or unaffordable housing’ (United Nations, 2015). These numbers were one of the many causes of the United Nations focusing on the completion of this goal in order to better living conditions for all people. Globally, some of the least sustainable cities are found in areas such as Africa, Asia, Europe, and even the United States. Many of these cities are deemed unsustainable due to their economy, population, or frankly, their weather conditions (Hamilton & Sommer, 2016). Phoenix, Arizona for example, is considered one of the least sustainable cities in America due to the scorching climates and limited water supply (Stern, 2016). Although there are a lack of sustainable cities  found throughout the world, this is due to the fact that people in the past never had enough education to even consider trying to make a city sustainable. The fate of these cities can be changed by, ‘reducing energy costs, improving quality of service, reducing waste, providing better urban environments, and creating economic opportunities’ (Hamilton & Sommer, 2016). Some of the ways these factors can be implemented through cities is through public transportation, affordable housing, and moving local businesses closer to neighborhoods for easy access. Many cities have already begun to implement these factors. Areas such as Arizona and New York have public transportation that runs all over the different cities in order to provide easy, yet sustainable options for people. Globally, countries such as Hong Kong and Germany are known for their well-run public transportation systems (Faris, 2015). Hong Kong is an extremely sustainable area due to their people, planet, and profit. The planet portion of their sustainability has to do with their recycling, the low amount of pollution they have, and their sanitation. The profit portion has to do with living costs, global networking, and business in the city (Cheam & Tang, 2015). Also, Arizona, especially Phoenix has begun creating zoning laws to map out the locations of houses, businesses, and environmentally friendly areas such as parks. Throughout the map, it can be observed that Phoenix is creating more apartment complexes and condos to provide affordable housing for people in safe areas of the city. Once the poor, who make up most of a city’s population, have safe and affordable places to live, slums will practically be non-existent (City of Phoenix, 2015).
Due to the plethora of cities in this goal, the heightened issues in each city, and the fact that this goal needs to be completed by 2030, this means that resources and factors need to be monitored. Some of these factors include, ‘resource efficiency, social and economic viability, diversity of neighbourhood and environment, leadership and vision, and collaboration and partnership’ (Bristow, 2012). If people do not end up dealing with these problems locally or globally, and they do not monitor their resources, this could result in deaths due to diseases, running out of resources, and a major increase in pollution. Due to the fact that this problem is apparent in local cities such as Phoenix and cities all around the globe, each city needs to focus on an efficient plan to increase sustainability. If each city is not careful in their planning or the carrying out of their goal, then this could run the risk of a plethora of many environmental factors including but not limited to: pollution, unsafe housing, and crowded cities due to the limited usage of public transportation.
The Actors and Stakeholders of Sustainable Cities Locally and Globally
In order to be able to live in cities that are environmentally friendly and can support millions of new people for the new few decades and beyond, cities must be made sustainable. Although the importance of sustainability recently became extremely prevalent due to the goal of the United Nations, many people are currently being educated on the topic to provide awareness and knowledge. Not only does the United Nations want people to know what sustainability is, but they also want them to have an in-depth understanding of the topic in order for them to be able to complete the goal locally and educate others on the goal. This is due to the fact that once people know more about sustainability, that will ultimately convince them to do things such as take public transportation and buy local goods. People who are uneducated and refuse to keep their purchases and transportation local are major setbacks for this goal. By keeping pollution levels low and keeping everything local, these people can be extremely helpful towards the completion of the goal.
Although sustainable cities are extremely beneficial for the health of the environment and the people, the factors going into them require a massive amount of hard work. When designing sustainable urban systems, this, ‘requires an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates scientific inquiry, technological innovation, legal coordination, and new policy ideas’ (Herring, 2016). In order to complete all of these factors, there need  to be many actors and stakeholders helping out in cities. Some of the actors and stakeholders for the creation of sustainable cities include public sectors, private sectors, and civil society. These three actors and stakeholders are ultimately governments, businesses, and community organizations. Government support appears in all different levels including international, city, sector, and neighborhood (Belgian Technical Cooperation, 2008). Stakeholders and actors can be found both locally (in Phoenix) and globally. In Phoenix, there is a well-known non-profit organization called Local First. Local First holds many events all around Arizona to promote people to buy locally and appreciate their environment. Local First supports many local businesses, the use of public transportation, and easy accessibility from homes to businesses (Local First, 2016). As for global organizations, the World Urban Campaign is well known for being, ‘An advocacy and partnership platform to raise awareness about positive urban change in order to achieve green, productive, safe, healthy, inclusive, and well planned cities’ (World Urban Campaign, 2009). The World Urban Campaign currently has 136 partners and networks included in the organization from around the globe . Some of their goals include being able to provide safe and liveable cities for people all over the globe since the organization mainly focuses on sustainability (World Urban Campaign, 2009). With the creation of these organizations, this helps the United Nations goal of sustainability to be completed both locally and globally.
The Environmental, Social, and Economic Aspects For Sustainable Cities
Sustainable cities are defined by the World Bank as,’resilient cities that are able to adapt to, mitigate, and promote economic, social, and environmental change’ (Hamilton & Sommer, 2016). Economic, social, and environmental change are all great effects of sustainable cities both locally and globally.
Due to the large populations of cities, ‘cities are responsible for 67% of the total global energy consumption and more than 70% of greenhouse gas emissions and these trends significantly intensify the severity of some of the two great challenges of our time; climate change and energy security’ (Cudazi, 2016). In all cities, locally and globally, some of the biggest environmental fears that they face have to do with climate change and waste. Due to the fact that such large populations live in cities, there are many different forms of energy being used such as fossil-fuel. This fossil-fuel is then spreading into the air, which is fueling global warming, and therefore fueling climate change. Also, due to the high populations, waste is also out of control. Especially in low poverty areas, waste seems to be one of the biggest factors hurting both the environment and the cleanliness/safety of cities. High population also contributes to the overuse of natural resources in the cities. Cities often take advantage of the amount of resources they have, and they do not conserve them. This can lead to ultimately running out of resources, and in this case, the city would not be able to supply everyone’s needs (Cudazi, 2016). Also, since there are so many people to support in cities, that means that housing is extremely important. The downside of housing is that it has a negative impact on the environment because it is tearing down the resources that could be useful such as trees. Locally, Phoenix struggles with environmental factors which is why it is one of the least sustainable cities in the United States. Phoenix has dry and scorching climates which limits the water supply and the amount of resources the city has to provide (Stern, 2016). Although the city is moving towards being more sustainable, the conservation of water is extremely important in order to be successful and to be able to support millions of people. Globally, there is a difference on the environment factors between developed and undeveloped cities. For instance, ‘While the impact of each individual citizen in developing countries will remain lower than in developed country counterparts for the foreseeable future, these populations are simultaneously urbanizing, growing, and increasing consumption rates’ (Campbell-Lendrum & Corval”n, 2007).
This means that since developing countries are not completely up and running and do not have as big of populations as developed countries, that they have less of an effect on the environment than other cities. There are many undeveloped countries in the world such as South Africa, Asia, and Thailand, and since they do not have enough money to keep constantly changing cities, they do not have to support a huge population similar to countries such as the United States (Cudazi, 2016).
When it comes to the social aspects of sustainable cities, the cities that are more affected are found in developing countries. For example, ‘This constitutes another dark side of urban development, the ‘social inequity’ that can be regarded as a mere result of unbalanced and uneven structure of urbanization, especially in many developing countries’ (Cudazi, 2016). Many of the social aspects of cities depends on how a city is governed or managed. If a city is governed or managed incorrectly, the populations could suffer due to lack of resources, which would result in unhealthy living conditions. Also, with the promoted rapid usage of public transportation and the movement of businesses closer to homes, this will promote the social life in cities. For instance, in Phoenix, many people are used to taking their cars into work each morning and not socializing with many people. With sustainability in cities, there is a need to convince people to move closer to their work and close in the cities in order to have access to local businesses. By using public transportation and visiting local businesses, people are able to build strong relationships that they would not have if they were isolated in their own car or home.
What many city economies are trying to establish is a ‘green economy.’ This green economy has to do with spending money on things that help cities to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly (AKA green). By ‘understanding how the city economy and politics function and how the city is connected to a larger world (regional, national, global) is fundamental to understanding how to create institutional mechanisms to move the world towards a green economy’ (Cudazi, 2016). These factors also make a city more globally aware of their other surroundings and how other cities are using their economy to benefit their goal of sustainability in cities. Many developing cities are going to have a hard time affording many of the changes to make a city sustainable, which is devastating to their economy. They need to afford things such as resources, new forms of energy, and the creation of new buildings.  By being able to go green and budgeting their money, cities will begin to discover new ways to not go bankrupt. While this understanding is important, it is also important for people to realize how much they can benefit the economy by just going local. For instance in Phoenix, there are many local organizations such as Local First Arizona who dedicate their work to providing spaces for local businesses to create tight-knit communities. By taking the time to purchase something from a local business instead of a Starbucks is extremely beneficial to the economy. For instance, ‘for every $100 spent at a locally owned  business, $43 remains in the economy. For every $100 spent at a non-locally owned business, only $13 remains in the economy’ (Local First, 2016). With the large amount of money that is kept in the economy from local businesses, that can be used to benefit the city even more by creating safer and more sustainable communities.
Overall, the success in the completion of the goal to create sustainable cities and communities locally and globally lies in the factors of sustainability. These factors include temporal and spatial scales, stakeholders, and economic, social, and environmental effects. All of these factors promote controlled usage of resources, the management of waste, and an influenced economy (just to name a few). The factors also promote the usage of public transportation, having safe and affordable housing, and by convincing people to stay local by moving businesses closer to their proximities. Without sustainability, negative factors such as climate change can take over and causes horrible effects for everyone. The creation of sustainable cities and communities is ultimately beneficial due to the positive effects it has on the environment, economy, and social aspects of an area.