The Challenge of the Future for the Cities of the World

Planet Under Pressure – A major international conference focusing on solutions to the global sustainability challenge  (Mar. 26-29, 2012, London, UK) Also discussed here: Sustainable Cities: Meeting the Challenge of Rapid Urbanization the Focus of “Planet Under Pressure 2012″ (Andrew Burger, Triple Pundit,  Mar. 28, 2012) And here: Planet under pressure / Navigating the Anthropocene [...]

Decarbonizing Europe

Energy Roadmap 2050 (20 page pdf, Communication From the Commission to the European Parliament, The Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and The Committee of the Regions, European Commission, Dec. 2011) Also discussed here: Towards a competitive low-carbon energy sector  (European Commission, Dec. 19, 2011 And here: EU’s “Energy Roadmap 2050” Published (Zachary Shahan, [...]

Where are Cars Going Globally in the next 15 years?

Automotive landscape 2025: Opportunities and challenges ahead (90 page pdf, Ralf Kalmbach, Dr. Wolfgang Bernhart, Philipp Grosse Kleimann, Dr. Marcus Hoffmann, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, March 2011) The report reviewed today looks at the major global trends expected –geopolitical and population shifts , environmental trends, technology- and what they imply:“the automotive industry will undergo the [...]

Evaporative Cooling

Evaporative Cooling – Overview (Consumer Energy Center – California Energy Commission) This technology , based on known scientific principles, cuts the need for electrical power used for air conditioning by 90% and has already been demonstrated (and won a national energy award) for the large amount of cooling needed for a large computing data centre [...]

How Annoying is Noise from Wind Turbines?

Health Effects and Wind Turbines: A Review of the Literature (23 page pdf, Loren D Knopper & Christopher A Ollson, Environmental Health, Sep. 14, 2011) Today we examine the results of an extensive literature review about the possible health effects from wind turbine noise, a relevant topic for many who live in cities adjacent to [...]

Optimizing Utilization of Municipal Waste

Design of an Optimal Waste Utilization System: A Case Study in St. Petersburg, Russia (24 page pdf, Mikhail Rodionov and Toshihiko Nakata, Sustainability, Sep. 8, 2011) A pollution-free city is one where the air and water are clean and solid pollution is eliminated. Today’s review article looks at a system in St Petersburg, Russia where [...]

The Greenest American Cities

Top 10 Cities for Green Living (Scientific American, Aug. 16, 2011) A rating of US cities by how well they perform when it comes to living green is the focus of today’s review. The two top cities under each category are shown below. Overall, New York City scored highest, winning the top spot in 3 [...]

The Future of National Highways

Inventing the Interstate (Tom Vanderbilt. New York Times, Jul. 15, 2011) Highways are the focus of today’s review- in particular the national highway system in the USA which compares to the TransCanada Highway system in its larger neighbor to the north. Having reached a zenith in the late 1900s, as we start to see a [...]

Greenest Cities in the U.S. and Canada

US and Canada Green City Index – Assessing the environmental performance of 27 major US and Canadian cities (71 page pdf, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Siemens, July 2011) Today’s review article comes from the Economist which assessed over two dozen cities in the US and Canada in terms of performance under [...]

Podcars in England

Personal rapid transit (Wikipedia) Today’s story comes from Milton Keynes a small town of around 200,000 in southeast England which recently commissioned a report on the feasibility of monorail podcars or a personal rapid transit system, as part of a transportation strategy for the next 20 years. This comes following the introduction of operational systems [...]

Replacing Nuclear Power with Solar Energy for Household Use

Nine Leading Companies and Fujisawa City to Collaborate on Sustainable Smart Town ProjectNine Leading Companies and Fujisawa City to Collaborate on Sustainable Smart Town Project (Panasonic News, May 26, 2011) Today, we look at a sustainable town being built in 2014 at Fujisawa, just west of Tokyo, that will maximize the use of photo-voltaic solar [...]

How Can Large Cities Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

How urban societies can adapt to resource shortage and climate change (22 page pdf, David Satterthwaite, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A (2011) 369, 1762–1783, May 2011) The focus today is on an analysis of greenhouse gas emissions in cities and how they can be reduced while maintaining a high quality of life. One suggestion is [...]

e-Roads for e-Vehicles

Electric Roads May Be In Our Future (eMercedes Benz, May 4, 2011)   Today’s review article describes a new application of an idea developed over 100 years ago which would power vehicles as they are driven on highways. This would lighten the significant load vehicles must carry with energy stored in batteries, which in turn [...]

Zero Energy Houses and The Cube Project

The Cube Project   The focus of today’s review is a Zero Energy House conceived in the UK, suitable for one person (but can be scaled up for larger homes or buildings). In addition to generating zero waste and energy self-sufficient, it can produce  £1000 per year by feeding unused electricity from solar panels back [...]

Does the Charging of Hybrid Cars Produce Significant Pollution?

Air quality impacts of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in Texas: evaluating three battery charging scenarios (12 page pdf, Tammy M Thompson, Carey W King, David T Allen and Michael E Webber, Environmental Research Letters, Volume 6, Number 2, Apr. 19, 2011)   Today’s focus is on the impact of the charging of hybrid cars on [...]

Neural Network Modelling and Residential Building Energy Consumption

Analysis of a Residential Building Energy Consumption Demand Model (13 page pdf, Wei Yu, Baizhan Li, Yarong Lei and Meng Liu, Energies 2011, 4(3), 475-487, Mar. 10, 2011)   One of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions world-wide is the fuel used to heat (or cool) residences. Today’s review article uses advanced neural network [...]

Low and Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB)

Sustainable Buildings: An Ever Evolving Target (22 page pdf, Yvan Dutil, Daniel Rousse and Guillermo Quesada, Sustainability, Feb. 16, 2011) The review article today speaks to the need to reduce the energy needs of buildings globally by as much as a factor of 10, in order to reduce CO2 emissions 50% by 2050 (80% in [...]

The Top Sustainable Canadian Cities

  The 2011 Most Sustainable Cities in Canada (Corporate Knights, Feb. 9, 2011) Also discussed here: The Metabolic Metropolis (editorial) (Corporate Knights, Feb. 8, 2011) And here: Expanded Results (1 page pdf, Corporate Knights, Feb. 8, 2011) Today’s review article is important because of the characteristics and programs that the top ranking cities use to [...]

Noise from Wind Turbines and Health Impacts

Image via Wikipedia Health effects of turbines? We already know (Brantford Expositor, Jan. 13, 2011) Today’s review article focuses on health impacts on people exposed to sound from wind turbines, citing regulations in Ontario, Canada and potential impacts from other countries with wind farm experience and calls for bylaws to limit the use of wind [...]

Designing a Sustainable City with Local Farming and Waste Management

  Optimizing Urban Material Flows and Waste Streams in Urban Development through Principles of Zero Waste and Sustainable Consumption (29 page pdf, Sustainability 2011, 3(1), 155-183, Jan. 11, 2011) Also discussed here: Zero Waste Australia Today’s review article caught my attention because it focussed on urban farming and waste reduction and the large contributions to [...]

Noise as a Sustainable Energy Source for Buildings

Urban Transducer Skyscraper gets powered by noise (EcoFriend, July 19, 2010) Also discussed here: The Urban Transducer Skyscraper Produces Energy from Noise Pollution (Evolo, Apr. 14, 201) Today’s review article describes a building that works in the opposite direction to most in the urban core by capturing energy from noise, instead of using energy for [...]

Future Urban Energy Use – One Scenario for the USA

A Sustainable Energy Scenario for the United States: Year 2050 (31 page pdf, Sustainability 2010, 2(12), 3650-3680, Nov. 26, 2010) Today’s review article looks at what scenario might emerge over the next 40 years as a result of action taken to make the US sustainable from an energy and climate change perspective  and what this [...]

Greening Cities with Immigrants

Image via Wikipedia From a “Green Farce” to a Green Future – Refuting False Claims About Immigrants and the Environment (21 page pdf, Center for American Progress, Oct. 2010) Immigration is a sensitive political issue in many countries, particularly in the report reviewed today which focuses on the situation in the USA.  The report challenges [...]

Powering Small Smart Devices with Light and Motion

Image via CrunchBase University of Bolton scientists create smart material to generate energy from the elements (ASM International, Nov. 3, 2010) Also discussed here: Scientists Create Photovoltaic-Piezoelectric Fiber To Power Gadgets With Light & Motion (The Green Optimistic, Nov. 2, 2010) And here: Photovoltaic-Piezoelectric Fiber Could Power Your Laptop (Solar Novus, Nov. 1, 2010) And [...]

Reporting Climate Change – Carbon Footprints for Cities

Carbon Disclosure Project – The Case for City Disclosure(24 page pdf, Accenture, Carbon Disclosure Project, Nov. 2010) Also discussed here: CDP Pushes Cities to Disclose Their Climate Impact (Triple Pundit, Nov. 2, 2010) Cities are now the home for more than 50% of the world’s population (predicted to rise to 60 percent by 2030, and [...]

Bright Green Cities

“We don’t know yet how to build a society which is environmentally sustainable, which is shareable with everybody on the planet, which promotes stability and democracy and human rights, and which is achievable in a time frame necessary to make it through the challenges we face. We don’t know how to do this yet [but [...]

Going Carbon Neutral in Canadian Cities

Getting to Carbon Neutral: A Guide for Canadian Municipalities (176 page pdf, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Sustainable Infrastructure Group, University of Toronto, May 5, 2010) Also discussed here: Carbon Competitive Cities (Toronto and Region Conservation) And here: Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change TRCA Action Plan for The Living City (30 page pdf, Toronto [...]

Living Planet City

Living Planet City How Green Energy can work for your City – from World Wildlife Federation

Heating Urban Areas with Geothermal Energy

Image via Wikipedia The geothermal potential of urban heat islands (7 page pdf, Environmental Research Letters, Volume 5, Number 4, Oct. 12, 2010) Geothermal energy sources have long been seen as a way of heating (and cooling) buildings, one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions when carbon fuels are used. The urban heat [...]

Masdar City Update

Image via Wikipedia In Arabian Desert, a Sustainable City Rises (New York Times, Sept. 25, 2010) The most read post on this blog has been Masdar City – zero carbon, zero waste which described the Masdar City concept. Today’s review article reports on progress made since then with new approaches to the design of buildings, [...]

Cool Roofs

Image via Wikipedia White roofs promoted to save energy (Clarion Ledger, Sept. 17, 2010) Also discussed here: Cool Roof Rating Council Today’s key article describes the “cool roof” plan to reduce the energy (and emissions) used for air conditioning by reflecting sunlight, using light coloured roof surfaces. This simple method reduces as much emissions in [...]

Using System Dynamics to find More Sustainable Practices

T21-Ohio, a System Dynamics Approach to Policy Assessment for Sustainable Development: A Waste to Profit Case Study (19 page pdf, Sustainability 2010, 2, 2814-2832, Sept. 6, 2010) The system dynamics approach has long been used to assess the many inter-linkages that exist in the integrated world of economics, environment and society, most notably by the [...]

Four Issues that Really Matter

Four Issues that Really Matter (32  slideshow) “Environmental Commissioner of Ontario’s presentation on the four pressures on public decision-making that will shape events in the coming decades: climate change, peak energy, biodiversity loss and water shortages” All four impact urban sustainability in general

Cutting Transport Emissions in UK by 76%

Image by Getty Images via @daylife Towards a Zero Carbon Vision for UK Transport (68 page pdf, Stockholm Environment Institute, Project Report –July 2010) Also discussed here: How to Reduce UK Transport Carbon Emissions by 76 Per Cent by 2050 (Science News, Aug. 18, 2010) And here: How to reduce UK transport carbon emissions by [...]

Sustainable Consumption

Image via Wikipedia The Role of Formal and Informal Forces in Shaping Consumption and Implications for Sustainable Society: Part II (20 page pdf, Sustainability 2010, 2, 2573-2592, Aug. 10,2010) The search for a sustainable, pollution-free city must address the issue of consumption of goods and what gives rise to it. The article reviewed today looks [...]

Building a Sustainable City

Image via Wikipedia Out of the Rubble and Towards a Sustainable Future: The “Greening” of Greensburg, Kansas (18 page pdf, Sustainability 2010, 2, 2302-2319, July 14, 2010) Three key words describe the successful rebuilding of Greensburg that was almost entirely leveled by a tornado three years ago: innovation, opportunity and energy efficiency. The lessons learned [...]

Achieving low carbon homes- technology or life style?

Image via Wikipedia Eco-Self-Build Housing Communities: Are They Feasible and Can They Lead to Sustainable and Low Carbon Lifestyles? (33 page pdf, Sustainability 2010, 2(7), 2084-2116, July 12, 2010) Key Quotes: “The UK Government has set challenging carbon emission reduction targets for all new homes to contribute towards an countrywide 80% carbon emission reduction target [...]

Beyond LEED Platinum

Image via Wikipedia For a Premier Lab, a Zero-Energy Showcase (New York Times Green Blog, July 6, 2010) (9 min You-Tube video) Aside from industrial sources the greatest pollution comes from carbon fuels used for heating and cooling buildings and from transportation (which is the focus of this blog concerning air pollutants) The building described [...]

Solar Roadways Updated

TEDxSacramento – Scott Brusaw’s concept was just that, a concept, a year ago, as described in this post about Solar Roadways and this quote: ” If all paved surfaces in the U.S. were replaced with 15% efficiency solar panels, the resulting distributed power network could provide three times the electricity the nation consumes, with zero [...]

Powering Electric Cars in Europe

Green Power for Electric Cars – Development of policy recommendations to harvest the potential of electric vehicles (86 page pdf, CE Delft, Commissioned by: Transport & Environment, Friends of the Earth Europe and Greenpeace European Unit) Also discussed here: Honk? Green power for electric cars (World Streets, Mar.12, 2010) Key Quotes “If electricity is produced from [...]

Online Electric Train in South Korea

KAIST introduces environmentally friendly public transportation to Seoul Grand Park in Gwacheon City (KAIST university, Mar. 9, 2010) This new type of electric train makes use of power buried underground, avoiding the problems of overhead wires or heavy batteries, and can maintain a speed of 62 kph, more than enough for most downtown cities. It [...]

Robot Taxis

The Implications of Robot Cars and Taxis (Brad Templeton Blog) The concept of a driverless, automated, emission free passenger vehicle is rapidly becoming a reality, as major car manufacturers (such as Volvo, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes-Benz) develop software and sensors to make such a transportation mode safe and efficient. An expert in this area, Brad Templeton, [...]

Modelling Energy Use in Cities

Urban Form, Behavior Energy Modeling in China: Sim City for Real? (Green Flow, Feb. 16, 2010) The application of urban simulation modelling to the development of new cities in China and an assessment of energy, water and emissions over varying conditions of time of year permits urban planners to find solutions that reduce pollution, while [...]

Masdar City – zero carbon, zero waste

Masdar City (wiki) is a 50,000-person city based on applied sustainability research and technology that is being developed in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Key Quotes from Top Ten Sustainability Stories of the Decade : “The complex is being used for cutting-edge research in: renewable energy (including dozens of active and passive solar and wind [...]

Ethanol is a Dirtier Fuel than Gas

Ethanol-Powered Vehicles Generate More Ozone Than Gas-Powered Ones (Science Daily, Dec. 14, 2009) Key Quotes: “Ozone production from both gasoline and E85, a blend of gasoline and ethanol that is 85 percent ethanol, is greater in warm sunny weather than during the cold weather and short days of winter, because heat and sunlight contribute to [...]

European Green City Index

A report on the greenness of 30 European cities European Green City Index (55 pages pdf) has been made available by its sponsor, Siemens, at the COP 15 climate change discussions. The host city, Copenhagen, coincidentally had the best overall rating, although challenged in several categories by Oslo (first in CO2 emissions and energy) , [...]

Back Yard Wind Power

Credit to TerraPass Blog with this post Is your backyard ready for wind energy? Wind turbine makers now produce models that can fit in your back yard. One called Windspire is only 30 ft (10 m) tall and can work with winds as light as 10 mph (16 kph) and has an usual design. Another type [...]