Scribd
Upload
139 views16 pages

Toward Sustainable Cities: William E. Rees, PHD, FRSC

The document discusses how modern cities are unsustainable due to their large ecological footprints that exceed their boundaries. It proposes that cities should be redesigned and expanded to incorporate more of their supportive hinterlands, aiming to become self-sufficient "eco-city states" over 50 years. This would help reduce cities' burdens on the environment and make them complete human ecosystems by reintegrating where people live, work, produce and consume.

Uploaded by

civilsociety3058
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
139 views16 pages

Toward Sustainable Cities: William E. Rees, PHD, FRSC

The document discusses how modern cities are unsustainable due to their large ecological footprints that exceed their boundaries. It proposes that cities should be redesigned and expanded to incorporate more of their supportive hinterlands, aiming to become self-sufficient "eco-city states" over 50 years. This would help reduce cities' burdens on the environment and make them complete human ecosystems by reintegrating where people live, work, produce and consume.

Uploaded by

civilsociety3058
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 16

TOWARD

SUSTAINABLE CITIES

William E. Rees, PhD, FRSC


UBC School of Community and Regional Planning

Global Footprint Forum


Colle di Val d’Elsa, Italy (10 June 2010)
Framing Premise 1

“Today’s city is
the most
vulnerable social
structure ever
conceived by man”
(Martin Oppenheimer).

Cities are threatened by:


• Peak oil
• Soil losses and related
resources shortages (e.g., peak
phosphorus)
• Climate change (e.g., rising sea
levels)
• Resultant geopolitical
instability
Framing Premise 2

“Cities as
presently
conceived are
inherently
unsustainable, yet
cities are the key
to sustainability”
(Rees and Wackernagel 1996).
Modern cities are not complete
human ecosystems

(Enclosed in a bell-jar, most cities would simultaneously starve and suffocate.)


In ecological terms, cities are
parasites on their global hinterlands

‰ “Great cities are


planned and grow
without any regard
for the fact that they
are parasites on the
countryside which
must somehow
supply food, water,
air, and degrade
huge quantities of
wastes” (Odum 1971).
From Edward Burtynsky, Oil
The Ecological Structure of Cities
(The modern human ecosystem has two discrete spatial components)

‰ In eco-thermodynamic terms, cities are


“dissipative structures”—nodes of intense
energy and material consumption and waste
production.
‰ The complementary production-assimilation
component of the human ecosystem lies outside
the city.
‰ This extra-urban area is nevertheless an
essential component of the human urban
ecosystem.
‰ Because of the spatial separation of production
and consumption, modern cities change the
circular nutrient cycles of ecosystems in to
irreversible unidirectional throughput flows.
The twenty-nine largest cities of the Baltic states of
Europe have an aggregate eco-footprint 565-1130
times as large as the cities themselves (Folke et al. 1997)

‰ Blocks on the left


represent
ecosystem area
appropriated for
resource
production
(biocapacity).
‰ Blocks on the right
represent
ecosystem area
appropriated
exclusively for
waste assimilation
under two sets of
assumptions.
The Ominous Case of Tokyo
‰ Population: 33 Million
(approx. 26% of Japanese pop)
‰ Area: 4700 square km (approx)
(470,000 ha)
‰ Total eco-footprint at 4.9 global
ha/capita: 161,700,000 ha
‰ Area of Japan:
37,770,000 ha
‰ Japan’s biocapacity:
76,800,000 global ha
Tokyo’s eco-footprint is
about 344 times larger than
the region, 4.3 times the area
of Japan and represents 2.1
times the nation’s domestic
biocapacity.
Consider this in global context:
The world is in overshoot
‰ The human
enterprise already
Humanity’s Ecological Footprint, 1961- exceeds global
2005
carrying capacity
by about 30%.
‰ How secure are
cities that are
totally dependent
on distant sources
of supply in an era
of rapid climate
change and
potential resource
scarcity?
Efficiency = Sustainability
‰ Most approaches to urban sustainability
today—hybrid cars, green buildings, smart
growth, the new urbanism, green
consumerism—assume that sustainability
resides in greater material and economic
efficiency. Regrettably:
‰ “It is a confusion of ideas to suppose that
the economical use of fuel is equivalent to
diminished consumption. The very contrary
is the truth.” (Stanley Jevons 1865).
‰ There is no particular virtue in being more
efficiently unsustainable.
What this Means for High-Income
Countries

‰ There is no substitute for consuming less.


‰ For sustainability with equity, EU
countries should work to reduce their
average ecological footprints by 55%
(from 4.7 gha); North Americans need to
reduce their EFs by 77% (from 9.2 gha)
to an equitable Earth-share (2.1 gha).
‰ This would create the ecological space
required for needed growth in the
developing world.
Reducing the Ecological Burden of
Cities

‰ Constructing, operating and maintaining the


‘built environment’ of cities accounts for
about 40% of the materials used, and 33%
of the energy consumed, by the global
economy.
‰ Private consumption by urbanites accounts
for much of the rest.
‰ Sustainability requires public policy
directed toward reducing both public and
private consumption—we must exploit the
urban sustainability multiplier.
Cities have an advantage:
The Urban Sustainability Multiplier

Eco-cities have regulatory powers to create:


… Compact form and a high proportion of multiple-family
dwelling units which reduces per capita consumption of
building materials and service infrastructure.
… A greater range of options for recycling, reuse and re-
manufacturing, and a concentration of the skills needed
to make these things happen.
… Greater possibilities for electricity co-generation and
the use of waste process heat from industry or power
plants to reduce the per capita use of fossil fuels.
… Great potential for reducing (mostly fossil) energy
consumption by motor vehicles through walking,
cycling, and public transit—the car-free city ideal.
The ‘city’ must strive to be come
a complete human ecosystem

‰ If 99+% of the land that supports cities


lies outside their boundaries, shouldn’t
we redefine what we mean by ‘urban
land’ in a whole-systems framework?
‰ A ‘city-as-(eco)system’ would be an
urban region comprising both the built
environment and as much as possible of
the population’s supportive hinterland.
‰ Urban eco-regions could thus re-establish
cyclical flows of nutrients through the
regional ecosystem.
Toward Modern Eco-City States
‰ Cities should be reconceived and redesigned to
incorporate as much supportive ecosystem area within
their political jurisdictions as possible.
‰ Eco-regional city states would maximize their self-
reliance and material independence (trade as
necessary but not necessarily trade).
‰ Bioregionalism and perma-culture provide pre-formed
philosophical and conceptual models for reintegrating
heartland and hinterland.
‰ Decentralized decision-making reflects the principle
of subsidiarity, the argument that policy action
affecting local populations and environments should
always be implemented at the most local relevant
planning level.
Urban Eco-Regions:
50-Year Design Goals
‰ Reintegrate the geography of living and employment, of
production and consumption, of city and hinterland.
‰ The regional eco-city, “… rather than being merely the site
of consumption, might, through its very design, produce
some of its own food and energy, as well as become the
locus of work for its residents” (Van der Ryn and
Calthorpe 1986).
‰ Following this logic, urban regions would gradually
become less a burden on, and more a contributor to, the
life-support functions of the ecosphere.
NB: All these points fly in the face of conventional trade theory and
globalization trends.

You might also like