There are many examples of the use of energy-efficient technologies in buildings around the world and, more recently, people have started implementing larger projects at the city level. One ambitious objective is the creation of environmentally friendly cities. Imagine a whole city designed in harmony with the environment, whose inhabitants only consume resources they really need, and do everything they can to protect the natural world. All the energy in the city is produced using renewable energy sources. Waste is recycled and reused. People in such a city fully understand the importance of caring for the planet and for one another, and therefore live in peace and harmony.
More and more of the world’s population wants these dreams to come true, so the design of green cities is being given ever greater thought. Such cities have clean air and clean water. Waste and wastewater are recycled and re-used. Rooftops are used for gardens or solar panels and have tanks to collect rainwater. Active- and passive-house technologies are used in the construction of residential, public, and commercial buildings.
It is impossible to make all cities environmentally friendly straight away, but these dreams are becoming a reality little by little all over the world.
SamsØ, Denmark
The inhabitants of the Danish Island of SamsØ are self-sufficient in energy from renewable sources and even sell some of the energy they generate. This result took 10 years and investments of $80 million, but the money has already been repaid from electricity sales. The islanders built 10 wind turbines on land and 11 at sea, which produce 28 gigawatt-hours of energy each year in total.
Heating on the island comes from renewable biomass: straw, sawdust and other plant waste is burned in boiler plants.
The island has an area of 114 km2, stretching about 50 km from north to south and with a breadth of more than 20 km at its widest part. There are 4,000 inhabitants, most of them engaged in agriculture. The largest settlement, Tranebjerg, has a population of only 800 people, but proudly calls itself a town.
Masdar City, United Arab Emirates
Masdar City (‘masdar’ is Arabic for ‘source’) is a new eco-city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, 17 km from the capital and close to the international airport.
The Government of Abu Dhabi put forth the idea of building a green city in the desert and launched it in 2006 with a budget of $22 billion. The new city when completed is expected to have a population of 45,000-50,000 and about
60,000 more will commute to work every day. Most companies and industrial plants in Masdar will specialize in the development and production of environmentally friendly technologies and products. Vehicular transport is not permitted in Masdar City: residents will move around on foot, by bicycle, by public transport or using new, computer-controlled taxis. A high wall is being built around the city to protect it from the hot desert wind, and its streets will have abundant shade.
Masdar City is designed to be a hub for clean technology companies. The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology has been operating in the city since September 2010. The city also hosts the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency.
The experience of Masdar City illustrates how living sustainably has its difficulties and challenges. From electric scooters, autonomous green vehicles to future tech, the city not only showcases its solutions to make living sustainably easier, but also smart choices that lead to a better world.
Treasure Island,
San Francisco, California, USA
Treasure Island is an artificial island created in California in 1939 as the site of an airport. These plans were changed with the outbreak of World War II, and the island was instead used as a military base, which remained there until 1996.
Now Treasure Island is being used as a testing site for a highly sustainable urban community that will draw more than 50% of its energy from renewable sources such as rooftop solar panels and windmills. Citizens will be able to buy fruits and vegetables from an organic farm on the island, all cars will be eco-friendly, and buildings will be energy efficient. Buildings on the island are certified under the LEED energy efficiency standard.
Sherford, England
Sherford in England is a new eco-friendly town to be designed in traditional English style. The project was launched in 2015 and has the support of King Charles III. All its buildings will be made from environmentally friendly materials, produced in England, no more than
80 km from the construction site. This will reduce the carbon footprint from construction work by avoiding transport of materials over long distances, emitting greenhouse gases from the combustion of vehicle fuels.
Sherford will follow traditional urbanization to make the town carbon-neutral by constructing energy-efficient buildings and laying out the town so that people live close to a main street. This makes it easy to travel on foot and on bicycles easily and quickly, so that residents will have no need for motor transport in some parts of the town. Space on rooftops will also be used for solar panels and for growing plants. About a fourth of the houses will be ‘low cost’ due to the high discrepancy between house prices and wages in the area.
The City of Vancouver, Canada
The City of Vancouver in Canada is known as one of the most environmentally friendly cities in North America. The city has adopted an ambitious plan to become the greenest city in the world. Developed by city authorities in collaboration with local people, the plan includes such measures as a shift toward 100% renewable energy power by 2050, a zero-waste programme, expanding walking and cycling networks, developing green buildings and public transportation, expanding green areas, as well as increasing farmers markets and community gardens. The city administration has established a two million Canadian dollar Greenest City Fund in collaboration with The Vancouver Foundation to support community- led projects to green the city. When all these measures are fully implemented, the City of Vancouver aims to reduce community based GHG emissions by 80% below 2007 levels by 2050.
QUESTIONS
1
What time of day is the peak of electricity consumption?
2
Do you think that hot countries need to worry about saving energy?
3
How does a city need to be designed if it wants to be a ‘green’ city?
4
Where do you think your home loses most of its heat in winter and coolness in summer? How could this be avoided?
5
What is the difference between ‘passive’, ‘active’ and ‘smart’ buildings?
TASKS
1
Ask your parents to let you see the electricity bills for your house or apartment for the past year, write down how many kilowatt-hours were used, and build a graph.
Find out how much electricity is used by your main household appliances: refrigerator, washing machine, vacuum cleaner, TV, lights, etc. You can do this by: 1) finding the power of each device in the technical information that came with it; 2) calculating roughly how many hours a day the device operates;
3) multiplying that time by the number of days in a month; 4) multiplying the power of the device by the time it operates.
Draw a second graph on the same piece of paper, summarizing total power consumption by your domestic appliances. Analyse the graph, see which appliances use more power and think why that is. Together with your parents, think what you can do to reduce energy consumption.
2
Draw a large map of an environmentally friendly city where you would want to live. What will it be called? Where in the world will it be?
How will its streets be laid out? Will motor vehicles be allowed to drive around the city? What companies and industries will it have (if any)?
Where will the residential district be located and why will it be located there? Draw what your own home in this city will look like. What sort of a building will it be and what will it be made of? Write an essay about this.
3
Find out about the environmental initiatives in various cities around the world from the ‘Sustainable Cities’ page in Wikipedia and other online resources. Find detailed information about the status of any ecological city and give a report about this city in school.
