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Definition of green city sustainability

Green City Times' DEFINITION of the green city sustainability model addresses sustainable technological solutions to anthropogenic climate change. There are seven major themes that provide a comprehensive description of sustainability initiatives for climate change mitigation that make a green world city thrive. The seven building blocks of environmental sustainability for a city are: green building, resource & waste management, energy efficiency, renewable energy (& energy storage), sustainable mass transportation, ecology/ wildlife protection & conservation, and urban planning.

Simplifying the definition of urban sustainability

The components of our definition of urban environmental sustainability can easily be combined, as well- renewable energy and resource management can be placed in a single category, energy & resource management. All energy comes from resources, and all resources require energy to turn into building materials and/ or material goods. Resource management includes energy, capital for industry & manufacturing, buildings, transportation, water, food, and waste management (as well as infrastructure for all these things); with the goal of becoming zero-waste, and zero-emissions, in an ideal sustainable world.

Mass transit, urban planning, and green building, can also be put together in a category called sustainable planning and design. These components can also simply be added to renewable energy and resource management, forming components which would then make up the energy & resource management category. The outstanding category besides energy & resource management, then becomes environmental conservation & protection of wildlife and their natural habitats.

Creating a sustainable city

Sustainability is commonly seen as the obligation to "meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs". However, Green City Times' definition goes beyond the basic idea that sustainability means improving the planet's ecological health and leaving a better world for our children.

Green City Times describes the necessary building blocks to create a sustainable city. The definition of urban environmental sustainability here provides a brief picture of the truth, but it is well worth going deeper, into the building blocks, the science, of sustainability; which is what Green City Times attempts to do on this website. Please read here>>> for clean energy technological climate change mitigation solutions, and here>>> for public policies needed to achieve those solutions.

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Here are five of the world's most sustainable cities, according to a recent analysis of world green cities by Carbon Reality Project.

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Please also see Green City Times' guide on:

Improving energy efficiency

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Besides renewable energy, energy efficiency is the most crucial component for investment and development in order to make environmentally sustainable city thrive.

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Please also see Green City Times' article on What Makes a City Sustainable

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