Sustainable cities: must-haves and future evolutions

While the combo city/sustainability was a veritable utopia until just a few years ago, thanks to an optimised new organisation model that makes spaces more efficient, digital, liveable and integrated, we can now actually talk about sustainable cities.
From transport to the proper use of land, via energy production and consumption: making cities more inclusive, safe and sustainable has a positive impact on all aspects of daily life. It is no coincidence, in fact, that this is also one of the goals on the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
 

But what makes a city sustainable?

The requirements for becoming a circular city range from the availability of the most innovative technologies to changing the habits of its inhabitants, with special focus on access to housing and basic services, smart mobility, sustainable urbanisation and the environmental impact of cities.

A topic as wide-ranging as it is important, but what are the must-haves for sustainable cities? Let’s find out together:

• Yes to recycling, No to pollution: the use of renewable energies and regulation governing heating in buildings, with a view to reducing energy consumption and related polluting emissions, accompanied by the virtuous habits of citizens who correctly separate waste is the first fundamental step towards sustainability.
• Cutting-edge technology: examples are public and shared Wi-Fi networks, as well as the use of digital documents by public administration, queue management apps to provide efficient services to citizens, and smart working to reduce pollution and traffic in cities.
• Regulating land consumption: why build new buildings if you can redevelop existing ones? In order to reduce or eliminate land consumption in cities, the focus strategy for local land management policies should aim to enhance the existing public and private building stock and make available the latest technologies in the building sector for the green redesign of cities.
• Sustainable mobility: lots of cars and vehicles in circulation means more air and noise pollution, but also hazards, queues and stress for citizens. A sustainable city is, in fact, also based on a series of incentives for those who choose smart mobility and the provision of alternative solutions such as environmentally friendly public transport, car sharing services, electric taxis, and cycle paths.
• Green spaces and urban vegetable gardens: from uncultivated and abandoned land to the creation of a green space for the community, urban vegetable gardens are a successful experience already widely experimented in many Italian towns and cities that benefits the environment as well as sociality. But that’s not all! Green spaces today can actually change the surrounding environment in an infinite number of ways. One example? green roof coverings, which can absorb the CO2 produced and thermally insulate the building in both summer and winter!

Looking to the future

Commit today and every day to a better tomorrow. Now more than ever it is important to teach even the youngest among us to live responsibly and respectfully in cities.

This is why at Lucart Professional we have decided to help the younger generations through the School Project, a curriculum on the circular economy for school education, together with teacher training, which aims to increase awareness about the manufacturing cycle of products in the name of sustainability.