How city design can help save the planet: Patrick Condon’s Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities

 

 

First of Eight Excerpts

“We often read that buildings account for about half of all GHG production; transportation, for about 25 per cent; and industry, for most of the rest. But this division obscures a fundamental point: cities are responsible for 80 per Patrick condon (120p)cent of all GHG — caused by the way we build and arrange our buildings, by all the stuff we put in them, and by how we move from one building to the next. Since the problem is caused by cities, the solution should be there too,” writes Patrick Condon in his latest book, Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities: Design Strategies for the Post Carbon World

 

How did cities get this sick?

“In any journey, it helps to start with a look back from where we once came. Various historical starting points could be studied, but the end of the Second World War marks the time after which cities changed the most. Many compelling reasons drove the crucial choices we made at that time; foremost among these was the need for a place to live.”

 

To Learn More:

This is the first of eight excerpts published by  The Tyee in September/October 2010. To read the complete excerpt, click on Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities. To download a copy, click here.

 

Acknowledgment:

The Tyee is an independent publication that is found at http://www.thetyee.ca/ It went online in November 2003. According to David Beers, Editor, “We’re dedicated to publishing lively, informative news and views, not dumbed down fluff. We, like the tyee salmon for which we are named, roam free and go where we wish.” Since then, The Tyee has attracted some of the best journalists in B.C. who have broken many important stories.

 

Posted September 2010