How soon can we see sustainability?

When will it begin?

The definition of sustainable is something continuous; using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged.

There are varying levels to sustainability, the CATTCC position focuses on urban growth. The core of urban growth sustainability is its primary source of transportation.

The first thing to say about sustainable urban growth; it’s unattainable with an unsustainable foundation. To find out what sustainable urban growth is, it's necessary to understand where we’re at with urban growth and examine unsustainable urban growth.

What’s an unsustainable foundation to urban growth? The automobile; the automobile is wholly unsustainable. Western society is known as the car culture. To build an entire society on an unsustainable foundation is problematic. 

There are four types of land-use design: nature, agriculture, transit-oriented land-use design and automobile centric land-use design. Automobile centric land-use design is unsustainable.

What solves unsustainability?

Discovering a problem is the first step to recovery. There are many variables for sustainability. Opinions are synonymous to emotional action. Opinions often discard facts. Solutions require relevance to fact. And common sense is a viable component in finding solutions.  

The only way to reach sustainable growth is to remove the automobile as the primary source of urban transportation. The only sensible way to remove the automobile is to replace it with a more advanced form of transportation as an alternative to the automobile. People will stop driving cars when there is a transportation mechanism more convenient, that is faster, less expensive, safer and more efficient than a car.



New alternatives for transportation require innovation 

What’s required to reach sustainability? A brand-new mode of transportation is a solution to attain sustainability. Those making purse-string arguments against implementing sustainable modes of transportation are amongst the loudest voices to maintain the status-quo. To study unsustainability of urban growth is multifaceted. Removing internal combustion engines in cars presents a conundrum. There is little environmental gain, economically a slight gain, and socially; the same. The automobile is unsustainable, not just the engine. The automobile centric land-use design is unsustainable. All internal combustion engines on Earth could be replaced with electric or hydrogen engines and there would still be traffic jams. There would still be poisoned ground water from driveways, streets and freeways. Road rage would still exist.

This blog makes the same claim over and over; modern Western Society is built on the automobile centric land-use design. The transit-oriented land-use design does not accommodate automobiles. The automobile centric land-use design does not accommodate transit. Differing land-use designs are not meant to work together. 

How soon can we see sustainability? When will it begin?

What works towards implementing sustainability? Is there an immediate solution? To answer this: requires more specific and detailed questions.     

Sustainability includes urban growth. Urban growth is dependent upon the primary source of transportation. The three fundamental guidelines established from the Brundtland Report (the 1987 United Nation’s commission to identify sustainable urban growth) are: environmental, economic, and social. 

What is sustainable urban growth?

·   Economically, the local currency should stay local.

·   Environmentally, roads are used for public service access and minimized.

·   Socially, human interaction becomes normalized.

Going deeper into each of these aspects is necessary for planning. Who does the planning? Who establishes where urban growth goes?

Government wants to be the answer but, the answer is found with innovation. Government procedure is risk adverse. Government might decide it wants to be the answer, yet, bureaucracy enforces the status-quo and punishes innovation. Recently corporate bureaucracy coordinated with government to introduce a new regulatory platform to mandate financial compliance. Bureaucracy’s version of innovation is forced alliance.

These new regulations regulate a very specific political agenda. The bureaucratic program was introduced as a voluntary guideline and institutionalized as the new mandated compliance regulation. The program name is not disguised. It’s simply referred to as ESG. The Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance is exactly what is says it is: government supported, global corporate regulation compliance. Nefarious action looms.

Taken from the buildinggreen.com website: ESG does not change the fundamentals of sustainable design and construction. But it could change how we implement longstanding principles, and it could help us finally deploy those principles at scale.

How soon can we see sustainability? When will it begin? Does sustainability begin with global corporate usurpation?

When sustainability begins, what will it bring? Ideally, the Initially push is directly associated with transit-oriented growth. Actual sustainability in urban growth requires a better quality of life. This is found with attributes in real estate development in physical form. Eatable garden porches and privacy are two of the most important aspects of livability for medium to high density residential living spaces. Improvements to quality of life are based solely on an individual’s choice.

An individual’s choice for improvement in quality of life cannot be dictated by government dictate.

There is a lot of common sense that needs to be applied in the design of sustainable urban growth and with sustainable buildings. Livability includes all aspects of life. Practicality, convenience, comfort, and privacy are components for quality of life. Apartment life is adequate for some people, for other people apartments are undesirable. Sustainability isn’t restricted to high density building design. Sustainability does include privacy and personal garden access. There is more to sustainability than contemporary interior decorating and the use of color coordination. Modern architectural design is more than incorporating line designs and decorative façade finishes.

Sustainability includes what a building material is made of and where it comes from. Regional climates vary and affect product performance, sustainability requires long lasting building product performance. Sustainable urban growth requires a long list of attributes. Again, the foundation to all urban growth is its source of transportation. Transportation has to be sustainable. 

In the 1990s, a popular trend towards ‘green’ building led to the establishment of LEED standards (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). LEED certification is still used as an industry standard. Sustainability includes practicality. Practicality has always been a classic building methodology.