There are some important questions here about ‘urban farming’ and city-based food production:
A new report digs deep to find out whether city agriculture can feed urban populations.
CIVILEATS.COM
Urban food production limits
Category: Sustainable alternatives
Shared cars in Montreal
Pictured below is a car parked opposite from where I am staying in Montreal. It is a vehicle from one of the shared car schemes here. They are much more common and advanced than back home. Critically you leave such cars at your destination rather than have to return them. The city bus service is better too, very frequent services in one system: they seem well used. More is being done for cyclists though, yet again, pedestrians seem to come last.
Despite progress on some fronts, the private road vehicle still rules the roost, with, for example, a giant autoroute interchange being built in west Montreal. We wanted to go on a trip out for a day or two but public transport options are really pathetic away from the urban core. Perhaps the current fall in Canadian oil production might sober up a few more minds regarding the need to plan now for a future when fuel prices really will jump up and never come back down.
Despite progress on some fronts, the private road vehicle still rules the roost, with, for example, a giant autoroute interchange being built in west Montreal. We wanted to go on a trip out for a day or two but public transport options are really pathetic away from the urban core. Perhaps the current fall in Canadian oil production might sober up a few more minds regarding the need to plan now for a future when fuel prices really will jump up and never come back down.
‘Solar’ bus shelters in London
These seem worth imitating wherever we can:
UK’s first transparent solar bus shelter at Canary Wharf can generate 2,000 kW-hours per year—equivalent to the amount of electricity needed to power the average…
INHABITAT.COM
‘Solar’ train in India
I cannot say what the potential might be for Britain but this seems an encouraging development in the railway sector, one whose environmental credentials have often been exaggerated:
Zee Media Bureau New Delhi: Indian Railways is set to touch another milestone in development and upgrade in infrastructure. It will test its first all solar train in Jodhpur by May end. The coaches in the entire train will be fitted with solar panels.
ZEENEWS.INDIA.COM
Plan for a more sustainable Vancouver
Some interesting ideas on urban sustainability in this series, better than the current one in the Guardian about cities:
A Tyee series authored by UBC professor of Landscape Architecture Patrick Condon drawing from the book A Convenience Truth: A 2050 Plan for a Sustainable…
THETYEE.CA
Greener clothing
The ‘human and environmental footprint’ of clothing seldom gets the coverage it needs, given impacts from, say, conventional cotton cultivation, sheep overgrazing for wool, and the manufacture of artificial fibres, let alone the costs of endless fashion changes, short-life garments and ‘sweatshop’ production lines, See, for example:
Plus:
http://www.activesustainability.com/clothes-ecological-and-…;
http://www.alternet.org/…/its-second-dirtiest-thing-world-a…;
http://www.environmentalleader.com/…/assessing-the-environ…/;
http://make-do-and-mend.org/overconsumption_of_clothes__2.h…;
http://fastfashion.weebly.com/index.html.
But here is one encouraging inititiative:
With most of cotton’s environmental footprint coming from growing, and with textile waste continuing to be a huge problem, this newest innovation by Levi’s and Evrnu…
TREEHUGGER.COM
Curbing the car in Barcelona
This looks like another good idea in the struggle to curb the menace of ‘autogeddon’:
The Spanish city’s radical new strategy will restrict traffic to a number of big roads, drastically reducing pollution and turning secondary streets into ‘citizen spaces’ for…
THEGUARDIAN.COM|BY MARTA BAUSELLS
Greener architecture (Skanska)
This is an interesting take on sustainable architecture and energy supply:
http://blog.usa.skanska.com/how-a-living-building-comes-to…/
But also see these salutory observations:
BLOG.USA.SKANSKA.COM
Greening the City
Below is a Powerpoint presentation on making cities more sustainable. It explores ways in which my home city, Newcastle upon Tyne, might be ‘greened’. It looks at barriers as well as opportunities. An underlying theme is this: “if they can do it, why can’t we?” It is clearly vital to discredit the tired but still endlessly recycled excuse that “there is no alternative”. This is an on-going project which owes much to the pioneering work of Guy Dauncey, not least this project of his: http://www.journeytothefuture.ca
Sandy Irvine's green blog 