The Sustainable City

Adele Houghton and Matt Kiefer think the real estate industry needs to do a better job of understanding the health effects of development. In a recent article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review called “How Real Estate Development Can Boost Urban Health,” they propose using a public health method called health situation analysis to define, measure and address public health issues in a context...

Toronto was the first North American city to pass a green roof law, in 2009, requiring new buildings or additions that are greater than 21,000 square feet to cover between 20 and 60 percent of their buildings with vegetation.  Meanwhile, the U.S. government’s General Services Administration has over 80 buildings with green roofs, spanning approximately 2.2 million square feet, which is about 48 fo...

In our last three-person episode, we explored the future of work in the post-pandemic, climate age, about office space and commuting patterns. These changes are happening in real time, before our very eyes. The same can be said about the future of cities writ large, not just office buildings and commutes, but cities as a whole: housing, transportation, retail space, parks, institutions. All seem t...

In his at once inspiring and dispiriting piece in the New York Times Magazine from November 2022 entitled “What Does Sustainable Living Look Like? Maybe Like Uruguay,” Noah Gallagher Shannon writes:    “This is the paradox at the heart of climate change: We’ve burned far too many fossil fuels to go on living as we have, but we’ve also never learned to live well without them. . . . [T]he problem of...

For this episode and the foreseeable future, we’re experimenting with a new podcast format, less linear, less binary, more conversational, informal, improvisational. We intend to focus on issues both of the moment and bigger picture, longer term, all related somehow to sustainable cities, this podcast’s soul’s purpose. We’ll still do more conventional episodes, with special guests, but will also m...

Peter Plastrik knows cities. He was born in Paris, grew up in New York City, and lived in not one but four Michigan cities. He is cofounder and vice president of the Innovation Network for Communities, was a founding consultant to the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance and has worked closely with the Urban Sustainability Directors Network since its inception in 2008. Pete has also been the lead author...

Sheila is the Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Urban Law and Policy at Georgetown University. She holds a joint appointment with the Law Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy. During the 2021-2022 academic year, she served as the inaugural Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Law Center. Sheila also co-directs LabGov, an international applied research project that has...

Law and urban planning professor and advocate Sara Bronin founded Desegregate CT to transform Connecticut’s zoning laws from tools for racial exclusion to instruments of social change and sustainability. Widely viewed as the poster child of the “suburban state,” whose old, industrial cities and communities of color have suffered decades of neglect and disinvestment, Connecticut is wising up. Broni...

In her new book, Gray to Green Communities, Dana Bourland argues that we need to move away from a gray housing model to a green one, which values the health and well-being of residents, their communities, and the planet. Dana shows that we don’t have to choose between protecting our environment and providing quality housing for all. How can we achieve both climate goals and housing equity when res...

Money makes the world go ‘round, and what it doesn’t ruin it can nurture. In this episode, we talk about the role of investment and finance in advancing nature-friendly, equitable communities. From zero-carbon buildings and green roofs to EV charging stations and bike sharing, sustainable cities require a host of new technologies, infrastructure and sophisticated designs. Who pays for this, and wh...

Until just over a decade ago, there was no such thing as a Sustainability Director or Chief Resilience Officer for cities. Now, cities feel incomplete without them. What are these jobs and why are they so essential to achieving urban sustainability goals? We pose these questions to our guests, Melanie Nutter, former Director of San Francisco’s Department of Environment, and Susie Strife, Director...

Rushad Nanavatty, Managing Director and lead of the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Urban Transformation program, and Ben Holland, Senior Associate and Policy Liaison at RMI, join us to explore the connection between transportation and land use, and how each affects our ability to achieve our climate goals, from commuting to street design to electric vehicles.

We look at sustainability, health and wellness in buildings and real estate. Beyond a zero-carbon built environment, what other goals should we be aiming for in creating better, greener, more inclusive cities? And how do we get there? Our guests are Brad Jacobson, Principal at EHDD, a San Francisco-based architecture firm leading the way towards a carbon-neutral built environment, and Alaina Ladne...

Renowned urban designer and planner Peter Calthorpe joins us to discuss his big idea for making California, and the rest of the nation, more sustainable. He calls it “Reinventing the strip.” Calthorpe is a founding member of the Congress for the New Urbanism and author of several books, including “Sustainable Communities,” “The Next American Metropolis,” “The Regional City: Planning for the End of...

Cities around the world are trying to find ways to reclaim their streets for people, for walking, biking, and scootering from point to point. The goal is to make cities safer, cleaner and more fun while reducing or eliminating altogether the number of cars and trucks that have dominated urban landscapes for almost a century. We talk to the Lord Mayor of Heidelberg, Germany, Dr. Eckart Wurzner, abo...