What is a green city?

Green cities would be healthier, fairer, more vibrant and convivial places to live. Creating genuinely green cities means tackling economic, social and environmental factors coherently, something Bristol as EU Green Capital clearly has yet to do, not least in transport terms when we look around and take a breath of air. Being green means: efficiency replacing waste; renewability replacing resource squandering; living within biophysical limits replacing pollution; implementing socio-economic goals geared to wellbeing for all not more and more money for a few and for a limited period; this generation and those to come, the world over, getting their dues; empowering local communities within urban areas; operating a cyclic economy. These criteria are the benchmarks.

Green cities would be sustainable because in broad social, economic and biophysical terms they would be dynamically stable, secure and able to persist over time. They would give on a par with taking from people and planet instead of being parasitic (the average UK city footprint is three times the sustainable level and Bristol’s footprint is only slightly lower than this). 

My concern is that there is a relatively low ceiling on what EU Green Capital status on its own can achieve. Bristol simply does not yet have the powers or the money to do what needs to be done and some Green Capital strategic aims are not green, such as ‘a city region to drive…economic growth’ (see: What does economic success really mean?).    

Green cities would ensure a decent future for generations to come ie not ballooning profits for the already super-rich today but an ongoing availability and decent supply of resources, fairly shared. Green cities would be One Planet Cities (see the details of how Brighton and Hove became the world’s first independently accredited One Planet City) but would go far beyond One Planet City and EU Green Capital criteria, especially socially and economically. 

What would contribute most to creating green cities? Many changes are needed at many social, economic and biophysical levels but here’s my take on just some of the priorities to give you a flavour: 

• the improvement of locally available housing, facilities, services, and jobs and the availability and use of local resources 
• far better, cheaper, more extensive public transport 
• much better cycling and pedestrian provision 
• protecting, enhancing and if possible increasing open, green, natural spaces;
• biodiversity enhancing developments 
• adopting and achieving high land, air, water and built environment quality standards
• education for sustainable living 
• innovative low carbon and low waste systems and designs;
• very large scale local energy saving and the micro-generation of energy 
• waste avoidance, reuse and recycling  
• more local, decent quality, fresh food availability 
• more home and allotment grown food
• people and organisations at all levels taking responsibility to be socially and environmentally-friendly  
• inclusive, informed, genuine public participation in community life 
• open, involving, accountable, ethical attitudes and policies
• getting governance right at all levels and using broad-based measures of progress – social, economic and biophysical.