Here's your chance not just to be the mayor, but the original city planner as well! Imagine a medium sized city that would be developed with modern, low carbon transportation in mind, and other strategies to reduce the average citizens' carbon footprints.
What would that city look like? Would that make you more likely to want to live there?
Sustainable City >
Energy Efficient Cities
According to a recent article in The Guardian, cities account for over 80 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. With the population rising every day, this number will only increase unless we our cities become more sustainable. I think a great way to do so is to increase our energy efficiency in urban architecture.
Seattle is home to one of the greenest commercial office buildings in the world. Even in rainy Seattle, the building uses natural light: high ceilings and large windows let in enough sun to light over 80 percent of the building (My family recently placed a few skylights in our home, and have since had lower electricity bills). The remaining energy needed to light the building is captured through solar panels. Furthermore, the windows automatically open and shut to regulate the indoor temperature, rather than relying on heaters and air conditioners that require lots of energy and maintenance. Lastly, a breathtaking view of the city skyline from the stairs encourages employees to think twice about taking the elevator. All of these energy saving featur es are simple enough to by applied in city construction more often. I hope that architects become more ecologically conscious in their work so that one day entire cities may no longer rely on non renewable resources for electricity.
Here is a video that will help you to learn more about the building:
http://vimeo.com/64281701
Very true
I really like this idea, since I live in Texas, a large amount of pollution is released just from getting on e place to another (it is very spread out). If we could make our buildings more energy efficient, the amount of pollution would not be nearly as much, as we waste large amounts of light energy that we do not need, we would easily be able to power buildings using solar panels because it is always sunny!A more eco- friendly building would allow the sun to power air conditioning and lighting.
One boy in my middle schools did his final research project on energy efficient buildings. It was a really fascinating presentation with several creative and interesting designs. One thing in particular that caught my eye was a building designed for rainy cities. He had a rain collector and filter located on the roof of his building that fed into the plumbing system to use for toilets and sinks and other water based appliances. It would be a great way to reuse the natural resources. I believe that, combined with glass windows to let light in, would be a wonderful way to build sustainable buildings in busy cities.
*use natural resources.