If I were in charge of designing a city, I would make education one of my top priorities. In order to be motivated to make the changes necessary to reduce our carbon footprint on the world, we need to know what is happening to our planet now and what we predict will happen in the future. I would have a newspaper published digitally every week explaining what other countries are doing, what we can do, and how my “Sustainable City” plan benefits the environment. This paper would also explain how and what to recycle and compost, would promote public transit, explain greywater and how to use it, and other smaller city details.
    My city would be dependent on public transit. We would make it as easy as possible to use the system with an app that shows real time bus arrivals and departures and the ability to buy digital tickets. All buses would have solar panels on their roofs, and use the collected energy to power the bus. If riding the bus isn’t a suitable means of travel for people, we would also have bike lanes on every road and proper bike storage. We would also promote w alking and carpooling. Another item we would consider installing is solar powered roads, roads that have solar panels in them and collect energy all day.
    This city would be very supportive of the live/work system. This is when a two or more story building has businesses on the bottom, and living quarters on the top floors. This not only saves space, but reduces our footprint by making it easier to walk places. However, when living in an apartment or condo complex, it’s hard recycle and compost when no one has set up a system to do it. That’s why all apartment and condo complexes will have community compost bins (with proper seal in order to keep animals out) and gardens that grow primarily food. The compost not used in the garden will be picked up by the compost man. Along with community gardens, my town would promote buying organic and locally grown food and we would expand the the usual one day a week farmers market to both Saturdays and Sundays. Buildings will produce at least as much energy as they use and water and power will be rationed out in businesses and homes. More water or power is not available for purchase.
    Around town, how you dispose of your trash will get so much easier, there will be not only trash and recycling bins, but compost bins as well. Every block must have 3 or more trees on it and must collect rain water through roofs and the city will collect this on a scheduled day. Grey water will also be a factor in water use reduction. This is where water from your sink, shower, and washer are collected and used for landscaping purposes. Low flow toilets and/or showers will be installed in very business, and optional but encouraged in homes.