Green and Resilient Cities
Green infrastructure, energy, waste and habitat.
Start here · Essential guide
A plain-language overview of what sustainability means for a city, from land use and energy to water, waste and transport, and where the trade-offs lie.
How cities link parks, streams and rail edges into continuous habitat strips that let wildlife and people move through, and what limits their value.
Green roofs, street trees, bioswales and permeable surfaces explained as working infrastructure that helps cities manage stormwater and heat.
How density, street layout and building orientation shape resource use, and why sustainable urban form often matters more than technology add-ons.
Building energy efficiency in cities: insulation, retrofits, lighting and district heating, with honest notes on payback times and who benefits.
Urban energy generation explained: rooftop solar, community energy, waste heat and the grid constraints that decide how much a city can produce locally.
How a city energy plan balances demand reduction with local supply, why the order of decisions matters, and how efficiency and generation affect each other.
Municipal waste in cities explained through the waste hierarchy: reduction, reuse, composting, recycling, energy recovery and landfill, and the trade-offs among them.
How recycling systems work in cities, from collection and sorting to contamination problems, and what recycling can and cannot achieve.
How parks, tree canopy, swales and green roofs link into a connected network that manages water and heat across a renewed district.
How compact development can reduce land use and travel distances, and the honest trade-offs with crowding, cost and access to green space.
Retrofits, insulation and design choices that cut energy use in existing and new city buildings, with realistic notes on cost and comfort.
How cities reduce water demand and waste through leak control, reuse, efficient fixtures and smarter landscaping, and what limits each approach.
A big-picture framework for a sustainable city plan that connects land use, energy, transport and waste instead of treating each as a separate project.
How planners build sustainability goals into land use, master plans and development approvals, and why the rules matter more than the vision statement.
How reusing materials, repairing things and recovering resources applies to construction, demolition and city services, and what makes it hard in practice.
What a municipal climate action plan typically contains, how emissions targets are set, and where implementation tends to stall.
What makes a neighborhood sustainable socially, environmentally and economically, looked at from the scale where people actually live.
How conventional concrete and pipe systems compare with green alternatives for water and heat, and why most cities end up using a mix of both.
Practical ways to add greenery to dense, paved places, including depaving, street trees, green roofs and small plantings, with realistic limits.
Waste reduction at the source through reuse, composting, food-waste prevention and packaging rules, as opposed to collection and recycling systems.
Sensors, data platforms and digital services in cities, weighing claimed benefits against privacy, cost, maintenance and equity concerns.
Where a city's carbon footprint comes from, including buildings, transport and materials, and how renewal choices can raise or lower it.
A structured sustainability framework for moving from goals to action: baseline, targets, responsibilities, budgets and review cycles.
A survey of widely cited sustainability practice categories and a way to judge whether a practice that worked in one city will transfer to another.
Design-scale principles for green urban design, such as compact blocks, shade, orientation and permeable surfaces, applied to streets and buildings.
Environmental safeguards for land, air, water and biodiversity in development projects, and how those safeguards are usually checked.
Urban energy systems explained: how supply and demand meet across district heating, rooftop solar, grids and storage, and what local government can influence.
How the planning system, through land use, codes and infrastructure, can help cut emissions and prepare a city for climate effects.
Planning under uncertainty: how scenarios, flexible plans and monitoring help a city adjust its sustainability strategies as conditions change.
The practical benefits of rain gardens, swales and tree pits on renewal sites, with maintenance needs as the main caveat.
How green roofs work, including their layers, weight and upkeep, and what they can and cannot do for stormwater and cooling.
How green infrastructure manages stormwater and heat in new development, with the maintenance and cost trade-offs developers and cities face.
Where planning tools such as zoning and land protection meet environmental aims, and where they pull in different directions.
How reusing existing sites can reduce environmental impact, and when renewal instead adds to resource use or displacement.
How a city sets environmental priorities across air, land, water and waste, and how strategies are organized, compared and sequenced.
The core principles behind long-range sustainable planning, such as compact form, mixed uses and efficient resource use, explained in plain language.
A beginner-friendly walkthrough of the stages of planning a sustainable city district, from choosing land to long-term operation.
How learning spaces, signage, school gardens and public programs can build environmental awareness in city districts, and what evidence is and is not available.
Environmental criteria for new and rebuilt projects, including materials, site choice and energy, with honest notes on cost trade-offs.
A step-by-step guide for a city government to build sustainability into design standards, procurement and project review.
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