SUSTAINABLE PLANNING

AND ARCHITECTURE
objectives
To understand the concept of sustainability and sustainable planning.

To inform various issues like climate change, ecological footprint etc.

To understand low impact construction practices, life cycle costs and

alternative energy resources

To familiarize with various rating systems through case studies

Case studies to understand concept of sustainable communities and

the economic and social dimension
Sustainable planning/ Architecture

Two different scale of approach

1. Planning city level

2. Architecture building level
sustainability
the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level.

avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain

an ecological balance.

Sustainability has often been defined as how biological systems

endure and remain diverse and productive. But, the 21st-century
definition of sustainability goes far beyond these narrow parameters.
Today, it refers to the need to develop the sustainable models
necessary for both the human race and planet Earth to survive.
Sustainability is a balancing act. The United Nations 1987Report of
the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our
Common Future noted that sustainable development meets the
needs of the present without compromising the well-being of future
generations.
The Three Pillars of Sustainability

To achieve these lofty goals, humans will have to re-examine their

policies on:

Environmental protection.
Social responsibility.
Economic practice.
 Economic Development

This is the issue that proves the most problematic as most people disagree on political
ideology what is and is not economically sound, and how it will affect businesses and by
extension, jobs and employability.

It is also about providing incentives for businesses and other organisations to adhere to
sustainability guidelines beyond their normal legislative requirements. Also, to encourage
and foster incentives for the average person to do their bit where and when they can;

one person can rarely achieve much, but taken as a group, effects in some areas are
cumulative.

The supply and demand market is consumerist in nature and modern life requires a lot of
resources every single day; for the sake of the environment, getting what we consume
under control is the paramount issue. Economic development is about giving people what
they want without compromising quality of life, especially in the developing world, and
reducing the financial burden and red tape of doing the right thing.
Social Development

There are many facets to this pillar. Most importantly is awareness of

and legislation protection of the health of people from pollution and
other harmful activities of business and other organisations.
In North America, Europe and the rest of the developed world, there
are strong checks and programmes of legislation in place to ensure
that people's health and wellness is strongly protected.
It is also about maintaining access to basic resources without
compromising the quality of life.
The biggest hot topic for many people right now is sustainable
housing and how we can better build the homes we live in from
sustainable material.
The final element is education - encouraging people to participate in
environmental sustainability and teaching them about the effects of
environmental protection as well as warning of the dangers if we
cannot achieve our goals.
 Environmental Protection

We all know what we need to do to protect the environment, whether that is

recycling, reducing our power consumption by
switching electronic devices off rather than using standby, by
walking short journeys instead of taking the bus.
Businesses are regulated to prevent pollution and to keep their own carbon
emissions low.
There are incentives to installing renewable power sources in our homes and
businesses.
Environmental protection is the third pillar and to many, the primary concern of
the future of humanity. It defines how we should study and protect
ecosystems,air quality, integrity and sustainability of our resources and focusing
on the elements that place stress on the environment.
It also concerns how technology will drive our greener future; the EPA recognized
that developing technology andbiotechnologyis key to this sustainability, and
protecting the environment of the future from potential damage that
technological advances could potentially bring.
 Sustainable planning

Urban planners that are interested in achieving sustainable development or sustainable cities use
various design principles and techniques when designing cities and their infrastructure. These
include Smart Growth theory, Transit-oriented development, sustainable urban infrastructure and
New Urbanism.
Smart Growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in infill
sites within the existing infrastructure of a city or town to avoid urban sprawl; and advocates
compact, transit-oriented development, walk able, bicycle-friendly land use, including mixed-use
development with a range of housing choices.

Transit-oriented development attempts to maximize access to public transport and thereby

reduce the need for private vehicles. Public transport is considered a form of Sustainable urban
infrastructure, which is a design approach which promotes protected areas, energy-efficient
buildings, wildlife corridors and distributed, rather than centralized, power generation and waste
water treatment.

New Urbanism is more of a social and aesthetic urban design movement than a green one, but it
does emphasize diversity of land use and population, as well as walk able communities which
inherently reduce the need for automotive travel.
 Both urban and rural planning can benefit from including sustainability as a central criterion when
laying out roads, streets, buildings and other components of the built environment.
Conventional planning practice often ignores or discounts the natural configuration of the land

during the planning stages, potentially causing ecological damage such as the stagnation of streams,
mudslides, soil erosion, flooding and pollution.
Applying methods such as scientific modeling to planned building projects can draw attention to

problems before construction begins, helping to minimize damage to the natural environment.
Cohousing is an approach to planning based on the idea of intentional communities. Such projects

often prioritize common space over private space resulting in grouped structures that preserve more
of the surrounding environment.
Watershed assessment of carrying capacity; estuary, riparian zone restoration and groundwater

recharge for hydrologic cycle viability; and other opportunities and issues about Water and the
environment show that the foundation of smart growth lies in the protection and preservation of
water resources. The total amount of precipitation landing on the surface of a community becomes
the supply for the inhabitants. This supply amount then dictates the carrying capacity - the potential
population - as supported by the "water crop.
 Sustainable architecture

Sustainable architecture is the design of sustainable buildings. Sustainable architecture attempts

to reduce the collective environmental impacts during the production of building
components(embodied energy), during the construction process, as well as during the lifecycle of
the building (heating, electricity use, carpet cleaning etc.)

This design practice emphasizes efficiency of heating and cooling systems; alternative energy
sources such as solar hot water, appropriate building siting, reused or recycled building materials;
on-site power generation - solar technology, ground source heat pumps, wind power; rainwater
harvesting for gardening, washing and aquifer recharge; and

on-site waste management such as green roofs that filter and control storm water runoff. This
requires close cooperation of the design team, the architects, the engineers, and the client at all
project stages, from site selection, scheme formation, material selection and procurement, to
project implementation.
 Sustainable architects design with sustainable living in mind. Sustainable vs green design is
the challenge that designs not only reflect healthy processes and uses but are powered by
renewable energies and site specific resources. A test for sustainable design is can the
design function for its intended use without fossil fuel unplugged. This challenge suggests
architects and planners design solutions that can function without pollution rather than just
reducing pollution. As technology progresses in architecture and design theories and as
examples are built and tested, architects will soon be able to create not only passive, null-
emission buildings, but rather be able to integrate the entire power system into the building
design.

An essential element of Sustainable Building Design is indoor environmental quality including

air quality, illumination, thermal conditions, and acoustics. integrated design of the indoor
environment is essential and must be part of the integrated design of the entire structure.
 We propose three principles of sustainability in architecture.

1. Economy of Resources is concerned with the reduction, reuse, and

recycling of the natural resources that are input to a building.

2. Life Cycle Design provides a methodology for analyzing the building

process and its impact on the environment.

3. Humane Design focuses on the interactions between humans and

the natural world. These principles can provide a broad awareness of the
environmental impact, both local and global, of architectural consumption
 Sustainable design principles
While the practical application varies among disciplines, some common
principles are as follows:

Low-impact materials: choose non-toxic, sustainably produced or recycled

materials which require little energy to process

Energy efficiency: use manufacturing processes and produce products which

require less energy

Quality and durability: longer-lasting and better-functioning products will have

to be replaced less frequently, reducing the impacts of producing replacements

Design for reuse and recycling: "Products, processes, and systems should be
designed for performance in a commercial 'afterlife'.
 Design impact measures for total carbon footprint and life-cycle
assessment for any resource used are increasingly required and
available. Many are complex, but some give quick and accurate
whole-earth estimates of impacts.

Sustainable design standards and project design guides are also

increasingly available and are vigorously being developed by a wide
array of private organizations and individuals. There is also a large
body of new methods emerging from the rapid development of what
has become known as 'sustainability science' promoted by a wide
variety of educational and governmental institutions.

Biomimicry: "redesigning industrial systems on biological lines ...

enabling the constant reuse of materials in continuous closed cycles.
 Service substitution: shifting the mode of consumption from personal
ownership of products to provision of services which provide similar
functions, e.g., from a private automobile to a carsharing service.
Such a system promotes minimal resource use per unit of
consumption (e.g., per trip driven).

Renewability: materials should come from nearby (local or

bioregional), sustainably managed renewable sources that can be
composted when their usefulness has been exhausted.

Robust eco-design: robust design principles are applied to the design

of a pollution sources
Ecological foot print
 How Does Ecological Footprint Relate to Carrying Capacity?

Thats almost 66 billion of us. Currently there are 7 billion humans on the planet so theoretically we
still have a way to go before we max out on population, that is, if all we want to do is eat rice. Of
course there are lots of factors that reduce this potential carrying capacity number. These include:
Continued population growth in areas of the world currently already suffering from population stress
Freshwater stress including water usage competition between urban and rural environments
Reduced agricultural land from poor farming practices
Deforestation
Desertification
Climate change
Rising sea levels
And war, disease, pestilence and plague.
For humans in the 21st century it is clear that we cannot continue to have one part of the planet
consuming at an unsustainable level while other human populations subsist on very little but it is also
true that there remains some wiggle room to give us time to fix the problem. All it takes is global
leadership focused on sustainability. But if the recent Rio+20 conference is an example of what our
leaders are capable of doing then we need to find others to provide us with guidance to achieve our
common planetary goal. National self-interest cannot continue to impede all of humanity. We are a
global society and we need to make global decisions about managing our ecological footprint. That
way we can find a sustainable medium for all in the remainder of the 21st century and beyond.
 Bio diversity

Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given species, ecosystem, biome, or
planet. Terrestrial biodiversity tends to be highest at low latitudes near the equator which seems
to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Marine biodiversity tends to
be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest and in
mid-latitudinal band in all oceans. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has
been increasing through time but will likely slow in the future.
Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions. One estimate is that <1%-3% of

the species that have existed on Earth are extant.

Since life began on Earth, five major mass extinctions and several minor events have led to large
and sudden drops in biodiversity. The Phanerozoic eon (the last 540million years) marked a rapid
growth in biodiversity via the Cambrian explosiona period during which the majority of multi-
cellular phyla first appeared. The next 400million years included repeated, massive biodiversity
losses classified as mass extinction events. In the Carboniferous, rainforest collapse led to a
great loss of plant and animal life. The PermianTriassic extinction event, 251million years ago,
was the worst; vertebrate recovery took 30million years. The most recent, the Cretaceous
Paleogene extinction event, occurred 65million years ago and has often attracted more attention
than others because it resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs.

The period since the emergence of humans has displayed an ongoing biodiversity reduction and
an accompanying loss of genetic diversity. Named the Holocene extinction, the reduction is
caused primarily by human impacts, particularly habitat destruction. Conversely, biodiversity
impacts human health in a number of ways, both positively and negatively.
 Biodiversity in buildings The new challenge for
Architecture

The political focus on global warming has tended to reduce the importance architects attach to
protecting biodiversity. Yet the impact architecture has upon ecosystems, both at the building and
further afield, is enormous.
Architects impact upon biodiversity in five main ways:
Decisions regarding roofs, walls, landscape
Materials used in construction- their sourcing, assembly and disposal
Resources needed to sustain buildings in use (energy, water etc)
Adverse affects of buildings in terms of air and water pollution
Conservation and rehabilitation of existing structures.
These can be considered in isolation or as a system of inter-connected factors. Architects could
see the new regulations as an opportunity to connect architecture and nature. Buildings and
cities have a surprisingly big impact upon habitats and the many vulnerable species that they
contain. These impacts are often far way and hence are easily ignored or subject to 'greenwash'
standards (as in timber sourcing). Also many of the impacts are insidious such as polystyrene
beads and plastic fragments which end up choking our rivers and killing marine life. These are
often the result of packaging from the building site. Biodiversity is the Cinderella of the green
movement in architecture.
Biodiversity is defined as having three main levels. It is concerned with habitats (wetlands,
rainforests, coral reefs); individual species (bat, bird, plant, insect etc); and genetic diversity
within species (this is why genetic modification matters). Although architecture does not
traditionally concern itself with such matters, the growth of sustainability as an ever-expanding
set of global narratives and regulation exposes building design and construction to the close
 Some architects have already started to fill in the gap in our knowledge and sought to influence practice.
The 'cradle to cradle' idea owes much to an understanding of ecological systems, taking principles from
nature and applying them to buildings. Similarly the 'biomimicry' design movement and such initiatives
as bioclimatic skyscrapers promoted over a decade ago have a clear commitment to addressing
biodiversity. But beyond the formal adoption of ecological principles to design methodology, biodiversity
needs a little more attention in everyday practice.

Nature affects us culturally and spiritually and provides the basis for most of our food, medicines, fibre,
construction materials, fresh water and even energy. According to Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary
General, the 'conservation of biodiversity makes a critical contribution to moderating the scale of climate
change and reducing its negative impact by making ecosystems (including human societies) more
resilient'. By linking climate change and biodiversity there is a new agenda for architecture - one that
promises more richness and beauty than buildings intent merely upon reducing their carbon footprints.

One of the key drivers for the loss of global biodiversity is building development. There is insufficient
attention paid to integrating biodiversity policies with strategies for urbanism. Infrastructure
development, mass housing and social programs generally pay scant regard to connections between
biodiversity and human well-being. This is an area where knowledge is poor and action thin on the
ground beyond a few token projects.

Global Biodiversity calls for better 'communication, education and awareness raising' around the topic of
biodiversity. It seeks to influence the indirect drivers (such as architects and the construction industry)
as well as the direct drivers such as fisheries, forestry and agriculture. Biodiversity is becoming a core
issue for many of today's major economic sectors and is increasingly a heading in policies for corporate
Besides the links between strategies for global warming and biodiversity which have
found their way into recent international agreements, another change is the move away
from the pocket approach to habitat protection to that of linear systems. The latter is
driven by the need to establish migration corridors whereby species can move across
urban areas and through the world's expanding deserts as global warming bites. Such
corridors are often based on inland water systems and in Europe involve much habitat
creation on former brown field land. Building in or adjacent to such corridors can do
much to support local and often also global biodiversity.

Action points for creating biodiversity as part of architecture:

1. Establish ecological baseline and strengthen this
2. Create habitat opportunities as part of the development process
3. Leave wasteland and dead trees alone
4. Seek to link habitats on the site with those further afield
5. Use water as the biological driver, exploiting grey-water and SUDS
6. Provide an opportunity for humans and nature to interface
7. Avoid over-trimming grass or hedges (establish wildflower areas)
8. Protect what is inherited.

Biodiversity, quality of life and global warning are directly connected. Architects have a
key role to play alongside their actions to reduce energy consumption. However, unlike
CO2 emissions, the science and knowledge of biodiversity in a building context is less
well developed. The choice between steel, concrete, masonry or timber construction is
complex from an energy point of view let alone the ecological impacts from cradle to
grave. Yet society is moving towards a richer understanding of sustainability where green
roofs, planted facades and construction materials from recycled waste or bio-crops are
not just emblems but serious attempts to address ecological diversity. The failure to
achieve lasting carbon emission targets at COP15 has shifted the green focus onto
However, integrating nature and architecture within the building is by no means
straightforward. Besides the obvious maintenance costs, a living faade may well
obstruct daylight through windows (thereby adding to energy use). Nature is dynamic
whilst architecture is static: the two systems are in conflict unless attention is paid to
zones and layers. Typically a planted faade needs its own sub-frame forward of the
building line with integrated irrigation. A planted roof is also best conceived as another
sheltering layer, one that mediates between the external and internal climate. In spite of
these difficulties recent examples are pointing to a fresh approach to sustainability and
one which carries a great deal of public support.

It has become the ambition of new build to be truly sustainable and what an excellent
goal that is.
But to achieve that goal not only is it important to reach the highest standards for waste
minimization, use of sustainable materials and reducing energy use to achieve low or
zero carbon
buildings; it also needs to retain the value for biodiversity that our built environment has
always
provided.

The need to reduce the carbon footprint of our future (and current) housing stock is
without dispute.
To enable this vital change to come about, new materials, designs and technologies have
evolved
rapidly. But it is likely that these changes to reduce our carbon footprint by making our
buildings
'airtight' will lead to losses in biodiversity associated with our built environment unless
this is
considered early on in the process. It is so important that provision for all this
sustainable development

sustainable development is maintaining a delicate balance

between the human need to improve lifestyles and feeling of
well-being on one hand, and preserving natural resources and
ecosystems, on which we and future generations depend.
Sustainable development implies economic growth together
with the protection of environmental quality, each reinforcing
the other. The essence of this form of development is a stable
relationship between human activities and the natural world,
which does not diminish the prospects for future generations
to enjoy a quality of life at least as good as our own. Many
observers believe that participatory democracy, undominated
by vested interests, is a prerequisite for achieving sustainable
development (Source: Mintzer, 1992).
 While the modern concept of sustainable development is derived mostly from the
1987Brundtland Report, it is also rooted in earlier ideas aboutsustainable
forest managementand twentieth century environmental concerns. As the concept
developed, it has shifted to focus more oneconomic development,social
developmentand environmental protection for future generations. It has been
suggested that "the term 'sustainability' should be viewed as humanity's target
goal of human-ecosystem equilibrium (homeostasis), while 'sustainable
development' refers to the holistic approach and temporal processes that lead us
to the end point of sustainability
The concept of sustainable development has beenand still issubject to
criticism. What, exactly, is to be sustained in sustainable development? It has been
argued that there is no such thing as a sustainable use of anon-renewable
resource, since any positive rate of exploitation will eventually lead to the
exhaustion of Earth's finite stock; this perspective renders theIndustrial
Revolutionas a whole unsustainable. It has also been argued that the meaning of
the concept has opportunistically been stretched from 'conservation management'
to 'economic development', and that the Brundtland Report promoted nothing but
a business as usual strategy for world development, with an ambiguous and
insubstantial concept attached as a public relations slogan .
Brundtland Commission
Formally known as theWorld Commission on Environment and
Development(WCED), the mission of theBrundtland
Commissionis to unite countries to pursuesustainable
developmenttogether.
The Chairperson of the Commission,Gro Harlem Brundtland, was
appointed byUnited NationsSecretary-GeneralJavier Prez de
Cullarin December 1983.
At the time, theUN General Assemblyrealized that there was a heavy
deterioration of the human environment and natural resources. To
rally countries to work and pursue sustainable development together,
the UN decided to establish theBrundtland Commission.
The Brundtland Commission officially dissolved in December 1987
after releasingOur Common Future, also known as theBrundtland
Report, in October 1987, a document which coined, and defined the
meaning of the term "Sustainable Development"
Brundtland Report,
Our Common Future, also known as theBrundtland Report, from
theUnited NationsWorld Commission on Environment and
Development(WCED) was published in 1987.
Its targets were multilateralism and interdependence of nations in the
search for asustainable developmentpath. The report sought to
recapture the spirit of theStockholm Conference- which had
introducedenvironmentalconcerns to the formal political development
sphere.Our Common Futureplaced environmental issues firmly on the
political agenda; it aimed to discuss the environment
anddevelopmentas one single issue.
The document was the culmination of a 900-day international-
exercise which catalogued, analysed, and synthesised: written
submissions and expert testimony from senior government
representatives, scientists and experts, research institutes,
industrialists, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and
the general public held at public hearings throughout the world.
The Brundtland Commission's mandate was to:

re-examine the critical issues of environment and development

and to formulate innovative, concrete, and realistic action
proposals to deal with them;
strengthen international cooperation on environment and
development and to assess and propose new forms of
cooperation that can break out of existing patterns and influence
policies and events in the direction of needed change; and
raise the level of understanding and commitment to action on
the part of individuals, voluntary organizations, businesses,
institutes, and governments (1987: 347). The Commission
focused its attention in the areas of population, food security, the
loss of species and genetic resources, energy, industry, and
human settlements - realizing that all of these are connected and
cannot be treated in isolation one from another
 The Brundtland Commission Report recognised that human
resource development in the form of poverty reduction,
gender equity, and wealth redistribution was crucial to
formulating strategies for environmental conservation, and it
also recognised that environmental-limits to economic growth
in industrialised and industrialising societies existed. The
Brundtland Report claimed that poverty reduces sustainability
and accelerates environmental pressures creating a need for
the balancing between economy and ecology. [2]As such, the
Report offered [the] analysis, the broad remedies, and the
recommendations for a sustainable course of development
within such societies (1987: 16). However, the Report was
unable to identify the mode(s) of production that are
responsible for degradation of the environment, and in the
absence of analysing the principles governing market-led
economic growth, the Report postulated that such growth could
be reformed (and expanded); this lack of analysis resulted in an
obfuscated-introduction of the term sustainable development. [3]
 What Is the Relationship between
Sustainability and Ethics?
Sustainability efforts have been a valuable way to highlight a broad vision of care and concern
for ecological degradation and intergenerational equity. For a number of reasons, however,
ethical discourse has generally been avoided or minimized in favor of economic or technical
solutions, which ultimately fail to address fundamental moral questions and operative values
embedded within human-nature relationships (Orr; Robinson; Vucetich and Nelson).
This potentially leaves sustainability adrift, beholden to paradigms that seek to adjust or tweak
financial markets to incentivize good behavior instead of fundamentally challenging cultural
assumptions about growth/development or fully engaging questions of moral obligation and
imagination.
The Forum on Ethics and Nature is informed by the view that sustainability without ethics is an
empty husk. That is, sustainability lacks a generative purpose and ceases serving as a guide for
reflection if we do not consider the (often implicit, sometimes explicit) values, cultural
worldviews, and methods for achieving durable, just, and mutually enhancing human-nature
relationships.
Sustainability offers traction to the idea that we are obligated to consider future generations in
our policies, in our production and consumption of material goods, in our various interactions
with the natural world, and in our daily decision-making.
These are all issues that require ongoing ethical deliberation to clarify thought and action, alert
us to distortions of power and privilege, and engage in the demanding work of achieving
collective well-being.
To highlight that ethical deliberation is necessary to discussions of sustainability is to make the
point that our values determine the kinds of societies we construct. These values must be
aligned, and worked out in dialogue with, our local landscapes, and ultimately our shared
earthly home.
food chain and natural cycle
Afood chainis a linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients
and energy pass as one organism eats another.
In a food chain, each organism occupies a differenttrophic level,
defined by how many energy transfers separate it from the basic input
of the chain.
Food websconsist of many interconnected food chains and are more
realistic representation of consumption relationships in ecosystems.
Energy transfer between trophic levels is inefficientwith a typical
efficiency around 10%. This inefficiency limits the length of food chains.
In ecology, afood chainis a series of organisms that eat one another so
that energy and nutrients flow from one to the next. For example, if you
had a hamburger for lunch, you might be part of a food chain that looks
like this: grasscowhuman. But what if you had lettuce on your
hamburger? In that case, you're also part of a food chain that looks like
this: lettucehuman
 Afood chainis a linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and
energy pass as one organism eats another. Let's look at the parts of a typical
food chain, starting from the bottomthe producersand moving upward.
At the base of the food chain lie theprimary producers. The primary
producers are autotrophs and are most often photosynthetic organisms such
as plants, algae, or cyanobacteria.
The organisms that eat the primary producers are calledprimary
consumers. Primary consumers are usuallyherbivores, plant-eaters,
though they may be algae eaters or bacteria eaters.
The organisms that eat the primary consumers are calledsecondary
consumers. Secondary consumers are generally meat-eaterscarnivores.
The organisms that eat the secondary consumers are calledtertiary
consumers. These are carnivore-eating carnivores, like eagles or big fish.
Some food chains have additional levels, such asquaternary consumers
carnivores that eat tertiary consumers. Organisms at the very top of a food
chain are calledapex consumers
 Energy transfer efficiency limits food chain lengths

Energy is transferred between trophic levels when one organism eats another and gets the energy-
rich molecules from its prey's body. However, these transfers are inefficient, and this inefficiency
limits the length of food chains.
When energy enters a trophic level, some of it is stored as biomass, as part of organisms' bodies.
This is the energy that's available to the next trophic level since only energy storied as biomass
can get eaten. As a rule of thumb, only about 10% of the energy that's stored as biomass in one
trophic levelper unit timeends up stored as biomass in the next trophic levelper the same
unit time. This10% rule of energy transferis a good thing to commit to memory.
 Climate change
Climate change is now affecting every country on every continent. It is disrupting
national economies and affecting lives, costing people, communities and countries
dearly today and even more tomorrow
Climate change's effects are becoming more evident every day. From changing weather
patterns and reducedwater availability, to deforestation and melting icecaps -- the
examples are all around us. So what are governments and businesses doing to address
the impact ofclimate change?
Governments are putting in place strategies to develop green industries like renewable
energy, and they're enactingregulationsto reduce carbon emissions. On thebusiness
side, companies are minimising their own footprint on the environments and
communities they work in by adoptingcorporate responsibility agendasand by
reviewing theircarbon emissionsandsupply chains.
Affordable, scalable solutions are now available to enable countries to leapfrog to
cleaner, more resilient economies. The pace of change is quickening as more people are
turning to renewable energy and a range of other measures that will reduce emissions
and increase adaptation efforts.
But climate change is a global challenge that does not respect national borders.
Emissions anywhere affect people everywhere. It is an issue that requires solutions that
need to be coordinated at the international level and it requires international
cooperation to help developing countries move toward a low-carbon economy.