One Planet Centre

Here is a menu of initiatives that cities can do to become ‘one planet’ cities!

Bring nature back

• Planning conditions to specify net gains in biodiversity for all development
• Regenerative cities (green walls, roofs and other infrastructure)
• Parks: lots of biodiversity
• Trees and bushes: plant more, preserve what you have, make them productive – nuts and fruit
• Indoor, vertical, rooftop, food growing, incl. mushrooms, aquaculture
• Vertical farms: can be all scales from large warehouses to inside homes, shops and cafes, and can include aquaculture and poultry
• Allotments, community gardens, therapeutic gardens
• ‘Incredible edible’ plants at every opportunity
• Plenty of opportunity for a land-based jobs and jobs in food-processing
• Procurement along supply chains to include conditions to yield net gains in biodiversity.

Infrastructure/development

• Life cycle analysis to reduce overall demand and cost to natural world
• Make developments human scale
• Deploy low-impact and natural materials that sequester carbon where possible
• Keep it simple: eco-minimalism – do more with less
• Keep it local: support the local economy by procuring locally
• Plan for easy maintenance and end-of-life ease of removal and recycling
• Design out the possibility of less sustainable behaviour.

Water

• Conserve water use
• Reuse water
• Prevent water pollution
• Rainwater collection from roofs
• Replenish underground aquifers.

Zero or net-positive carbon

• Energy efficiency, reducing demand and need
• Passive design new buildings; older buildings deep retrofitted for energy efficiency
• Decarbonise travel
• 100 per cent renewable energy supplies
• Supply (local): heating, cooling, electricity
• Investigate feasibility of district heat mains
• Distributed generation; 4th generation solar will be almost invisible, often building integrated
• Some wind turbines
• Combined heat and power
• Anaerobic digestion for biogas and compost
• Heating: geothermal, ground and water source heat pumps, solar thermal, passive solar, biogas;
• Interseasonal storage
• Demand management technology
• Building Information Management systems in larger buildings
• Incinerate only absolute waste in CHP plants
• Climate-appropriate street layout and vegetation planting to either reduce heat island effect and therefore cooling energy demand and or reduce heat demand, depending on location.

 Mobility

• Minimise need to travel far by locating housing near jobs, services, shops etc.
• Separate vehicular traffic from pedestrians and cyclists
• Networked, latticed town and neighbourhood centres planned around transport hubs
• Efficient, cheap public transport: metro, subway, buses, trams, light rail and intercity
• Promotion of walking, cycling by design of streets and neighbourhoods
• Separation of local and longer-distance traffic
• Lots of bikes and bike hire schemes
• Rickshaws, cargo bikes for people and goods delivery
• Electric vehicle hire and share schemes.

Encourage closed loop systems

• Waste designed out
• Plastic designed out
• Products designed to be reused and recycled
• Reward waste minimisation and sorting of waste, especially plastics
• Food, agricultural waste and sewage have nutrients reclaimed
• Repair and upcycle workshops in every neighbourhood
• Culture of exchange, swop, repair and reuse to replace throwaway culture
• Local industrial symbiosis systems.

Climate change adaption

• Extreme weather preparedness
• Storm swales and underground lagoons
• Raised areas in areas of potential floods
• Sustainable urban drainage
• Protection from overheating
• Vegetation to tackle heat island effect
• In areas of high winds, buildings close together to prevent funnelling.

Friendly neighbourhoods

• Human scale, people-centred design
• Markets – formal and informal, street and covered, valued for small traders and social interaction
• Conserve amenity value and embodied energy of old buildings while retrofitting for efficiency
• Preserve communities through provision of affordable housing and full mix of housing and land use
• Respect and support all cultures
• Work, education ideally located near to home
• Public transport and parks within walking distance
• Leisure, shops, entertainment and museums nearby.

Health and well-being

• Neighbourhood level drop-in health centres and hospitals
• Some consultations may be distance tech-based
• All people to have access to cheap, fresh, healthy fruit and vegetables
• Cooking workshops and education
• All-ages-friendly cities
• Mental health support
• Accessibility everywhere: ramps, not steps
• Walking, cycling, pathways, wayfinding.

Democracy and justice

• Implement ‘The Right To The City’
• Root out corruption
• Independent watchdogs and transparency
• Use technology to maximise participation in decisions, campaigns
• Smart sensors, feedback loops and algorithms to help manage some basic services
• Smart involvement uses the wisdom of crowds, open data, etc.
• Sensitive, anonymous surveillance is part of data collection, linked to algorithms which attempt to model and predict needs so they can be met efficiently.