How green is my city?

What would make your city more sustainable? That was the key question we asked of a whole range of city-zens – from the great and the good to the neighbourhood cabbie... Here are some edited highlights.

Transports of delight

Who said gridlock? Traffic congestion and pollution top the ‘most unwanted’ list as unsustainable aspects of city life. Mayor of Paris BERTRAND DELANOË laments the tide of cars infiltrating every corner of the city over the last 50 years.

“Too many streets and boulevards have been turned into big roads, and too many squares turned into crossroads.” Without a “major reduction” in private cars, he warns, it will be difficult to improve Parisians’ quality of life. The good news? This is starting to happen, but slowly. Car journeys are beginning to decrease in favour of trips made by metro, bus or bicycle. To accelerate the shift, Paris needs more buses and the return of the tram.

Cue KEN LIVINGSTONE , his London counterpart, who’s set himself the modest goal of making the capital “an exemplary sustainable world city”. “One of the priorities has to be transport”, he told us. “Its quality has a huge impact on people’s lives, from the air they breathe to the economy of their city.” Livingstone’s optimistic about the “renaissance in bus travel”, and at the prospects of Transport for London providing that elusive joined-up management. And unsurprisingly, he’s keen to hail the success of the congestion charge...

This bold stroke has won many a plaudit for Mayor Ken. PROFESSOR BRIAN ROBSON , however, from the Centre for Urban Policy Studies in Manchester, fears “severe economic contraction” if that recipe is applied in provincial cities without first bringing public transport services up to scratch. It’s common ground between them, though, that you can’t cut traffic without investment in those services. TONY HALL , executive director of the Royal Opera House, sings from that songsheet too: another fan of the congestion charge, Hall pins special hopes on the proposed Crossrail link across London, designed to ease pressure on the Tube. “We will only get more people to leave their cars at home if we have a better underground system.”

A simpler prescription came from a Liverpool Street CABBIE : “People should turn their engines off when stuck in traffic or at the rank” – but the trouble is, he added, “most people don’t see how it affects them: they don’t think climate change has happened yet.”

ADAIR TURNER , the former CBI director-general now with Merrill Lynch, has a London transport wish list featuring “extension of the congestion charging zone, draconian enforcement of the 30mph limit within the zone, further investment in buses and underground, and proper cycleways”.

Town planner BEN SIMPSON from Milton Keynes thinks we need a “step change in the quality and experience of public transport”, but is sceptical about getting there on the humble bus. He sees the tram as a “fast, clean, sexy” alternative. Cities across Britain and Europe are now looking to bring back this smooth operator, so short-sightedly ripped up to make way for the cars.

In Sheffield, a pioneer of new trams in Britain, city council chief exec BOB KERSLAKE worries that the government’s preoccupation with meeting housing pressures in the south means transport in northern cities is all but forgotten. “Transport by its nature is ‘long game’; those who look for quick results are likely to be disappointed.” He talks of successful “locational policies which reduce the need to travel longer distances by car through the provision of city centre housing” and of the council finding ways of supporting local shops “which people can walk to”.

For the city, proclaims environmental engineer MAX FORDHAM , “is the ultimate achievement of our civilisation. By collecting us all together in close proximity we are able to communicate with one another and enjoy a wide diversity of choice. We need to construct our cities so that we do not have to travel energy-using distances as we enjoy our lives.”

DAVID BEGG , Commissioner for Integrated Transport, also identifies a broad planning issue. What’s most sorely needed, he says, is better regional land use plans, tied in with transport policies that are strong on managing the demand for road space. What it would take to achieve this, he says, is strong (elected) regional government with democratic legitimacy.

Political courage is the vital thing, says Adair Turner. Boldness, as many others called it. Political will, according to Ken Livingstone’s prescription – and “appropriate levels of funding from central government”, of course...

Finance, not surprisingly, features heavily in the prescription favoured by JUDITH MAYHEW , chairman of the policy and resources committee of the Corporation of London. The City (as opposed to the city) has hardly rushed to embrace sustainability. But Mayhew’s optimistic that the London Principles of Sustainable Finance (www.forumforthe future.org.uk/csi) could yet change that. And she points to the fact that the City’s the home to the world’s first global marketplace for emissions trading as evidence that it’s open to new, more sustainable ideas.

Renewal and renewables

Does energy efficiency in buildings require that we change the appearance of our cities? Max Fordham thinks it does. He wants us to let go of our “nostalgic attitude to our environment”. Insulating walls and draught stripping windows require covering up brick, and there are elegant precedents for white-faced brick buildings such as Bedford Square, Carlton House and Nash Terrace. While energy prices remain unsustainably low, however, Fordham warns, change will be slow.

STUART DRUMMOND , Hartlepool mayor and sometime H’Angus the Monkey, wants to see local authorities “creating homes that are affordable to buy/rent and affordable to run with all the modern energy efficient measures.” More drastically, he also proposes “addressing the poor standard and over-supply of terraced housing through selected demolition”.

Surveyor GILES ANDREWS , meanwhile, would like a new strategic planning authority in London to actively encourage high density residential and mixed use developments on the fringes of the business districts.

Many respondents enthused over the opportunity to start afresh with new zeroenergy buildings. “The sun is the way forward”, says environmental engineer RANDALL THOMAS . “We can expect to see urban planners, architects and engineers working together to ‘sculpt’ the city to ensure that its solar (and wind) potential is maximised. Cities will shift from being energy ‘sinks’ to energy ‘sources’. Rights-of-sun will be added to rights-of-light.” So what is needed to make it happen? “Only the usual: time, money, interest, knowledge and enthusiasm.” And higher energy prices might help...

Architect ROBERT WEBB , who specialises in low-carbon buildings, has a simple prescription: “More renewable energy, on more efficient buildings” – with new ones designed to be ‘zero-carbon’. And he adds: “People need to see, touch, and taste renewables to realise how they work, and to lose the fear and ignorance.”

MARTIN FODOR , energy adviser to the Local Government Association, agrees. He insists that “a switch to sustainable energy and low carbon development” would tackle “a whole range of social, economic and environmental issues simultaneously. It could liberate vast amounts of expenditure – immediately put to better use in local shops and businesses”, and create opportunities for a host of new energy services companies to sell efficiency to householders and business alike.

He conjures up a vision in which the city would take its energy from “all the diverse renewable sources in and around it – such as local biomass from the city’s wood waste, solar energy through building design, thermal water panels, solar photovoltaics, wind power, micro hydro... – maybe even geothermal in our local ‘hotwells’...”.

Fodor also advocates a major campaign to ensure that businesses and public sector bodies should account for the ‘carbon impact’ of their activities.

Striking attitudes

“Get bolder and smarter in everything we do”, says PENNY SHEPHERD of the London Sustainability Exchange (www.lsx.org.uk). Work to change behaviour by changing the context – promote cultural, economic and technological changes so that people “seek greater happiness, fulfilment and selfesteem in behaving in ways that happen to be sustainable than they do from ways that cause social or environmental damage”. Different words, similar thinking, from Osbert Lancaster, head of the Centre for Human Ecology. “Shift the emphasis from problems and solutions, to processes and leadership – processes which empower people to take the initiative, changes which address the root causes of our problems.”

CHARLIE LUXTON , broadcaster and director of Make Communications, also takes the “it’s about people, not buildings” line. But he sees motivation in simpler terms. “It’s all down to the bottom line.” He’d change our behaviour through our wallets – with a carbon tax on consumption. “This, as a single act, would help kick start the required shift towards a sustainable city. In a world where all resources have a value, it is absolutely vital for the atmosphere to be valued as a resource. The economy would tailor itself to being more efficient.” And the biggest obstacle? The political unpopularity it would incur, which scares off government.

Ken Livingstone, meanwhile, himself no stranger to courting unpopularity, favours “tough targets on waste recycling, air quality and energy efficiency” as levers for change.

Boldness is a theme picked up by Brian Robson, who warns that “a blunderbuss approach to regeneration wastes effort and resource in small dispersed initiatives. Prioritising resources and effort into a few major linked schemes is far more effective, even though it implies making painful political choices.” Or, in the words of unquenchable Manchester enthusiast FELICITY GOODEY , chairman of the trustees of the Lowry Gallery: “Let’s not tackle housing or health or education or roads or policing. Let’s take area by area and do the lot!”

Researched and edited by Hannah Bullock, Emily Green and Roger East

21 May 2003

Roger East