Are decentralised communities the way forward for sustainable cities?

Some experts believe the future of sustainable cities is decentralised communities with their own self-sustaining food, energy and water resources. Image: To realise the vision of a circular economy that reuses raw materials and minimises emissions and waste, it may be necessary to challenge the oft-cited projection that two-thirds of the world’s people will live in cities by 2050. Different yardsticks for measuring a city’s progress may also be needed, said experts at an event organised by Eco-Business on Wednesday to discuss ways to keep resources in perpetual use. “Do we really want to be using gross domestic product and consumption and income levels as measures of the progress and success of a city? Is that really how we keep cities and communities sustainable?” questioned Ms Jacqueline Lam, deputy regional director for Southeast Asia and Oceania at C40, a network of megacities committed to addressing climate change. Decentralisation could hold the key to creating communities that are self-sustaining in food production, water, energy and other areas, said Dr Sanjay Kuttan, executive director of the Singapore Maritime Institute and former programme director at Nanyang Technological University’s Energy Research Institute. Dr Sanjay Kuttan and other panellists at Cities | Possibilities: Building […]

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