Sustainable Cities

Paradigms for the Anthropocene: An Example

            The Social Good Summit included concern that silos of traditional institutional mechanisms might hinder needed progress toward sustainability. Sustainable cities will pose new puzzles to solve for the water-energy-food nexus. Are solutions resilient, moving toward zero waste, renewable?

            A wastewater treatment plant produces residuals from primary treatment of suspended solids and secondary treatment of dissolved solids. Suspended solids settle out and dissolved solids become food for microorganisms aided by oxygen pumped into the secondary treatment basins. Clumps of such well-fed microorganisms then settle out as residuals. In the old days, residuals might be loaded onto a barge at the riverside where the plant was located and hauled out into the ocean for disposal. Now residuals may be fed into a digester which produces biogas. This biogas can then become electricity  or compressed natural gas as fuel for truck fleets.

            For the United States nationally, our over 3,000 wastewater treatment plants use about 3% of electricity generated in the US, mostly for the motors that pump oxygen into secondary treatment basins. Food waste is the largest segment of the solid waste stream still going to landfill where it generates fugitive emissions of methane, a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Adding food waste to the digesters increases biogas generation which could then generate about 6% of the electricity needed in the US. This would be an increase of 50% in electricity generation from renewable fuels which is now at 12%. Huge.

            Existing institutional arrangements include solid waste management, wastewater treatment, and electric power generation. This example combines these well established activities into one operation which produces renewable, off-grid, resilient energy while reducing methane emissions from landfills. If the grid goes down, the microorganisms keep on eating! Resilient, sustainable solutions!             Sustainable Cities

Social Good Summit

Social Good Summit 2015

            The Social Good Summit was part of a 109 nation Social Good Community which engaged social networks to tell the story of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations General Assembly to guide global efforts through 2030. Progress under the 8 Millennium Development Goals from 2000 to 2015 was celebrated and a broadened agenda to include governance, economic and social justice, and action to harmonize human impact with planetary boundaries was acknowledged to need full participation from all levels of government, the private sector, and civil society. Goal 16 to promote peaceful and inclusive societies was named a key to success by several speakers.

            The Doughnut Economics concept of Kate Raworth has been made more specific by adoption by the global community of 169 indicators to clarify the 17 sustainable development goals. Population increase of 2 billion and greater economic justice will greatly increase human activity which will be carried out with a greatly reduced carbon intensity. By 2050, carbon intensity may be reduced by a factor of six in a global economy three times bigger than today.

            Technological innovation promises much. Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales noted that a phone with capabilities similar to the first I-phone which cost $600 can now be had for about $40. He foresaw that a billion more would have access to the internet over the next several years as a result. Progress such as widespread availability mobile phones in the absence of traditional landlines may be in store. The billion people currently using open defecation may get direct deposit inexpensive toilets that produce fuel for meeting cooking needs from anaerobic digestion and fertilizer for agriculture through composting. Sustainable cities may benefit from a breakdown of silos for treating wastewater, managing solid waste, and generating electrical power as anaerobic digestion is fully used. Examples of this latter phenomenon are already emerging in metropolitan Washington DC and New York City.