Environment
We help prepare cities for the future of climate change by advocating for solutions that contribute to social and environmental resilience.
Cities account for over 70% of global C02 emissions, making them vital players in the world’s decarbonization journey. As we navigate the transition to net zero, adapting how we power and move around, we have a unique opportunity to remake our cities into more resilient, equitable, and livable places with every climate decision.
The core of our environmental work spans the transition to net-zero cities, preparing cities for climate migration, and most recently, mainstreaming nature-based solutions to meet global climate and biodiversity targets. As we strive towards SDG #11 (making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable), we ensure environmental considerations are weaved into everything we do.
See featured events, projects, and editorial related to Environment.
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Transitioning Cities Towards a Nature-Based Future
A 2-day event to strengthen our collective knowledge and capacity to plan and design cities with nature. Around the world, cities are stepping up to the fight against climate change through ambitious commitments to decarbonize urban areas. Centering nature-based solutions and increasing blue and green spaces within urban landscapes not only boosts the ability of cities to act as powerful carbon sinks but offers a multitude of co-benefits for people, creating more resilient, healthy, and equitable places in the process.
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Transitioning Cities: Achieving a Net-Zero Future for All
The urgent need for our transition to a net-zero economy puts cities on the front lines of physical and systemic transformation. Cities produce more than half of the world’s emissions: reducing these emissions would have a significant impact on the fight against climate change. But as a new report from McKinsey Global Institute shows, reaching net-zero emissions isn’t easy and will require enormous economic and societal adjustments. What will this transition to net-zero look like, and who is paying for it?
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From The Ground Up: Local Efforts To Create Resilient Cities
We caught up with the Co-Founder of Studio for Urban Projects and author Alison Sant to talk about her recently published book From the Ground Up. Listen to the conversation on our threesixtyCITY podcast or read an excerpt from the book below. Our conversation covers: How to converge bottom-up and top-down efforts—forging healthy relationships between…
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Urban Farming: Growing Healthier Communities
Urban Farming: Growing Healthier Communities Where was your last meal grown? Most of us who live in urban areas don’t have a simple answer to that question; our plates are often filled with produce harvested from all corners of the globe. Our global food network and supply chains are vulnerable systems. As our planet warms and the…
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Biophilia and Urban Wellness
Biophilia is the innate human connection to nature, and cities around the world are discovering that it is more than just a feel-good notion. Creating experiences of nature in the urban environment has measurable physiological, psychological, and economic benefits. Streetscapes, parks, rooftops, and stormwater systems all offer opportunities for meaningful connections to nature. By Andrew Snowhite and William Browning.
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Higher Ground Event Highlights
Fireside Chat with Shaun Donovan, Former US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development & John Rossant, Chairman of NewCities Shaun Donovan shared his hopeful predictions for the change of administration, his past and present campaign motivations, and his prioritization of equity and inclusion into all aspects of his leadership. Here were a few things that…
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The Big Rethink – Climate Action
Decarbonizing the Hard WayMay 19 | 9am PDT | 12pm EDT Ready for an inconvenient truth? Images of clear waterways and clean skies provide a devastating glimpse into the extent to which business-as-usual human activity impacts the planet, but they don’t depict an effective response to climate change. Climate action at the order of magnitude…
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The Case for Higher Ground
By Jason Bird, Adam Hosking & James A. Moore Denial is not a resilience strategy. But when it comes to managing change — and especially climate change — we’re more likely to stick our heads in the proverbial sand, maintaining and protecting the status quo, than acknowledging and planning for the inevitable rising tides. That,…