'One Planet' Cities Sustaining Humanity within Planetary Limits

This book addresses the crucial question of how the essential needs of the growing human population can be met without breaking the Earth's already-stretched life-support system.

With four out of five people predicted to be urban dwellers by 2080, ?One Planet? Cities proposes a pathway to genuine sustainability for cities and neighbourhoods, using an approach based on contraction and convergence. Utilising interviews with key players, including the Global Footprint Network, World Future Council, WWF, mayors and government officials, and case studies from across the globe, including Europe, North and South America, Australia, South Africa, China and India, David Thorpe examines all aspects of modern society from food provision to neighbourhood design, via industry, the circular economy, energy and transport through the critical lens of the ecological footprint and relevant supporting international standards and indicators. Recommendations on managing supply chains and impacts, how the transition to a world within limits might be financed, and a deep examination of the Welsh Government's pioneering efforts follow. It concludes with an imagined vision of what a genuinely sustainable future might be like, and an appeal for 'one planeteers' everywhere to step up to the challenge.

This book will be of great interest to practitioners and policymakers involved in governance, administration, urban environments and sustainability, alongside students of the built environment, urban planning, environmental policy and energy.

1. Do the Stories We Tell Influence the Future We Will Live In? 2. The Ultimate Problem: Humanity's Limits to Growth 3. Ecological Footprinting and Other Standards 4. Choosing Standards 5. Feeding Cities 6. Regenerative Cities 7. Going Zero Carbon 8. Reinventing Industry 9. Managing Water in The Age of Change 10. Neighbourhoods of The Future 11. The Buildings We Will Live In 12. Moving People and Goods 13. How Smart Is Smart? 14. Where Does the Money Come From? 15. Case Studies 16. Wales and One Planet Development 17. Six Steps to The One Planet City 18. A Vision of The Future