Top Sustainability Trends of the Next Decade

 

A new sustainability cultural event will help make the issues more prominent: There has yet to be a significant work of popular art that captures the modern systemic aspirations of sustainability, according to World Changing. - Photo Courtesy
of Gemzies

World Changing created a list of the top sustainability trends they see occuring over the next decade: Bike usage will continue to rise across cities worldwide.

Look for North American burgs to continue their proliferation of bicycles-as-transit use and bike lane expansion (New York City bicycle use is up 61 percent in two years).

Copenhagen UNFCCC meeting will eventually result in a set of targets for cutting GHG emissions. Cellulosic fuels will no longer cause higher food prices, and will instead become a key part of the energy mix. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) will drive advances in sustainable urban development.

Opportunity areas include: energy smart grids, urban traffic congestion monitoring and pricing systems, e-water management applications, e-green building applications and intelligent public transportation management systems.

Carbon taxes will help integrate the real environmental costs of using fossil fuels into the actual price. Drought will be the first major effect of climate change to cause significant investments in climate change adaptation measures. The end of cheap oil will make sprawl more expensive. Rising fuel costs will make urban agriculture increasingly viable. Localities will undertake resiliency planning. – Courtesy of ASLA