Keywords

Introduction

In North America, where more than 80 % of the population is urbanized, cities are increasingly taking a leadership role in promoting sustainability (Benton-Short and Short 2013). However, no agreed-upon definition of a “sustainable city ” exists (Lorr 2012). Instead, city leaders and policymakers frequently employ the “three pillars ” approach to defining goals according to economic, social, and environmental concerns (e.g., see Chap. 2, this volume). Creating a sustainable city relies upon a careful balance of all three pillars with all residents in mind. Yet, as cities advance projects intended to reduce their eco-footprint, improve the health and well-being of their citizens, and sustain their local economies, they face the challenge of just and equitable implementation (Dempsey et al. 2009; Benton-Short and Short 2013; also see Chaps. 27–29, this volume). The development of mass transit, the creation of a city park or greenbelt, and the implementation of a new waste disposal program are initiatives that can often create economic, social, and environmental trade-offs that are realized disproportionately among residents. Even those cities with excellent reputations for sustainability endure significant disparities and inequalities that undermine the overall goals of sustainable development (Schweitzer and Stephenson 2007; Wolch et al. 2014). As Benton-Short and Short (2013, p. 481) note: “Moving toward sustainability is not simply ‘greening’ the city… a sustainable city is also a just city.”

Many of the social aspects of urban sustainability have been largely underrepresented in sustainability initiatives. The goal of this chapter’s learning activity is to reveal the challenges and complexities of equitable planning for urban sustainability and to develop students’ critical thinking skills that can help them identify the economic, social, and environmental disparities within urban landscapes. By comparing the lives of two urban citizens from different parts of the city , students will explore how each of these citizens gains access to services and amenities that are seen as part of living in a sustainable city. The exercise ends by asking students to consider ways of promoting justice and equitable development in the sustainable city.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this activity, students should be able to:

  • Critically engage with the concept of “urban sustainability” to reveal the challenges of equitable sustainable development in a city .

  • Describe the concepts of environmental and social justice as they relate to patterns of unequal distribution of social services, infrastructure, and environmental amenities in a city .

  • Articulate their responsibilities as urban citizens pursuing a sustainable lifestyle and consider how their position may provide them with advantages or disadvantages compared to others in this pursuit.

Course Context

  • Developed for an upper-level seminar on Urban Sustainability with 15 students

  • 75 min in one class meeting

  • Adaptable for larger or smaller courses that cover urban sustainability and environmental justice

Instructor Preparation and Materials

For general context of the activity, instructors should be familiar with the connections and tensions among economic vitality, social justice, and environmental protection in planning for urban sustainability (see Krueger and Gibbs 2007; Dempsey et al. 2009; Lorr 2012; Benton-Short and Short 2013). The instructor should understand the links between social and environmental justice and sustainable development and ways to best communicate this from a critical urban studies perspective (see Esposito and Swain 2009; Dempsey et al. 2009). For example, Schweitzer and Stephenson (2007) provide an excellent introduction to environmental justice (a phrase that incorporates a social justice dimension to “environmental racism”) and its importance in urban policy. Wolch et al. (2014) offer important insights into the links between environmental sustainability initiatives and gentrification/displacement. Manaugh et al. (2015) broadly discuss the lack of planning for social equity in transportation issues in American cities. Since sustainable development is fraught with contradictions, the instructor may find it helpful to review case studies that reveal the challenges inherent to urban sustainability projects, particularly those that explicitly address social and environmental justice. For example, Goodling et al. (2015) uses the case study of Portland, Oregon, to reveal examples of the challenges of equitable implementation of sustainability policies and initiatives in one of America’s most sustainable cities. Dooling (2009) describes how the ecological rehabilitation of an urban watershed in Seattle led to the displacement of the homeless and related social services. Each of the sources suggested above carefully juxtaposes the intended benefits of sustainability projects against the potential drawbacks, reminding the reader that both planners and the public have a responsibility to ensure that social and environmental justice remain key components of urban sustainability.

The above resources can be used to construct an introductory lecture, create worksheets ahead of class that would facilitate and/or shorten the exercise, prepare definitions for terms or concepts that may be unclear, and/or provide examples to help students understand how these problems materialize in real cities. Familiarity with these sources may also provide instructors with the knowledge needed to tailor this exercise to individual classes. The discussion questions in Parts II and III below are provided in Electronic Supplementary Materials (ESM) A for instructors to use to prepare presentation slides, worksheets, or other materials.

Activities

Part I (20 min)

At the beginning of class, the instructor asks the students to imagine the ideal sustainable urban landscape and consider it in the context of the larger city . (As needed, also introduce the “three pillars ” of sustainability to frame the discussions so that students recognize the need to consider economic, social, and environmental aspects of urban sustainability.) Thinking about the following features at the neighborhood scale will help to focus the exercise: transportation infrastructure, water quality, pollution , parks and greenbelts, economy and industry, social services, diversity, education, crime, entertainment and leisure activities, etc. Students are then asked to imagine a stereotypical unsustainable urban neighborhood, considering the same features as above. Students can be asked to write down brief notes that describe each of these cities, and the instructor may choose to write these on the board. Following this, the instructor then asks the class to collectively (or in small groups) construct a profile of an “average” resident of each city, recording the basic description of each to facilitate comparing and contrasting their lives. Creativity should be encouraged to make this part more relatable; for example, it is suggested that the class develop names, occupations, background stories, etc. for each of the residents. This exercise will obviously yield different results depending on the class, but for an example see ESM-B. Alternatively, the instructor can save time by using the supplementary example to facilitate the exercise.

Part II (30 min)

The instructor reminds the students that their imagined sustainable and unsustainable urban landscapes—and the lives of their representative citizens—exist in virtually every major city in North America, including those with excellent reputations for urban sustainability. For purposes of the exercise, the instructor then asks students to imagine that these two citizens live in the same city and that their lives are connected and interdependent economically, environmentally, and socially. In this part of the exercise, the instructor asks a series of questions intended to show the disparities and connections between these two citizens:

  • (Economic) Is a sustainable lifestyle more expensive to maintain? For example, does it cost more to live in a “green” neighborhood, purchase sustainable food , or have access to public transportation ? From a social sustainability perspective, would a higher salary allow access to better education, health care, entertainment, or other lifestyle amenities?

  • (Economic) How are these lives connected or disconnected through their occupations, taxes and social services, and/or class structure? Which of these residents can respond more easily to increases in property taxes, rent, or costs of services?

  • (Social) Which of these citizens has access to better educational opportunities and health care? Which is more likely to live in a high-crime neighborhood? How might access to entertainment and leisure activities differ between these two citizens?

  • (Social) Which of these citizens is more likely to encounter some form of discrimination or displacement? When you were constructing the profiles of each of these citizens, did you picture them to have different ages, genders, levels of education, ethnic backgrounds, and family situations?

  • (Environmental) Which is more likely to reside in a neighborhood with cleaner air, water , and soil ? How might such environmental conditions impact their health and livelihood?

  • (Environmental) Which of these citizens has greater access to parks and which lives closer to their work or has better access to sustainable transportation ? Do both residents have access to the same recycling options, compost pickup, or other waste services?

  • (Environmental) Which of these citizens has a larger eco-footprint and why?

  • (Synthesis) How do these questions reveal the interdependency of sustainability’s “three pillars ” and the need to incorporate all three equitably to ensure true sustainability?

  • (Synthesis) Refer to the list of features in Part I (i.e., transportation infrastructure, water quality, pollution , parks, etc.). How would each of these require consideration of social, economic, and environmental issues to address their sustainability?

Part III (25 min)

The instructor then asks the class to try to construct a definition of “urban sustainability.” Following this, the instructor should ask the following:

  • When considering the lives of the two citizens profiled in the earlier part of this activity, do you think that there may be different definitions of sustainability for different citizens? What might these look like? How could they all contribute to a city ’s sustainability?

  • Did you find yourself relating to one of the two citizen profiles created in the first part of the activity? How does their situation affect their ability to live a more sustainable life? If you lived in the city , what could you do as an individual to live a sustainable life? How does your position as a college-educated person allow you certain advantages in the pursuit of sustainability? What other advantages might you have besides education?

  • What projects or initiatives would you suggest that would make the city more sustainable in an equitable manner for the greatest number of citizens? In other words, if you are going to build a sustainable city, how do you make it sustainable for everyone and not just a privileged few?

Follow-Up Engagement

  • Assign homework that requires students to develop a new sustainability initiative (such as constructing a new mass transit route, rehabilitating an urban watershed, or building a new waste-to-energy incineration plant). Students should consider who benefits from this project and who is negatively affected. They must employ all three “pillars” of sustainability and consider the trade-offs for different communities within the same city .

  • Assign a group project in which some groups profile a historically low-income neighborhood of the city , while others profile an upper middle-class neighborhood. Each group must find data on property values , average income, ethnic makeup, educational attainment, history of hazardous waste or pollution , crime rate, access to transportation options, and additional factors chosen by the instructor. Each group presents on their neighborhood and discusses how policy measures (whether real or hypothetical) may affect each neighborhood differently.

  • Ask students to summarize and respond to a recent newspaper article from a major US city that highlights how a specific sustainability initiative or environmental policy measure would affect residents in the city depending on their income, location, and/or other demographic characteristics. (For related skill-focused activities, see Chaps. 37 and 40, this volume.)

  • Other chapters in this volume describe activities that can build on topics in this chapter including land use management and planning (Chaps.19 and 20), considering the worldviews of others (Chaps. 4, 39 and 41), environmental justice (Chaps. 27–29), and pollution (Chaps. 31–33).

Connections

  • Environmental and social justice issues can affect the overall eco-footprint of a city and therefore have connections to larger issues such as global climate change and biodiversity loss.

  • Compare the environmental justice issues in the city to global environmental justice issues; how are they similar but on a much larger scale and how do they differ?

  • How does urban sustainability compare to sustainability issues that affect rural areas and small towns?