TABLE OF CONTENTS - The Professional Green Building Council

Theme B: Creating a livable, healthy and environmentally viable citiesmoment this may seem impossible and the most innovative realizations or projectslike Bed Zed in Great Britain and Dongtan in China are in the range of 2.6 globalha per person which is sufficient for today but will not cope with the populationincrease; in Europe, the political target is to divide by 4 the emissions of CO 2 by2050, which is a strong move in the right direction as half of the ecologicalfootprint is linked to CO 2 absorption.4.3 Dividing by 20 the Energy Footprint of CitiesThis paper proposes an ambitious goal of dividing by 20 the energy footprint ofcities by a combined action on their morphology, their architecture, their systems,and their inhabitants’ behavior. An energy efficient urbanism associated withbioclimatic architecture, new systems and fundamental changes in people behaviorand patterns of consumption can lead to a division of energy consumption andassociated Greenhouse Gas Emissions by a factor 20 (Fig. 6)Figure 6: Factors that affect the energy performance of cities [11].The sustainable construction movement concentrates mainly on the improvementof building systems (factor 2) and not enough on people behavior (factor2) and onurban and architectural bioclimatic and energy efficient forms (factor 5). Workingon all the factors, and on urban design, and not only on systems, we can reach afactor 20.In a planet where 1 billion people are urbanized every 10 years, which represents afactor 100 in the intensity of urbanization, the urban planners and architects musttake the leadership in the fight against Global Warming.4.4 Dongtan: A Sustainable Model for ChinaThe eco city of Dongtan on Chongming Island near Shanghai is an ambitiousproject targeting an ecological footprint of 2.6 ha per inhabitant compared to aconventional approach of 5.8 ha per person (Fig. 7).423