Sustainability Models for Urban Areas

Today was the day we shifted our focus from environmental issues and solutions in rural areas to the urban areas.

We started our day with a guest lecture from Coreal Riday-White, who works for Our Children’s Trust. This is an organization that tries to secure the legal right to a healthy atmosphere and stable climate for the benefit of all present and future generations. During this lecture, we learned more about the environmental legislation in the U.S. and the current lawsuits over pipelines and climate change.

In the afternoon we had a meeting with Chelsea Clinton, who is a sustainability analyst of the city Eugene. She told us that we could see the city as an organization, this means that the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility can be applied to the city’s “Triple Bottom Line”. A good city aims at an economic prosperity with respect for the social side (people), within the ecological conditions (planet). Furthermore, she showed us the Climate Recovery Ordinance (CRO) of the city of Eugene, which is the sustainability program of Eugene. Although the ideas and goals are great initiatives, we could see that the economic feasibility of green solutions is still a problem. For instance, only high-income families can afford solar panels.