Page 95 - Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

72 Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

conserve and be efficient in the use of energy as well as other natural resources
like land, water, oceans, and the atmosphere. Second, renewable energy
generated from wind, sun, ocean waves, geothermal, water, and biowaste must
be the top priority for power onsite and for central plants.
The third element is the need for smart girds on the local and regional
levels in which both the monitoring and controlling of energy can be done in
real time. Meters need to establish base load use so that conservation can be
done (systems put on hold or turned off if not used) and then renewable energy
power is generated when demand is needed. The fourth element needs to be
advanced storage technologies such as fuel cells, batteries, regenerative
brakes, and ultracapacitors. These devices can store energy from renewable
sources, like wind and solar that produced electricity intermittently, unlike the
constant supply of carbon-based fuel sources. Finally, the fifth element is
education and training for a workforce and entrepreneurial and business sector
that is growing and providing employment opportunities in the GIR.
In general, the GIR must provide support and systems for smart and
“green” communities so that homes, businesses, government, and large office
and shopping areas can all monitor their use of natural resources like energy
and water. For example, communities need devices that capture unused
water and that can transform waste into energy so that they can send any
excess power that is generated to other homes or neighbors. Best cases from
around the world of sustainable communities that follow these elements of the
GIR exist today (Clark, 2009).
Essentially the GIR was started by governments that were concerned about
the current and near-future societal impact of businesses and industries in their
countries. The European Union and Asian nations in particular have had long
cultural and historical concerns over environmental issues. The Nordic na-
tions, for example, have started programs on ecocities as well as reuse of waste
for more than three decades. Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have all either
eliminated dependency on fossil fuels now for power generation or will be
eliminating the dependency in the near future. All but Finland have shut down
nuclear power plants and their supply of energy as well. The same since the
1980s has been true in most other EU nations except France.
However, the key factor in the European Union and Asia has been their
respective government leadership in terms of public policy and economics.
Consumer costs for oil and gas consumption are at least four times those of the
United States due to the higher taxes (or elimination of tax benefits) to oil and
gas companies in these other nations. The European Union has implemented
such a policy for two decades, which has also completed people to ride more in
trains and mass transit rather in their individual cars. The United States, on the
other hand, continues to subsidize fossil fuels and nuclear power though tax
incentives and government grants. It is not so in the European Union and Asia.
The impact of fossil fuels on climate change was the basis for changing these
policies and financial structures over two decades ago. Today the impact on the