copenhagen agenda for sustainable cities 10...

COPENHAGEN AGENDA FOR SUSTAINABLE CITIES

10 PRINCIPLES FOR SUSTAINABLE CITYGOVERNANCE

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1REDISCOVER THE CITY 2REDEFINE CITYVALUE 3 INVOLVE EVERYDAY EXPERTS 4BREAK DOWN SILOS 5REDISTRIBUTE URBANDECISION MAKING 6DE-DESIGN URBANPLANNING 7PROMOTE CORPORATE URBANRESPONSIBILITY 8GO GLOBAL 9EMBRACECHAOS, CRISIS AND CHANGE 10ENCOURAGEPASSION IN URBAN LEADERSHIP

Mondaymorning

Global climate change confronts our cities with massivechallenges that radically question the way we have planned,governed and used our cities so far. Our cities have becomethe main driving force in the global economy. Yet the creationof wealth has its price. Almost 80% of all CO2 emissions aregenerated from urban activities, which make cities thebiggest contributors to global warming.

Today, most cities are the product of a development processthat favours effectiveness, production and human consump-tion over environmental needs. The frightening results ofthis mind-set are becoming apparent to us today. It is nolonger possible to overlook the fact that climate changes areaffecting the life of urban dwellers both locally and on a glob-al scale.

Cities everywhere face a common dilemma: how best torespond to environmental challenges through a reduction inemissions while at the same time remaining competitive in aglobalised economy.

The answer is to be found in the development of the sustain-able city.

The Sustainable City

By nature, cities are environmentally friendly because theyconcentrate populations, and reduce the amount of energyneeded for heating and transport of goods and people. But sofar we have not succeeded in creating environmentally sus-tainable cities, as we have failed to understand the complexi-ty of the urban challenges that we face.

We have become used to thinking and acting fragmentally:rather than consulting health experts, geographers andanthropologists, city officials have focused on the technicaldesign of buildings and urban areas. This has resulted in theconstruction of cities that fail to meet the most basic needsnecessary to secure future liveability.

Current urban development ignores the fact that we needcities to be environmentally, socially and economically sus-tainable at the same time. Climate change should not only tobe seen as an environmental issue, but as much an issue ofgrowing poverty, rising inequity and lack of education.

The need to understand cities from this interrelated perspec-tive is confirmed by the growing number of problems causedby climate change, extensive globalisation and increasingurbanisation happening simultaneously. Besides puttinggreat pressure on the environment and public utilities, thisdevelopment leads to fewer resources, growing social dis-crepancy, rising crime rates, lack of affordable housing and arise in chronic diseases – to mention just some of the chal-lenges facing our cities on a global scale.

These challenges must be met within city borders. As well asthe city causing these challenges, we need to look into howthe city can solve them. Therefore, we need to optimise andconcentrate all our efforts into developing and strengtheningthe sustainable city.

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COPENHAGEN AGENDA FORSUSTAINABLE CITIES

“CITIES ARE THE CONVENIENT REMEDYTO THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH” JOHN NORDQUIST, CONGRESS FOR THE NEW URBANISM, CHICAGO

COPENHAGEN AGENDA FOR SUSTAINABLE CITIES 3

25 September 2007

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To secure our urban future, we need quick action. Thus, wehave asked 50 of the world’s most important urban experts totell us what it is will take to create sustainable cities.Representing all parts of the world and from a wide range ofdisciplines, they all agree to that to make cities sustainablewe need a radical change of mindset, new strategies, and –finally, but crucially – new governance models to supportdevelopment and foster a new generation of urban leader-ship.

These statements and observations have been distilled intothe following 10 principles for future sustainable gover-nance, aimed at existing as well as future urban residents,academics, professionals and leaders – all with the aim ofencouraging and strengthening the development of sustain-able cities:

REDISCOVER THE CITY. We need a radical change of mindset:A city is much more than a consumption exhaust. It mustbecome a self-sustaining organism – complementary tonature, rather than hostile opposition.

REDEFINE CITY VALUE. A sustainable city depends on the atti-tude and behaviour of each urban individual and user. Wemust encourage a sense of citizenship and individual respon-sibility towards sustainable values rather than plain con-sumerism.

INVOLVE EVERYDAY EXPERTS. Sustainable cities are participa-tory cities. We must encourage user-driven self-governance.Through new partnerships between city users, a commonunderstanding of the sustainable city must be developed andinitiatives agreed upon.

BREAK DOWN SILOS. Sustainable city planning is inherentlymultidisciplinary. Therefore, old administrative structuresshould be abandoned in favour of innovative, cross-sectorcooperation.

REDISTRIBUTE URBAN DECISION-MAKING. Environmentalchanges do not respect city borders. Vertical cooperationbetween local, national and international public institutionsis crucial to sustainable city planning.

DE-DESIGN URBAN PLANNING. City planning should be peoplecentred, rather than design centred. A city is a constantlyevolving organism, and city planning must take a broaderperspective than the design of individual buildings.

PROMOTE CORPORATE URBAN RESPONSIBILITY. Sustainablecities and successful commerce are interdependent.Companies must be considered stakeholders and invited toparticipate in city planning and assume responsibility forurban sustainability.

GO GLOBAL. Climate change is a global challenge. Globalcooperation on the development of environmental technolo-gies is essential, and a joint effort to solve the massive prob-lems of the developing world’s cities is urgently required.

EMBRACE CHAOS, CRISIS AND CHANGE. A sustainable citymust be adaptable to unexpected change. The ability to bothfight current and future climate change is crucial. Flexiblegovernance and an innovative mindset to overcome crisis isvital.

ENCOURAGE PASSION IN URBAN LEADERSHIP. More will beexpected of urban leaders of the future. They must be able tomanage the complex interconnection of new institutions andpartnerships. A mix of business management, political lead-ership and creativity is demanded from the future generationof urban leaders.

10 PRINCIPLES FOR SUSTAINABLE CITY GOVERNANCE

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Ann Ferebee, Founder, Institute for Urban Design, New York; Carol Coletta, CEO, CEOs for Cities, Chicago; Chris Steins, Director, Urban Insight, Los Angeles; Craig Williams, Founder, Architects Without Borders; David Harvey, Professor, Graduate Center, City University of New York; Fred Kent, President, Project for Public Spaces, New York; Gil Penãlosa, Director, Walk and Bike for Life, Ontario; Jennifer Siegal, Founder, Office of Mobile Design, California; John Nordquist, President, Congress for the New Urbanism, Chicago; John Peterson, Founder and Chairman, Public Architecture, San Francisco; Julie Wagner, Brookings Metropolitan Policy Programme, Washington D.C.;Larry Beasley, Professor, former Co-Director of Planning, City of Vancouver; Robert McNulty, Presi-dent, Partners for Liveable Communi-ties, Washington D.C.; Timothy Beatley, Professor, Urban & Environ-mental Planning Faculty, University of Virginia

Andrew Boraine, CEO, Cape Town Partnership; Barbara Southworth, Director, City Spatial Development, City of Cape Town; Fabio Tode-schini, Professor, School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics, University of Cape Town; José Forjaz, Director, Faculty of Architec-ture and Physical Planning, University Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo; Lars Reuterswärd, Direc-tor, UN-Habitat Global Division, Nairobi; Omar Maani, Mayor, City of Amman

Alfredo Brillembourg, Founder, Urban Think Tank, Caracas; Enrique Penãlosa, former Mayor of Bogota; Jaime Lerner, Architect and former Mayor of Curitiba

THE CONT

Charles Landry, Director, COMEDIA, United Kingdom; Chris Luebkeman, Director, ARUP Foresight Innova-tion and Incubation, London; Colin Fudge, Director, WHO Collaborative Centre in Healthy Cities and Urban Policy, Bristol; Dritan Shutina, Director, Co-Plan Institute for Habitat Development, Tirana; Eric Britton, Founding Director, The Commons, Paris; George Ferguson, Architect and former President of Royal Institute of British Architects, Bristol; Jan Gehl, Partner, Gehl Architects, Copenhagen; Joan Busquets, Professor and former chief planner, The City of Barcelona; Leo van den Berg, Professor and Director, European Institute for Comparative Urban Research, Rotterdam; Mats Olsson, former Director of City Planning, City of Malmö; Sir Peter Hall, Professor of Planning, University College London; Richard Burdett, Professor, Cities Programme, London School of Economics; Stein Kolstø, Head of Office, Oslo Waterfront Planning Office; Winy Mass, Principal, MVRDV Architects, Rotterdam; Wolfgang Nowak, Director, Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft, Berlin

Anthony Capon, Professor, The Australian Health Policy Institute, University of Sydney; Peter Newman, Director, Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, Murdoch University, Perth; Rob Adams, Direc-tor, Design and Culture, City of Melbourne; Tim Flannery, Chairman of Copenhagen Climate Council and Professor, Macquarie University, Sydney

Haixiao Pan, Director, Transportation Research Lab, Tongji University, Shanghai; John Keung, CEO, Ministry of National Development, Singa-pore; Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Professor of Engineer-ing, Kyoto University; Mee Kam Ng, Professor, Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management, University of Hong Kong; Noboru Harata, Professor, Department of Urban Engineering, University of Tokyo; Sheela Patel, Founding Director, The Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers, Bombay; Somsook Boonyabancha, Director, Community Organiza-tions Development Institute, Bangkok; Sue-Ching Jou, Professor, Department of Geography, National Taiwan University

RIBUTORS


25 September 2007

1we need to rediscover our cities and start thinking ofthem as the solution to the global challenges that we face. Asthe economic drivers of our societies, our cities concentratepeople, production, transport and consumption, and therebyalso encapsulate most of the challenges we are facing today.Our cities are the main cause of the current threats to ourphysical environment, our failing health standards and oureconomic and social problems. Yet our cities also hold thekey to the sustainable solutions we are seeking to respond tothese challenges.

A NEW MINDSET. To unleash the potential that our cities holdto become drivers of sustainability, we must first rediscoverour urban environments. A radical new mindset is needed toreplace the paradigms of the industrial age. We must rejectthe idea of the city as an accommodating outlet for consump-tion. Instead, we must look at the city as an organismdependent on its surroundings. The city is not an infinitepool of resources. It is an integral part of the environment.We must acknowledge that our behaviour affects our sur-roundings both locally and globally, and because we live andwork in the city, we are part of the problem and the solution.We must learn to cope with these challenges by radicallychanging the way we understand the city and citizenship, andsubsequently change our behaviour to become sustainablecity users.

HOLISTIC APPROACH. First of all, we must understand thatour cities are holistic and organic systems, and that the chal-lenges we are facing are interconnected. Climate change isnot only an environmental issue that can be solved throughthe implementation of new technologies, but as much a chal-lenge of health care, wealth distribution and access to educa-tion. If we are to find sustainable solutions to all of thesechallenges, we must take a holistic approach, address differ-ent needs simultaneously and keep in mind the limited eco-nomic, social and environmental resources available to us.

BACK TO NATURE. An integral part of a holistic approach is torecognise that cities should function in harmony with naturerather than in opposition to it. Cities are potentially environ-

mentally friendly, as they have the capacity to become self-sustaining and energy producing instead of energy consum-ing. To realise this potential, we must develop the concept ofbringing the city back to nature, create awareness of the needfor resource reduction and motivate city users to change theirbehaviour and consumption patterns. Going back to natureis also about recognizing the importance of the city’s ruralsurroundings, making sure that neighbouring areas can sup-port the city with food and other resources necessary for thecity to become more self-sufficient.

SOLUTION APPROACH. While we are aware of the challengesfacing our cities, it can be difficult to understand that thesolutions to these challenges lie within the cities themselves.As long as we view our cities as sources of environmental,social and health hazards and continue to see urbanisation asa problem, we block our path to finding solutions. We needto demonstrate how the city can become a driver of sustain-ability, by encouraging and supporting the development offorward thinking initiatives that can be integrated into theexisting city and urban surroundings.

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REDISCOVER THE CITY

“We tend to think that nature andcities are antithetical to each other.To create sustainable cities, wehave got to overcome that way ofthinking.”

Timothy Beatley, Professor, School ofArchitecture, University of Virginia

2high quality of life and sustainable living are depend-ent on each other. Urban life must attract residents, tourists,investors, students, companies and cultural events. Yet citesmust learn to do this in terms of sustainability, as sustainablecity development is also a means to uphold and improveurban quality of life.

SUSTAINABLE VALUES. Sustainable city values encompass thequality of recreational, working, housing, shopping and eat-ing environments, as well as the quality of such resources asair and water. Sustainable city values are socially, economi-cally and environmentally inclusive. If a city is to be truly sus-tainable, all of its citizens must have access to a decent stan-dard of living. Anything less can create social tension andeconomic instability, thereby threatening the quality of lifefor all city users.

GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS WITH A NEW PERSPECTIVE. Today,a city's value is more often defined quantitatively rather thanqualitatively. Economic performance and other quantitativemeasures are applicable to sustainable city values, but thedefinition and valuation of quality of life must be approacheddifferently. We must recognise that high quality of life is justas important to a city’s global competitiveness as economicperformance, and that the two are inter-connected. If citiesare attractive to live and work in, they will also become attrac-tive to business life and investors and tourists. Therefore, we

must investigate what makes life worth living in a city. Whatis the value of the city to its various stakeholders and how canwe accommodate this in city planning?

HUMAN VALUE. The sustainable city must be attractive to itsusers. City planners must recognise that citizens and cityusers are the city's primary assets. The sustainable city istotally dependent on the behaviour of its users: it is throughresponsible human behaviour and interaction that a sustain-able environment is created. If city users do not take respon-sibility for consuming, producing and living in a sustainableway, the sustainable city is doomed. Therefore, city plannersmust encourage and reward sustainable behaviour. It must bemade very clear to city users that what they do and how theybehave makes a difference.

SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY. The incentive structures needed tomotivate and support sustainable behaviour should rely onsocial values, which is at odds with the individualisation ofcity life so common today. We must begin to think as citizens,and understand that we have a responsibility towards thecommunity. Social communities can act as promoters of sus-tainable living and motivate a change of behaviour in theindividual. The citizens least likely to have the resources totake action towards sustainable living will benefit from thesocial momentum generated in the inclusive community.


25 September 2007

REDEFINE CITY VALUE

“We do not really see or hear orfeel the city. We always come upwith technical solutions, whichdon’t deal with the emotionallandscape of people’s minds.”

Charles Landry, Director, COMEDIA,United Kingdom

“We need to create cities keepingthe citizens and their needs inmind. If we can make the city aplace that is attractive and worksfor local residents then the touristswill also come, attracted by theimage of a high quality of life.”

Barbara Southworth, Director, CitySpatial Development, City of Cape Town

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3INVOLVE EVERYDAY EXPERTS

involving city users in city planning is crucial tourban sustainable development. We must encourage partici-patory citizenship, because the city users are the real expertson city life. Nobody knows more about commuter needs thanthe bus driver. The real expert on the activities taking place inpublic squares is the street vendor or outdoor performanceartist. The day-to-day experience of these ‘city experts’ is crit-ical if we are to gain a better, in-depth understanding of howcities work.

REDEFINE PARTICIPATORY CITIZENSHIP. Involving city users insustainable urban planning is a major organisational chal-lenge. It requires a whole new perspective on who the realexperts are. Providing better access to public hearings andensuring that decision-making processes are more transpar-ent are important for the development of sustainable cities.As is the need to identify and involve specific citizens asknowledge partners according to the way they make use ofthe city.

PUBLIC LEGITIMACY. Public hearings on specific buildingprojects – currently the main feature of ‘citizen participation’– risk being overrun by ‘the usual suspects’ – activists who donot really represent the majority in all its diversity. Citizenparticipation must still involve these ‘active citizens’, but alsoreach out to people who would not normally take part of theirown accord. In this sense, citizen participation can also beused as a tool to support democratisation in broader terms,in the effort of ensuring that scarce resources are distributedmore equally.

CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT: Participatory citizenship also meansworking to ensure people support overall sustainabilityobjectives. This encourages and motivates them to alter theirbehaviour and attitudes. If we are to reduce carbon dioxideemissions, we have to provide more public transport, as wellas encourage and motivate people to switch from using theircars to taking the tram, train or bus. To help people reducetheir energy consumption, we must give them incentives toturn down air conditioners, turn down the heat and turn offunnecessary appliances and lights. New approaches areneeded to make this happen. Internet access and new tech-nologies provide new ways for the general public to get moredeeply involved in the planning process.

We need to get city users more involved in the future of theircities. Engagement must be strengthened through dialogueand knowledge exchange, facilitated through activities thatstrengthen the interaction of citizens, together with commis-sions and community networks, where city users participateas city experts. We must encourage citizens to make use oftheir democratic rights, thereby acknowledging and support-ing social movements that promote this kind of understand-ing and engagement. A bottom-up, user-driven approach isrequired if we are to ensure maximum involvement and long-term commitment.“We need to involve real people no

matter their social status, so thatthey are not only inspired, butempowered to do something.”

Craig Williams, Founder, Architectswithout Borders

"The citizens are just as importantas a strong mayor.”

Wolfgang Nowak, Director, AlfredHerrhausen Gesellschaft, Berlin


25 September 2007

4BREAK DOWN SILOS

there is no single solution to the emerging urbanchallenges, but a mix of solutions. To solve environmentalchallenges we need to address the issue of affordable hous-ing in the city centre, thus reducing transport times and CO2-emission. And when we plan for new public infrastructure itis not only a question of efficiency, but to make sure thatcycling and walking is just as easy as driving, giving city usersaccess to physical activity and thereby reducing the risk ofchronic diseases.

Since the urban challenges are often new to us and deeplyinterrelated, we need to be creative and work together anduse our shared wisdom to identify, develop and implementradically new solutions. This kind of joint effort requires awide range of knowledge experts as well as practitionersfrom many different and complementary disciplines.

Today, the awareness of the need for cross-disciplinary think-ing is growing and we are witnessing interesting policymoves that challenge traditional city administration. Morecities are working to include a broader range of disciplinesthrough think tanks and open hearings. Still, more initiativesare needed.

AN INSTITUTIONAL REFORM. To create sustainable cities, weneed to break down silos and abandon the traditional organ-isation of city administrations that builds upon isolated fieldsof knowledge and replace these with new and flexible struc-tures that support joint efforts across administrative sectorsand academic disciplines. We have to look at urban develop-ment from every possible angle, including health and trans-port services, environmental units, working environments,recreational services and economics. This requires project-based units and working groups that bring together plan-ners, architects, technical and administrative staff from dif-ferent sectors to tackle both large-scale projects and narrow-ly defined tasks. We also need to have incentives and trainingthat encourage such people to work together.

CITY-PLANNING AS A HOLISTIC PROJECT. To break down silosis not only a question of re-organization, but also a change of

mindset and the building of a shared understanding. Today,many ‘green building’-projects have been initiated by thebuilding sector. But what good is it to build an environmen-tally friendly house, if it takes you one hour by car to get therefrom work? The key to designing and building sustainablecities lies in the understanding of fundamental interrelated-ness of all the urban challenges we face. This means address-ing city planning as a holistic, interdisciplinary project.

EDUCATION. Successful cross-disciplinary and cross-sectorcooperation requires training city planners in interdiscipli-nary thinking as early as possible. Universities and schoolsmust be given more possibilities to bring together studentsfrom different disciplines to solve concrete problems. Wealso have to introduce current generations of public servantsand city planners to this new school of thought. Finally, it iscrucial to convince politicians and decision-makers that theurban challenges that we all face can only be dealt with effec-tively via extensive institutional reform and well-informedleadership that encourages people to work together.

“By using the existinginstitutional structure, we will notbe able to resolve the climateissues, the local environmentalissues or even the economic issues.To solve these problems we need amajor institutional reform.”

Eric Britton, Founding Director, TheCommons, Paris

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5REDISTRIBUTE URBAN DECISION MAKINGpollution and carbon dioxide emissions and are norespecters of geographical or administrative borders. Any-thing that takes place in one city, country or region inevitablyaffects its immediate surroundings – and often a whole con-tinent or the entire world. Consequently, the results of anycity's decisions about sustainability very much depend onsupport from the surrounding areas. To achieve the bestresults, neighbouring regions also need to reduce pollutionand encourage recycling. It is also important to encouragesurrounding communities to supply the foods and otherresources necessary to sustain the long-term viability of cities.

NEW DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES. No city administrationcan meet the growing urban challenges on its own. The econ-omy, the environment and the social situation are interrelat-ed and interwoven, and any sustainable city therefore needsto employ new processes to make sure that decisions made byinstitutions and administrative units are carefully coordinat-ed. This in turn requires new administrative frameworks tosupport urban development at a metropolitan level, coveringa wide geographical area.

We must provide better communication between central andlocal government, as well as ensure broad commitmenttowards the objectives of sustainable planning. An important

task of any new urban development body is therefore todevelop and strengthen a city’s relations with the surround-ing areas through business partnerships, investments, col-laborative planning and joint strategy formulation.

LOCAL–NATIONAL COORDINATION. A new metropolitan gover-nance system must bring together local and national deci-sion-making bodies to coordinate activities and safeguarddifferent interests, as well as to ensure the viability of long-term investments and strategies. We must connect gover-nance structures vertically without adding to existing bureau-cracy. We should focus on the power to take decisions thatprovide long-term solutions to sustainable development,with effective implementation of the decisions made.

Strong relations between different levels of government willhelp the effective distribution of know-how and skills. This isespecially crucial for sustainable urban development in thedeveloping world, where the key resources are normally con-centrated in the major urban areas and capital cities. In orderto bring about sustainable development at all levels, we mustmake sure that these resources are more evenly distributed.

A SHARED STRATEGY. The competitive advantage of cities willrely more and more on a city’s organisational capacity and itsability to deal with conflicting interests. Any new metropoli-tan governance system must therefore build upon a large-scale vision and strategy that also takes the needs of the localregions into account. It must also be fully capable of allocat-ing a limited amount of resources so that they support thewell-being of the public in general.

“We need more coordinated actionbetween central government, thecities and the municipality.”

Omar Maani, Mayor, The City ofAmman

“The different governmental levelsmust act as good examples to eachother and work together to makethe city sustainable. There is nopoint in one local governmentreducing its carbon footprint if therest of the city doesn’t follow suit.”

Peter Newman, Director, Institute forSustainability and Technology Policy,Murdoch University, Perth


25 September 2007

6DE-DESIGN URBAN PLANNING

buildings and urban landscapes are fundamental inthe creation of liveable and competitive cities and urban envi-ronments that attract residents, visitors and investments. Yetarchitecture and design that focus narrowly on aesthetics andbuildings as isolated bodies fall short of the requirements forsustainable city development. Many urban planners, archi-tects, designers and engineers have acknowledged this, andtheir answer has laid the foundations for the creation of theenergy self-sufficient ‘green building’.

FULFILLING POTENTIAL. Yet fulfilling the full potential ofarchitecture and design in sustainable city developmentrequires even more ‘out of the box’ thinking. We need torethink conventional notions about design and architecturalpractice, making sustainability a basic driver in all futurearchitecture and design development.

‘De-designing’ city planning is about focusing on the peopleand the environment, and on processes rather than on thebuildings and design itself. Sustainable design is fundamen-tally 'green', but it should also actively encourage and moti-vate sustainable behaviour. This makes it crucial to reframethe goals and roles of designers and architects.

MOTIVATING SUSTAINABLE LIVING. The new objectives fordesigners and city planners are to actively encourage sustain-able urban living via the design of buildings and city land-scapes. If new apartment blocks were built with an under-

ground parking lot rather than with access to a nearby metrostation or bus stop, why would commuters skip the car towork?

When planning a new building site, architects and designersmust get together with transport planners, politicians, thebusiness community and experts on health, the environmentand other fields to integrate the many aspects of living, work-ing, eating and recreation that motivate a sustainablelifestyle. They must learn to take a much wider perspective,choosing to design entire city landscapes, rather than indi-vidual buildings alone. We must remember that the design ofa building has a critical impact on its surroundings, withsocial, environmental and economic implications for itsinhabitants and users.

CITIZEN-CENTRED DESIGN. To encourage and support sustain-able design processes, we need to redefine the role of design-ers and the criteria we use for evaluating the success of theirwork. We must avoid 'over-designing', where design takespriority over human needs. Instead, design should contributeto the humanity of cities. We need to put resources into mak-ing buildings and city landscapes liveable – also for citizenswho are less prosperous.

Involving citizens in the development of sustainable design iscrucial to get their direct input about what would motivatethem to move from passive to active citizenship. We needdesign and architecture to be based on the values of city’s cit-izens – it is people who make a city, not the city’s buildings.

“It seems we have to reassess ourrole as designers – theexpectations for design solutionsneed to be broader and include amuch more complex vision forurban development.”

John Peterson, Founder, PublicArchitecture, San Francisco

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7PROMOTE CORPORATEURBAN RESPONSIBILITYcities account for 80 per cent of all carbon dioxideemissions worldwide. In the US, analyses show that the car-bon footprint of city dwellers is actually relatively small. It isprivate industry that owns up to 90 per cent of an entire city'sbuildings, and heating, cooling and powering office spacealone are responsible for almost 40 per cent of all carbondioxide emissions – a figure that does not include the pro-duction and transport of goods and people.

A KEY STAKEHOLDER. Industrial activities and business lifehave a huge impact on the climate and therefore play a criticalrole in future sustainable city development. A commitmentfrom commerce to a shared vision and action plan is crucial.These fundamental premises challenge traditional dicho-tomist thinking within both the private and public sectors.We have to ensure that the private sector actively and respon-sibly takes part in sustainable planning, and that the publicsector works with the private sector via partnerships andcooperation, rather than via rules and regulations. Such part-nerships must be transparent and accountable to other citystakeholders, and based on a new, shared understanding. Weneed to focus on the city as a pool of limited resources thatmust be managed carefully and effectively, with the entirecity's long-term sustainable bottom line in mind.

SELF-INTEREST IN CORPORATE URBAN RESPONSIBILITY. Formost companies and industries, attracting a critical mass interms of a workforce is crucial to survive global competition.This means the private sector has a natural self-interest incontributing to improved quality of life, and is heavily

dependent on the city's ability to provide affordable housing,accessible infrastructure and good social, recreational andeducational services.

A WIN–WIN SITUATION. Bringing together the interests of acity's business life and public interests is a solution to thechallenges facing both sectors. In future sustainable citydevelopment, the private sector should be involved not as aphilanthropic contributor, but as a business partner and keystakeholder at a long-term, strategic level. Private sectorcommitment to the objective of sustainable development iscrucial to the effective implementation of sustainable cityplanning. Companies in the private sector must feel they area part of the decision making process concerning future citydevelopment, and that they have a shared responsibility forthe outcome. The public and private sectors must develop a joint‘urban code of conduct’ with a sustainable, holistic objective.

GREEN INCENTIVES. To motivate corporate urban responsibil-ity, we must build a functional framework of green incentivesthat reflect market demands and build on market mecha-nisms. There must be public investment in developing theclean-tech solutions needed to reduce emissions. Urban cor-porate responsibility must be encouraged by making it prof-itable for companies to engage in sustainable city develop-ment, with rewards such as tax reductions, cheap loans andthe fast-track administration of green building initiatives.

“We are experiencing aconvergence of public and privateinterests. The general public isdependent on a thriving privatesector and the private sector needswell-organised cities to survive.”

Leo van den Berg, Director, EuropeanInstitute for Comparative UrbanResearch, Rotterdam

“If you just say: ‘Stop polluting’,nothing will happen. But if youcreate a market for sustainablebehaviour, businesses will see thepotential and then take action.”

Chris Steins, Director, Urban Insight,Los Angeles


25 September 2007

8GO GLOBAL FOR REAL

there are striking similarities in the urban chal-lenges being experienced worldwide. Although the degreemay vary, the character, urgency and unfamiliarity of thesechallenges are remarkably consistent. Cities and urbanregions – regardless of their size, location, wealth andadministrative systems – face common problems and chal-lenges to sustainable city development. The global impact ofclimate change has made us realise that these challenges areinterrelated. Decisions taken in one major city on resourceusage, housing and infrastructure affect a larger metropoli-tan area, and probably also have a social, economic or envi-ronmental impact on the rest of the world.

GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS. Given this scenario, the need for cre-ating shared visions and new global networks involvingurban areas is obvious. The number of urban networks andinternational initiatives is increasing rapidly: officials fromall over the world have finally acknowledged the importanceof global partnerships. However, the majority of these part-nerships are founded solely with knowledge-sharing inmind, rather than aiming for radical changes in patterns ofaction. Few of them commit the participants to specificgoals, and even fewer include cities located in the developingworld, where the environmental, social and economic chal-lenges are most extensive and pose a threat to us all.

New kinds of global partnerships between cities that facesimilar challenges are therefore needed. These must focus ondeveloping strategies for concrete action that provide solu-tions to these challenges, and commit the participants toimplementing such solutions on a global scale.

GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS. New partnership structuresbetween cities must build upon trust and commitment, aswell as an acceptance that cooperation is more importantthan promoting individual interests. This contradicts the cur-rent competitive mindset. Instead of succeeding at theexpense of others, the cities that will succeed in the futurewill be the cities that are capable of cooperating and coordi-nating action and efforts with other cities. This strategy willnot only prove successful in overcoming urban challenges

associated with environmental threats, it will also provideeconomic advantages. This is because developing and imple-menting new technologies products and organisationalstructures require substantial resources. If the investmentsneeded for these projects can be shared in international part-nerships, more cities and urban regions will have access tomeasures that would otherwise be beyond their financialmeans.

GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE RESPONSIBILITY. Many emerging urbanchallenges have a global impact, but some places are exposedto particular risks because of their location and/or lack ofresources for tackling environmental and social challenges.This is the case for most countries in the developing world,where the demand for finding fundamental new ways forfighting poverty and eradicating of social inequity is morecrucial than ever before.

Responsibility for helping prevent these areas from beingdamaged in a wide range of different ways lies with the urbanglobal community as a whole. The global impact of currentchallenges makes dealing with this situation a question offorward-looking self-interest, rather than traditional philan-thropy. Global urban responsibility is not only about allocat-ing the funding needed to ensure the survival of poorer soci-eties – it is also about education, knowledge sharing andassistance in building the democratic structures fundamentalto the development of sustainable cities.

“I think much can be done if it isdone in coordination betweencities.”

José Forjaz, Director, Faculty ofArchitecture and Physical Planning,University Eduardo Mondlane,Maputo

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9EMBRACE CHAOS, CRISISAND CHANGEsustainable city development is not only about thelong-term prevention of future threats to our urban way oflife, such as natural disasters. It is also about ensuring thatour cities can deal with the consequences of such unpre-dictability. Sudden changes in the world economy or new nat-ural phenomena might happen at any time, and we need to beable to adapt to these changes immediately. Some such crisesmight even spark off the development of new technologiesand products that will help sustain a high quality of life.Tackling this kind of unpredictability requires long-termstrategies as well as short-term flexibility and adaptability.

It is, of course, impossible to completely protect our citiesagainst sudden change. However, we can strengthen theirreneweability to bound back and long-term sustainability bymaking sure that the mindset and tools available to meetsuch challenges are at our disposal and capable of doing thejob.

FLEXIBILITY. Sustainability strategies need to be flexible inorder to deal with the changing needs and demands of cityusers, as well as unpredictable developments in the world atlarge. To do this, we need to organise urban structures thatenable rapid decisions and immediate action in crisis situa-tions. We also need to continuously adjust and evaluate poli-cies and plans to meet changing needs. An open-mindedapproach to change means cities have to make room for

experimentation and bottom-up initiatives, supporting andnurturing the innovative ideas that often result from suchprocesses.

SHORT-TERM GOALS IN LONG-TERM PLANNING. It is crucial insustainable city planning that flexibility is not mistaken forchaos or impulsive changes in behaviour. Such planningrequires thinking twenty or fifty years ahead rather than five.Long-term visions and master plans are critical, and shouldbe combined with flexibility, so that these plans become eas-ier to implement in the long run. To maintain the energy nec-essary to carry out these master plans, we need to break themdown into short-term goals, creating incentives and makingthe changes evident to the people involved and the outsideworld.ADAPTABILITY. We must dispense with the idea that our citiesshould become 'climate proof' and instead channel resourcesinto making them 'climate adaptive'. Some climate changes,such as rising water levels and temperatures, are unavoid-able. We need to adapt to this situation and attempt to pre-vent further damage. Immediate solutions to these inevitablechanges might be as radical as relocating communities andchanging construction practices – for example by building inhighland areas. On a long-term basis, we need to apply fore-casts and risk analyses to city planning so we can understandthe challenges our cities will face in 50, 100 or 500 years fromnow.TURNING RISKS INTO OPPORTUNITIES. Major events like theWorld Expo or the Olympics have sometimes become driversfor radical development in a country or region. In a similarway, crises can provide cities with new opportunities by chal-lenging existing structures and allowing innovative thinking.We need to turn global risks, such as current climate changesand other environmental and health threats, into opportuni-ties. We can develop solutions by learning from the lessons ofthe past – not least that these processes of innovation involvecooperation between cities all over the world, with the aim ofpooling both past experience and future efforts.

”Citizens have many differentintentions and many differentwishes, and you have to try toachieve the best for them all.That’s why we need some moreflexible tools and a clear vision forthe future.”

Joan Busquets, Professor and formerChief Planner, City of Barcelona


25 September 2007

10ENCOURAGE PASSION INURBAN LEADERSHIPto create sustainable cities, we need to develop a newmindset, institutional frameworks, partnerships andstrategies. Yet we also need more highly skilled, courageousand passionate urban leaders to initiate and carry forwardthis process of development. We need to promote the newclass of world leaders. This means politically elected decisionmakers capable of making sustainability the top priority onthe urban agenda. To do this, we must redefine the notion ofwhat it means to be a successful urban leader. These keypeople must be:

- PASSIONATE. People want leaders who care, and whose pas-sion for their city and their job are genuine. Urban leadershipmust remain political to ensure full accountability. We needleaders willing and able to look twenty-five years aheadinstead of just five, because this involves putting the long-term interests of citizens ahead of politics and self-interest.We need to professionalise urban leadership, while at thesame time ensuring that passion is the primary driving force.

- CREATIVE AND VISIONARY. Future urban leaders must beholistic thinkers and capable of grasping how the many dif-ferent challenges and areas of focus are interconnected. It isimportant that they can focus on the larger systemic needs,rather than solving problems on a short-term basis. Theyneed to be creative and to appreciate that the emerging urbanchallenges cannot be solved via traditional administrativepractices, but are dependent on the ability to think and act

creatively. Urban leaders need to be visionary to support thedevelopment and implementation of innovative solutions.They must take advantage of think tanks and other knowl-edge-based institutions, as these can provide inspiration andnew ideas, enabling urban leaders to become pioneeringurban developers.

- STRONG AND COURAGEOUS. Although desirable, it is notpossible to meet the interests of every single city stakeholder.Some unpopular decisions, such as city car tolls and taxationon waste, can be necessary to reduce carbon dioxide emis-sions. Some decisions are non-negotiable. In this context,urban leaders must be decisive and able to confront opposinginterests. They must have considerable courage and impactto prioritise the long-term interests of the general public.

- INCLUSIVE. Resolute leadership must not be confused withbig-headedness. Courageous leaders must also listen. Theymust be committed to participatory leadership and open-source management as a basis for governance. Urban leadersare responsible for developing the institutional structure tosupport such processes.

- GOOD ROLE MODELS. Sustainable cities are highly dependenton the behaviour of their residents. Their leaders must bewilling and able to set a good example. They must believe inthe cause of sustainability and be good role models, leadinga lifestyle that encourages and motivates citizens.

“The city is only as good as thepeople who lead it. You can havewonderful architects and planners,but if you have lousy leaders, youwill not have anything done.”

Richard Burdett, Professor, CitiesProgramme, London School ofEconomics

“People want to be led by leaderswho care. Even if you do not agreewith your mayor, you need to knowthat he or she wakes up everymorning thinking about what canbe done for your city.”

Carol Coletta, CEO, CEOs for Cities,Chicago

...COPENHAGEN AGENDA FORSUSTAINABLE CITIES

our cities are the key to a sustainable future. For thisreason, the Danish foundation Realdania have asked theScandinavian think tank Monday Morning to create theCopenhagen Agenda for Sustainable Cities initiative.

The initiative is supported by the Danish Minister of theEnvironment, Connie Hedegaard, who sees this as a goodopportunity for putting cities at the top of the global environ-mental agenda.

Over half the world’s population – more that 3 billion people– now live in urban environments, making our cities the keyto a sustainable future. This demands new approaches tohow we understand, plan, build and use our cities, so that wecan give city users better access to a sustainable lifestyle.

To learn more about what this involves, we have asked 50 ofthe world’s most influential urban experts to share theirthoughts about the key challenges facing urban leaders andto suggest a way forward.

Representing all parts of the world and a wide range of disci-plines, these experts agree that to make our cities sustain-

able, we need a radical change of mindset, new planningstrategies and new methods of governance to supportdevelopment and foster a new generation of urban leader-ship.

The 10 principles for sustainable urban governance present-ed in this publication are the result of their considerations.

Next step

Copenhagen Agenda for Sustainable Cities was establishedto lay down an agenda for creating the sustainable city. To dothis, the initiators will continue to work together with rele-vant national and international stakeholders to ensure thatthe 10 principles are put into action. Physical projects, exhibi-tions and initiatives that aim to gather and distribute interna-tional best practice are among the activities included in thiseffort.

The results will be presented ahead of the UN ClimateSummit to take place in Copenhagen in 2009.

Mondaymorning

Members of the committee for Copenhagen Agenda for

Sustainable Cities: CEO Flemming Borreskov, Realdania; Deputy

Director General Niels Østergård, Ministry of the Environment, and

editor-in-chief Erik Rasmussen, Monday Morning.

This publication: Ida Strand (editor and project manager, Monday

Morning), Ole Kappelgaard (co-editor and analyst, Monday Morning),

Marianna Lubanski (co-manager, Monday Morning), Anne Henderson

(co-writer, freelance), EICOM (proofreading), Mette Qvist Sørensen

(layout, Qvist & Co.).

copenhagen agenda for sustainable cities 10...

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