Trends September 2024

Initiated in 2015, the sixth edition of the report comprises 67 different metrics regarding urban sustainability. Key data points include air pollution, waste management and investment in low-carbon infrastructure, including renewable energy and sustainable transport. The index ranks 100 global cities across four pillars of sustainability: planet, people, profit and (new this year) progress, which considers the extent to which cities are making sustainable progress.

The 2024 report is subtitled “2,000 days to achieve a sustainable future” because of the approximate timetable before hitting the 2030 deadline for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (bit.ly/3YM6CXS), which were launched in 2015 and apply to all UN members.

“To drive sustainable progress, cities must take stock of their achievements and redouble efforts on several fronts,” writes John Batten, Arcadis global cities director. “This includes enhancing resilience; transitioning to renewable energy sources; ensuring equitable access to basic services, housing and sustainable transport; and promoting green space, biodiversity and the efficient use of resources.”

The list is led by Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, followed by Copenhagen in Denmark and Germany’s Frankfurt and Munich. The top U.S. city is San Francisco at 35. Read the full list and corresponding report at bit.ly/4g2c534.

Blueprint Created to Increase Building Efficiency

The U.S. Department of Energy led the development of “Decarbonizing the U.S. Economy by 2050: A National Blueprint for the Buildings Sector,” which lays out a national strategy for aggressively reducing buildings’ greenhouse-gas emissions while delivering equity, affordability and resilience benefits to communities. The vision includes action the federal government can take to meet specific targets for increasing building-energy efficiency, accelerating onsite emissions reductions, transforming the grid edge and minimizing embodied lifecycle emissions.

The national strategy reflects the central role buildings play in achieving economy-wide climate goals while delivering cost savings, healthier environments and high-quality jobs for the American people. Federal agency coordination and support for state and local actions is essential to accelerate the transition to low-carbon buildings.

The blueprint aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. buildings 65 percent by 2035 and 90 percent by 2050 vs. 2005 while centering equity and benefits to communities. Download the full report at bit.ly/3ySQ0TC.

ASCE Publication Offers Insight on Climate Change and Its Impact on Civil Infrastructure

A new book from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), The Great Civil Engineering Overhaul by Bill Wallace, details the effects that climate change has had and will continue to have on civil infrastructure and what alterations are required to enable civil engineers to work under changing climate conditions, resulting in what amounts to an “overhaul” in the civil engineering discipline.

Civil engineers design infrastructure projects in accordance with accepted engineering standards based on the long-held assumption that past climate conditions are reliable predictors of future climate conditions. However, climate change has overturned these basic engineering assumptions.

Wallace addresses the need for infrastructure to withstand these new harsher climate conditions, to emit little or no greenhouse gases, and to be sustainable and equitable. He encourages the engineering community to rework current practices, embrace climate adaptation and use renewable energy sources.

To purchase online, visit the ASCE Bookstore at bit.ly/4dtOoyS.

2024 Climate Resiliency Report Details Economic Benefits of Investing in Climate Resilience

Produced in partnership by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Allstate and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the report notes that the cost of cleaning up after disasters and rebuilding destroyed homes, businesses, equipment and infrastructure is immense and growing. In 2022 alone, the cost of natural disasters exceeded $360 billion across the globe, including more than 40 weather events causing more than $1 billion in damage.

Investments in resilience and preparedness can reduce the cost of damage after a disaster. An accepted ratio is that $1 of investment reduces the damage and cleanup costs of a disaster by $6. What’s less known—and what this study set out to find—is how investments in resilience and preparedness impact a community’s local economy, including jobs, workforce participation, production and earned income for residents.

The Climate Resiliency Report shows that investments in resilience and preparedness can substantially reduce the economic costs associated with disasters. The study revealed that each $1 of investment in resilience and disaster preparedness reduces a community’s economic costs after an event by $7. That’s the median ratio for the 25 disasters modeled as part of the study.

That $7 of savings for economic costs is in addition to the $6 of savings for damage already assumed in the model. Combining the two ratios finds that every $1 invested in resilience and disaster preparedness saves $13 in economic impact, damage and cleanup costs after the event.

Read the full report, with several detailed examples, at bit.ly/3AovH0L.

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