Steering Sustainability in an Urbanizing World. Policy, Practice and Performance

This book tackles urban sustainability: the issues, approaches and challenges, from an Australian perspective. The “steering” reference in the book’s title reflects the major changes experienced in public policy development and analysis over the last 20 years in advanced capitalist countries, where neoliberalism dominated policy. Thus, the role of governments is to “steer, not row”, to set legal and institutional frameworks within which the market can operate. Yet many of the environmental impacts of human activities are rooted in the very nature of the market and its inability to visualize long-term effects, and internalizing these into current market prices.

The book is divided into four parts. In Part 1, Transforming Cities, the contributors offer overarching approaches to shifting urban growth trajectories into more sustainable paths, such as: what constitutes a sustainable residential urban form in a growing metropolitan region; the concept of “ecopolis”, defined as minimizing ecological footprints while maximizing human potential (in organizational and productive realms), in order to repair, replenish and support processes that maintain sustainability; the concept of “permaculture”, an approach to living with nature that follows three ethical principles – care for the earth, care for the people and the sharing of surplus resources. This latter approach is also based on social and functional diversity as leverage for urban sustainability, in both urban centres and fringes. And an approach to “lifecycle assessment” is presented as a critical lens to interrogate sustainability outcomes in cities. Part 2, Collective Practices, provides an overview of contemporary practical policies and strategies to address challenges in water and waste. The topics covered include, among others: non-transport (stationary) energy supplies and uses within urban metabolism frameworks; challenges associated with moving from car dependence to attainable forms of innovative energy- and resource-saving technologies for organized transport systems, and changes in transport users’ behaviour; more advanced environmental assessment tools for sustainable buildings; know-how and available technology for saving water and improving its quality; and integrated systems of waste management.
Part 3, Community and Civil Society, addresses collective action as the essential engine for environmental change in urban areas. The topics developed include: vigilant and resourceful action by residents’ groups and environmentalists; the experience of West Wyck eco-village for educational purposes; an analysis of the impact of reducing people’s spend and consumption as key to a positive impact on the environment; and a discussion about ways to operationalize UN Local Agenda 21 drawing on experiences of partnerships between business, government, university researchers and communities. Finally, Part 4, Transforming Suburbs, focuses on several aspects related to housing, including: government as an agent for change and its three main challenges associated with housing production – affordability, delivery and reduction of environmental impact; an analysis showing that sustainable housing should be more affordable and socially better distributed than non-sustainable housing; sustainable urban renovations in residential areas and policies and strategies for nature conservation in urban areas; and the sustainability aspects of the highly technological “smart” homes.