Sustainable urban planning brings the most important concepts from the Green movement together into a single coherent plan. The heat island affect, solar heat gain, population density, alternative transportation, renewable energy, conservation, water capture and recycling are all ideas, threats and solutions that fall under the jurisdiction of sustainable urban planning.

The principles include creating lasting, compact walkable neighborhoods that encourage frequent “collisions” between citizens, eliminating separate use zoning and high volume road standards, promoting shared and mixed use form, focusing on sustainability and reinvigorating urban spaces that have been lost to urban blight.

The concepts of the Triple Bottom Line philosophy are perfectly expressed in sustainable urban planning. As a community development, considering people is imperative because space is the product and the space must be filled.

Low waste design saves money for tenants, cheap energy saves money for everyone, native plants add to beautification, which pleases people, and reduces heat gain which saves money. Pleasing people brings in more tenants which in turn raises profits.

A strong example of sustainable urban planning is New York City’s PlaNYC, a city wide effort to address the long-term challenges of a city forecasted to contain 9.1 million residents by 2030. Changing climate conditions, changing economy and aging infrastructure. More than 25 City agencies and partners joined to outline initiatives and goals to improve the quality of life for New Yorkers for the future.

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