Cities generate most of the global economy, and most of its energy use, resource demands and climate emissions. How we build cities over the next decades will largely determine whether we can deliver a bright green future. Alex Steffen Read Quote
We’re becoming a planet of a thousand new major cities. The economy of the 21st century is a city-building economy. It’s within our power to make it a carbon zero one, too; and to be blunt, civilization depends on our success. Alex Steffen Read Quote
By fundamentally changing how we design the places and systems that enable our daily lives, we can slash emissions way beyond the immediate carbon savings – because our own personal emissions are just the tip of a vast iceberg of energy and resources consumed far from our view. Alex Steffen Read Quote
There’s no really rosy scenario ahead, where climate change just doesn’t happen, but I believe we don’t have the ethical right to throw our hands up in the air and say, ‘Game over.’ Whatever pathway we choose, our descendants will be dealing with that reality for centuries to come. Alex Steffen Read Quote
You don’t change the world by hiding in the woods, wearing a hair shirt, or buying indulgences in the form of ‘Save the Earth’ bumper stickers. You do it by articulating a vision for the future and pursuing it with all the ingenuity humanity can muster. Alex Steffen Read Quote
Americans trash the planet not because we’re evil, but because the industrial systems we’ve devised leave no other choice. Our ranch houses and high-rises, factories and farms, freeways and power plants were conceived before we had a clue how the planet works. Alex Steffen Read Quote
I’m fascinated with design. I realized early that I had no talent in that direction, but I love talking with architects and designers about what they do. I appreciate applied creativity as a source of pleasure and meaning. Alex Steffen Read Quote
The brutal reality is that newer, more sprawling suburbs – and especially the cheap boom-years exburbs – aren’t just a bit unsustainable, they’re ruinously unsustainable in almost every way, and nothing we know of will likely stop their decline, much less fix them easily. Alex Steffen Read Quote
For carbon-neutral cities, there are things worth talking about in how our consumption patterns can change – sharing goods, etc. – but those are a fraction of the impacts of transportation and building energy use. If we need to choose priority actions, the most important things are to densify, provide transit, and green the buildings. Alex Steffen Read Quote
