Today, more than half of the world’s 6 billion inhabitants live in cities. And this number is only growing. By 2050, 80% of the world’s population will reside in urban centers. This is the first time in history that the majority of people on the planet are living in cities. Is this positive when we look at coming environmental challenges? Can the city be more sustainable? Cities require large amounts of resources that come from all over the country, the continent and the world making them huge consumers. But their high population density and effective public transportation may be our best hope of creating more sustainable communities. The Consumption Cities core project examines these issues from a variety of perspectives with focus on the influence of urban planning, social organization, and public policy.

Project Leaders:

Prof. Laxmi Ramasubramanian (Urban Affairs and Planning, Hunter College)
Prof. Nicholas Freudenberg (Urban Public Health, Hunter College),
Prof. Robert Paaswell (Civil Engineering, City College, and Director of the University Transportation Research Center)
Prof. Yehuda Klein (Executive Officer of the Program in Earth & Environmental Sciences, Graduate Center)

Activities:

• RFP response, Long Island 2035: Building Public Consensus around a Sustainable Future, Phase I; Profs. Paaswell (PI), Ramasubramanian, and Solecki.
• Prof. Freudenberg, with Dr. Sandro Galea, a social epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, is guest editing “Consuming Cities”, a special section of the Journal of Urban Health focusing on the growing role of consumption in changing patterns of urban health and disease.
• Prof. Klein leads several energy-focused projects, including one research team developing urban-scale applications of the MARKAL model of energy flows.
• Prof. Ramasubramanian leads a research team working on the topic of elder-friendly communities; a graduate design studio entitled Aging in Place in Yonkers concluded with a presentation and final report delivered to the City of Yonkers.