Reshaping America's Cities to Respect the Foundations of Urban Sustainability

In the United States, zoning laws are important components that shape the built environment within cities. How a building is built and whether or not that building can be altered is dictated by these rules. Sadly, there are instances where these laws do not allow for sustainable design.  In her paper, Edna Sussman proposes that more and more cities in our country should alter their zoning laws to respect the environment as well as try to make the world a cleaner, better place.

There are many methods that a city can follow to help make it a more “environmentally friendly” urban area. Sussman mentions some of them in her article. These methods range from changing municipal zoning laws to altering building codes. As a result of such papers as Sussman’s as well the growing popularity of the phenomenon of sustainability, some cities are actually taking action to make their city a better place. San Francisco is one city in the United States that has been applying strategic methods in its zoning laws and building codes to compliment sustainable processes.  

In 2008, mayor Gavin Newsom signed a law to alter the building codes in San Francisco for newly constructed buildings. The codes were to enact regulations on the buildings so that they could better conserve water and energy as well as reduce carbon emissions (San Francisco Chronicle 2008). This law in a way was a huge step for San Francisco to progress the country forward to recognize sustainable policies. Recently, the city of San Francisco extended this law requiring all new office buildings that are at least 50,000 square feet in size to have LEED Gold certification (Florance, Miller, and Spivey 2010). This in effect has allowed Americans to understand that it is possible for cities to become more respectful of the environment.

Upon hearing about all these intentions to make cities better places, one might wonder whether or not it actually works? Looking at San Francisco one can discern whether or not such attempts are worth the hassle. Over the years, it has been clear that better codes and zoning laws have become more popular. Since 2008, more public and private companies in the city have supported resource and energy conservation policies. More often than not, these policies have been set up to construct a lot more “environmentally friendly” buildings (Florance, Miller, and Spivey 2010). The increasing popularity of green building methods has proven that people are actually interested in trying to improve their cities.

At the very same time, many people have come to realize that it takes a lot of work and effort to maintain buildings to follow the necessary measures of sustainability. For example, small enhancements had to made for the San Francisco Federal Building, which has the silver LEED rating. “Planners overestimated the amount of light that came into the building and the heat that it generated. The ambitious plan to control the temperature using a mesh skin over the structure, didn’t always function the way it was supposed to. As a result, little tweaks had to be made to fix the problem” (Ashley 2010). Despite such problems, one has to realize that the whole project of enhancing the buildings in San Francisco is a learning process. Nothing will ever be perfect, but the actions taken by the government of the city as well as private developers are revolutionary in the sense that they are changing the way buildings are built.

It is not feasible or practical for codes and laws in today's cities to ignore the foundations of urban sustainability. As Dan Geiger, the head of the Green Building Council of San Francisco, said, “We've been wasting our resources for a good hundred years now. We cannot afford to do that, it's economically stupid -it's not profitable and it is harming our planet” (Ashley 2010). Something must be done in our cities to make them more livable and “environmentally friendly."  San Francisco is one American city that has led the way in enacting green, sustainable building and zoning policies. More cities across the country and around the world should take San Francisco as an example, and do their part in respecting the Earth and its environments.