In order to study sustainable alternatives to the current developments considered in New York, starting with the Atlantic Yards district in Brooklyn, we are proposing a multi-disciplinary workgroup, open to community planning processes, called the Sustainable City Task Force. Studied alternatives will be carefully considered from environmental, social, cultural, economic and technical points of view.

Sustainable urban form for Aomori, by JL Msika

Existing software allows a precise evaluation of the heating and cooling requirements for a specific design, day by day, throughout the year.

Daily transportation will also be taken into account regarding the establishment of the global carbon footprint of a specific urban design.

The goal will be to demonstrate that sound and balanced urban development can achieve a scientifically verified and significantly reduced carbon footprint, while simultaneously offering social, cultural and economic attractiveness and relevance. Far from being a negative constraint, life in the Sustainable City, while providing an effective and responsible answer to global warming, will also offer cultural integration and a more enjoyable and mind opening way of life than isolation in the urban sprawl.

We will then be able to offer practical and powerful solutions to the problems of global warming and energy dependence and a better quality of life in a cleaner, safer city that has stronger social bonds. 

Climate change and energy dependence are global problems. The sustainable alternatives provided by the Task Force could be a powerful contribution to the debate, since the whole world is watching innovations from the United States, and particularly New York, as the city reinvents itself for a new urban future.