**4. Toward life cycle sustainability of cities**

Urban sustainability is both about how to make new developments sustainable while renewing existing building and infrastructure stock to fit the sustainability requirements of future cities. Urban areas of the future will be dominated by self-driving vehicles, renewable powered homes, and artificial intelligence-enabled systems and service. They will be better defined by how much of their physical assets and material flows in cities are in line with the principles of circular economy. Cities are well positioned to catalyze the institutional and technical aspects of rolling out a well-thought strategy for realizing an urban circular economy that covers physical assets in the city, products and services that are produced and/or consumed or pass through it. Circular economy is about ensuring a full account of the design, production, distribution, use, reuse/repair, and recycling with few net inputs of raw materials. Many cities around the world are at the bottom of the pyramid of hierarchy of material efficiency broadly known as "reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, and dispose," which is at the core of the circular economy as materials and consumables are still disposed in open dumps in many developing countries.

Three areas of interest will drive the path to the development of more sustainable cities: triple bottom line space of better sustainability conditions; life cycle data access and quality; and streamlined semiquantitative life cycle evaluations.

#### **4.1. Triple bottom line space of better sustainability conditions**

Decision-makers at different levels struggle on regular basis with multitude of trade-offs. They are better supported by tools and frameworks that show beyond impact assessment results. A decision-maker wants to know as to what makes a given alternative better or the best of the pool and what elements should be in place to make the selected alternative work. For new technologies, designs, and development proposal, the need for such appraisal is more critical.

The concept of triple bottom line space of better sustainability conditions is here introduced as a suit of social, economic, and environmental conditions that a development proposal or a redevelopment plan of an existing part of a city should meet to function based on life cycle sustainability principles. The concept refers to a performance space delimited by the boundaries and thresholds of environmental, economic, and social conditions that can potentially encourage implementation of new ideas, new technologies, and novel solutions in urban areas around the world. These boundaries can be set based on context-specific analysis that leads to city-wide net sustainability. The premise is that urban development options and pathways with triple bottom line performance numbers within the boundary conditions have higher chance of broader management and public buy-ins than those that lie outside the space boundary conditions. Research is required on how to establish the lower and upper boundaries of space in view of creating the triple bottom line feasibility considering policy, market forces, and consumer perspectives.

Under social conditions are the sustainability-relevant behaviors of residents and barriers associated with product-related and lifestyle and culture-oriented practices. These include behaviors that lead to decrease or increase in energy and water consumption, recycling and composting waste, and supporting wildlife in gardens; travel behavior and car ownership; social participation; and the use of local services, businesses, and facilities [9]. Under economic conditions are city activities that lead to a per capita income level that allows a sustainable level of consumption and a rate of job creation that agrees with the rate of increase in labor force. The environmental conditions allude to a requirement that relevant per capita, per dollar, and per spatial area impact metrics are within a globally threshold that does not undermine the sustainability of human life. One relevant global threshold, for example, is an annual per capita greenhouse gases emissions limit calculated globally as the maximum threshold to avoid unprecedented disasters due to climate change.

Life cycle sustainability assessment can be used to conduct baseline analysis, for example, on the natural resource extraction, energy, and impact intensity of materials and energy use in the current best practice of construction, operation, and decommissioning of infrastructure systems and other physical elements that affect the urban form in different ways. It can also be used to appraise future changes focusing on the life cycle performance of technical and nontechnical changes that affect the amount and type of material and energy utilization at the different stages of the life cycle of the urban infrastructure system. The appraisal process should be informed by social and economic criteria embedded in screening and prioritization tools. Integrated life cycle sustainability assessment covering the social feasibility, economic feasibility, and environmental feasibility serves as a basis for ensuring better political feasibility in city councils around the world.

#### **4.2. Life cycle data access and quality**

established through deliberative and participatory processes involving different stakeholders including relevant industrial associations. Both PCRs and EPDs as a basis for verification, comparison, and evidence-based monitoring are developed as living documents and are updated from time to time to capture new data and knowledge, new technology, and new

Urban sustainability is both about how to make new developments sustainable while renewing existing building and infrastructure stock to fit the sustainability requirements of future cities. Urban areas of the future will be dominated by self-driving vehicles, renewable powered homes, and artificial intelligence-enabled systems and service. They will be better defined by how much of their physical assets and material flows in cities are in line with the principles of circular economy. Cities are well positioned to catalyze the institutional and technical aspects of rolling out a well-thought strategy for realizing an urban circular economy that covers physical assets in the city, products and services that are produced and/or consumed or pass through it. Circular economy is about ensuring a full account of the design, production, distribution, use, reuse/repair, and recycling with few net inputs of raw materials. Many cities around the world are at the bottom of the pyramid of hierarchy of material efficiency broadly known as "reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, and dispose," which is at the core of the circular economy as materials and consumables are still disposed in open dumps in many developing

Three areas of interest will drive the path to the development of more sustainable cities: triple bottom line space of better sustainability conditions; life cycle data access and quality; and

Decision-makers at different levels struggle on regular basis with multitude of trade-offs. They are better supported by tools and frameworks that show beyond impact assessment results. A decision-maker wants to know as to what makes a given alternative better or the best of the pool and what elements should be in place to make the selected alternative work. For new technologies, designs, and development proposal, the need for such appraisal is

The concept of triple bottom line space of better sustainability conditions is here introduced as a suit of social, economic, and environmental conditions that a development proposal or a redevelopment plan of an existing part of a city should meet to function based on life cycle sustainability principles. The concept refers to a performance space delimited by the boundaries and thresholds of environmental, economic, and social conditions that can potentially encourage implementation of new ideas, new technologies, and novel solutions in urban areas around the world. These boundaries can be set based on context-specific analysis that

requirements.

countries.

more critical.

**4. Toward life cycle sustainability of cities**

142 Sustainable Cities - Authenticity, Ambition and Dream

streamlined semiquantitative life cycle evaluations.

**4.1. Triple bottom line space of better sustainability conditions**

The future of our cities can be better shaped by more data-driven and evidence-based participatory decision-making. The three tools that make up the life cycle sustainability assessment framework are data intensive. The critical challenges of conducting the assessment are, thus, related to access to quality data. This problem gets more serious when we account for different scenarios of future technical and nontechnical changes and try to model them. Fulfilling the data requirements involves data collection, database development, and interfacing with existing data sources. We are in an era where huge amount of data resides and continues to pile up in the public and corporate realm. Data mining, access to relevant data, and presenting the data in a digestible format are part of the challenge. In the context of life cycle sustainability assessment, data sources include primary sources from cities and secondary data sources from literature such as peer-reviewed publications, reports, and generic life cycle databases. For environmental life cycle data, commercial databases are increasing available. For example, the Swiss Ecoinvent life cycle database [35] covers many product systems including energy systems in many parts of the world and other infrastructure-related datasets. Commercial databases can be purchased as part of commercial life cycle assessment software tools or as standalone databases. Free public alternative sources of life cycle data are still under development. One such example is the US Life Cycle Inventory database [36]. For social life cycle data, Social Hotspots Database (SHDB) [37] and Product Social Impact Life Cycle Assessment (PSILCA) [38] are the two available currently. For life cycle costing, generic data on material, labor, and equipment can be found from the RSMeans database [39].

**5.1. Best practice demonstrations**

elements of the district is stressed [42].

development of districts and cities around the world.

Measurable goals supported by multidimensional aspects and associated indicators are crucial in informing the planning, development, and rehabilitation projects in urban areas. The adaptation of indicators used in existing rating systems such as LEED Neighborhood and BREAM Communities to city scale is recommended [23]. Moreover, planners and developers benefit from real-world demonstration of good practices of the process and products of (re)

Life Cycle Insights for Creating Sustainable Cities http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81633 145

Two city district-level cases that can be emulated by other cities customizing to local variables are Hammarby Sjöstad and Royal Seaport in Stockholm. Hammarby Sjöstad was designed in the early 1990s and developed on an old industrial area of 150 ha (200 ha with water) over the period of 12 years since 2004. Once completed, there will be 11, 000 apartments and around 35,000 people in the district [40]. It all started with an ambitious goal of becoming "twice as good" compared to the state-of-art of construction sector of the time. The detail of this goal was part of an environmental program that was adopted by the City Council of Stockholm and handed to developers. It included specific quantitative goals such as total supplied energy per square meter not exceeding 60 kWh with electricity capped at 20 kWh. It was also mentioned that the district will be built in line with the principles of natural cycles. To close the material and energy cycle locally, the Hammarby Model was later developed where solid waste and wastewater from the district are recovered in the form of electricity, transport fuel, heating, and cooking energy for use in the district [41]. The Hammarby Model captures how different systems in the district are integrated [41]. In a detailed evaluation of Hammarby Sjöstad, it was assessed as successful overall [42]. The closing of cycles has led to the reduction in metabolic flows though it is far from making the district energy wise self-sufficient [33]. The evaluation provided some recommendations for use in future (re)development projects. One such recommendation focuses on the need for integrating environmental goals early in the planning process. In Hammarby Sjöstad, the environmental program came 4 years after planning activities started. A second recommendation captured the importance of accounting for behavioral aspects of future district residents and technological limitation as part of the same holistic vision. There have recently been concerns raised by the residents of the district regarding the significant increase in the number of young people in the area, which was more than what was accounted for in the planning and development process. One aspect of the concern is the absence of a natural meeting place for the young residents within the district limits. The need to incentivize residents to live more sustainably in addition to the technical operational improvements built as part of the physical

Building on experience of Hammarby Sjöstad, a second more ambitious project on another sit in the north-east of Stockholm is under development. The Norra Djurgårdsstaden or in English the Royal Seaport started in 2009 and is right now Europe's most comprehensive urban development project pursuing the goal of creating an environmentally friendly district with at least 12,000 apartments and 35,000 residents [43]. It aims to become a fossil fuel-free district by 2030 by deploying renewable energy. Its near-term goal is limiting its per capita emission of carbon

#### **4.3. Streamlined semiquantitative life cycle evaluation**

Not all cities interested in sustainability issues are necessarily capable of conducting quantitative life cycle sustainability assessment. Nor is it necessary to resort to detailed quantitative assessment all the time in all contexts. There are many decision situations that only merit streamlined semiquantitative systems of accounting for all three dimensions from a life cycle perspective. The systems allow for quick assessments at a relatively low cost. They come with the capacity to capture aspects that are inherently nonquantitative. They also result in relatively easy-to-understand outcomes digestible to nonexperts. Such score-based system can take a form of a matrix structure composed of areas of protection or concern that represent the social, environment, and economic aspects on one side and the different life cycle stages on the other. The score values can be assigned based on a mix of experience, expert knowledge, previous studies, relevant checklists, and guidelines. Decision analysts working for municipalities can use such matrices or equivalent graphic systems to structure assessment information and results together with, for example, workshop-driven stakeholder perspectives in supporting decision-making.

Once relevant and critical aspects or physical assets of cities are identified using critical streamlined semiquantitative life cycle evaluation, the need for a demanding and detailed life cycle sustainability assessment that is based on quantitative environmental life cycle assessment and life cycle costing and quantitative and qualitative social life cycle assessment can be explored depending on the utility of the potential results to the decision context and resource availability.

## **5. The way forward**

In pulling our cities out of institutional and infrastructural lock-ins and suboptimized planning and operational setting, three areas of need are identified: need for best practice demonstrations; need for framework for global urban sustainability; and need for life cycle sustainability literacy.

#### **5.1. Best practice demonstrations**

and secondary data sources from literature such as peer-reviewed publications, reports, and generic life cycle databases. For environmental life cycle data, commercial databases are increasing available. For example, the Swiss Ecoinvent life cycle database [35] covers many product systems including energy systems in many parts of the world and other infrastructure-related datasets. Commercial databases can be purchased as part of commercial life cycle assessment software tools or as standalone databases. Free public alternative sources of life cycle data are still under development. One such example is the US Life Cycle Inventory database [36]. For social life cycle data, Social Hotspots Database (SHDB) [37] and Product Social Impact Life Cycle Assessment (PSILCA) [38] are the two available currently. For life cycle costing, generic data on material, labor, and equipment can be found from the

Not all cities interested in sustainability issues are necessarily capable of conducting quantitative life cycle sustainability assessment. Nor is it necessary to resort to detailed quantitative assessment all the time in all contexts. There are many decision situations that only merit streamlined semiquantitative systems of accounting for all three dimensions from a life cycle perspective. The systems allow for quick assessments at a relatively low cost. They come with the capacity to capture aspects that are inherently nonquantitative. They also result in relatively easy-to-understand outcomes digestible to nonexperts. Such score-based system can take a form of a matrix structure composed of areas of protection or concern that represent the social, environment, and economic aspects on one side and the different life cycle stages on the other. The score values can be assigned based on a mix of experience, expert knowledge, previous studies, relevant checklists, and guidelines. Decision analysts working for municipalities can use such matrices or equivalent graphic systems to structure assessment information and results together with, for example, workshop-driven stakeholder perspectives in

Once relevant and critical aspects or physical assets of cities are identified using critical streamlined semiquantitative life cycle evaluation, the need for a demanding and detailed life cycle sustainability assessment that is based on quantitative environmental life cycle assessment and life cycle costing and quantitative and qualitative social life cycle assessment can be explored depending on the utility of the potential results to the decision context and resource

In pulling our cities out of institutional and infrastructural lock-ins and suboptimized planning and operational setting, three areas of need are identified: need for best practice demonstrations; need for framework for global urban sustainability; and need for life cycle

RSMeans database [39].

144 Sustainable Cities - Authenticity, Ambition and Dream

supporting decision-making.

availability.

**5. The way forward**

sustainability literacy.

**4.3. Streamlined semiquantitative life cycle evaluation**

Measurable goals supported by multidimensional aspects and associated indicators are crucial in informing the planning, development, and rehabilitation projects in urban areas. The adaptation of indicators used in existing rating systems such as LEED Neighborhood and BREAM Communities to city scale is recommended [23]. Moreover, planners and developers benefit from real-world demonstration of good practices of the process and products of (re) development of districts and cities around the world.

Two city district-level cases that can be emulated by other cities customizing to local variables are Hammarby Sjöstad and Royal Seaport in Stockholm. Hammarby Sjöstad was designed in the early 1990s and developed on an old industrial area of 150 ha (200 ha with water) over the period of 12 years since 2004. Once completed, there will be 11, 000 apartments and around 35,000 people in the district [40]. It all started with an ambitious goal of becoming "twice as good" compared to the state-of-art of construction sector of the time. The detail of this goal was part of an environmental program that was adopted by the City Council of Stockholm and handed to developers. It included specific quantitative goals such as total supplied energy per square meter not exceeding 60 kWh with electricity capped at 20 kWh. It was also mentioned that the district will be built in line with the principles of natural cycles. To close the material and energy cycle locally, the Hammarby Model was later developed where solid waste and wastewater from the district are recovered in the form of electricity, transport fuel, heating, and cooking energy for use in the district [41]. The Hammarby Model captures how different systems in the district are integrated [41].

In a detailed evaluation of Hammarby Sjöstad, it was assessed as successful overall [42]. The closing of cycles has led to the reduction in metabolic flows though it is far from making the district energy wise self-sufficient [33]. The evaluation provided some recommendations for use in future (re)development projects. One such recommendation focuses on the need for integrating environmental goals early in the planning process. In Hammarby Sjöstad, the environmental program came 4 years after planning activities started. A second recommendation captured the importance of accounting for behavioral aspects of future district residents and technological limitation as part of the same holistic vision. There have recently been concerns raised by the residents of the district regarding the significant increase in the number of young people in the area, which was more than what was accounted for in the planning and development process. One aspect of the concern is the absence of a natural meeting place for the young residents within the district limits. The need to incentivize residents to live more sustainably in addition to the technical operational improvements built as part of the physical elements of the district is stressed [42].

Building on experience of Hammarby Sjöstad, a second more ambitious project on another sit in the north-east of Stockholm is under development. The Norra Djurgårdsstaden or in English the Royal Seaport started in 2009 and is right now Europe's most comprehensive urban development project pursuing the goal of creating an environmentally friendly district with at least 12,000 apartments and 35,000 residents [43]. It aims to become a fossil fuel-free district by 2030 by deploying renewable energy. Its near-term goal is limiting its per capita emission of carbon dioxide to 1.5 ton. A closed cycle model where linkages and synergies will be highlighted is also part of the plan. Developers of Royal Seaport project agreed to a legally binding building energy performance target of 55 kWh/m<sup>2</sup> [43]. The literature is full of connecting the concepts of smart city and sustainable city in projects like the Royal Seaport [44–46]. The political support for the Hammarby Sjöstad by Stockholm City Council was repeated for Royal Seaport by approving the environmental and sustainability program for the project in October 2010 [47]. The environmental, social, and economic sustainability goals of the district are to be realized through eight focus areas targeting technical and behavioral aspects. These are environmentally adapted residential and commercial premises; sustainable energy systems; sustainable water and wastewater systems; sustainable transport; sustainable recovery systems; climate-adapted and green outdoor environment; sustainable lifestyles; and sustainable businesses [47].

Cities achieve these performance attributes through integrated policies and plans at urban, regional, and national levels; urban management; risk management; and local and national disaster risk reduction strategies. Environmental issues explicitly mentioned in SDG 11 are climate change, waste, air pollution, and particulate matter. This SDG mentions sustainable, resilient, and resource-efficient building and use of local building materials only and specifically in the context of least developed countries. It is not clear why the buildings of developed countries that were designed, constructed, and operated inefficiently and unsustainably are

Life Cycle Insights for Creating Sustainable Cities http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81633 147

Sustainable urban development's accounting for circumstances of constrained resources under which they occur needs to be undertaken in ways that avoid or minimize lock-in and rebound effects. Informed decisions regarding different elements of the urban fabric should be made with the goal of creating cascading positive impacts. For example, accessible golf courts that are organically integrated within the network of built-up areas of cities serve environmental functions on top of the social well-being, associated with recreation and active life as their accessibility and affordability, potentially lead to a reduction of long-distance leisure travels by local golfers and avoids or reduces impacts attributed to hotel and other related

Life cycle sustainability consideration of all relevant aspects for creating new cities and redeveloping the existing comes with the complexity of working with "complementarities and contradictions within the dimensions of urban sustainability" [9]. To this end, life cycle sustainability literacy at technical and managerial level of cities is required on, for example, the material and energy ramifications of decisions passed by city council on upstream and

At the technical level, the capacity building task should cover on how to work with better data

At the managerial level, there is a need for understanding that life cycle sustainability assessment offers systemic view that recognizes the indivisibility of systems and sustainability even when looking at the subsystems and the individual dimensions before bringing everything

A platform that seeks to address inequality and climate change in cities called Future Cities Canada identified areas to work on such as evaluation and impact indicators, needs-driven data, and evidence-based decision-making [53]. All these areas can be mapped into environmental and social bottom line of life cycle sustainability to be developed as part of a literacy

Evidence-based decision-making at the decision-makers' and city residents' level has the potential to push cities on a sustainable development trajectory toward better sustainability. Life cycle perspective of such evidence-driven intervention recognizes long-term and lasting impacts of current decisions requiring continued commitment. Our urban world

not included.

activities.

downstream systems.

into one whole.

and state-of-the-art methodology.

kit for urban decision-makers.

**5.3. Life cycle sustainability literacy**

Other discussions on examples from North America include the city of Portland's Pearl District [48, 49] and Minnesota's Winona [50].

#### **5.2. Framework for global sustainability of cities**

As no city can be truly sustainable in isolation, a set of targets and indicators (e.g., [51]) to be adopted by all cities around the world is necessary. Despite its limited ambition, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015 with 2030 targets for all countries offer such a global framework that covers cities across the world. Of the 17 SDGs, SDG 11 on Sustainable Cities and Communities has most direct connection to cities. However, other goals such as SDG 3 on Good Health and Well-being; SDG 5 on Gender Equality, SDG 6 on Clean Water and Sanitation; SDG 7 on Affordable and Clean Energy; SDG 8 on Decent Work and Economic Growth; SDG 9 on Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, and SDG 10 on Reduced Inequality are all relevant to how we develop and manage our urban areas. The same with the SDG dedicated for dealing with climate change. In a work on the network and integrated feature of SDGs, SDG 11 is presented as connected to six other SDGs [52]. Direct and indirect connections can also be made between the SDGs and the material, energy, and water flows to and from urban areas.

SDG 11 has 10 targets and 15 indicators that together recognize housing (sustainable resilient and resource-efficient buildings), basic services, waste management, transport, and public spaces as physical assets of cities. It considers natural and cultural heritage, global GDP, life and health of people as safeguard objects. A close examination of this SDG unravels implicit and explicit performance attributes of a sustainable city such as adaptation to climate change; adequacy; affordability; accessibility; convenience; free of physical and sexual harassment; holistic approach; inclusion; increase in land use efficiency (low land use rate to population growth rate ratio); integration; mitigation of climate change; participation; protection of poor and people in vulnerable situations; reduction in disaster risks; reduction in disaster-driven deaths; reduction in number of people affected by disasters; reduction in adverse per capita environmental impacts such as fine particulate matter; resource efficiency; resilience to disasters; safety; substantial decrease of economic loss; and support for positive, economic, social, and environmental link within and to surrounding areas of urban centers. SDG 11 envisions a sustainable city that avoids disasters that damage critical infrastructure and disrupt basic services.

Cities achieve these performance attributes through integrated policies and plans at urban, regional, and national levels; urban management; risk management; and local and national disaster risk reduction strategies. Environmental issues explicitly mentioned in SDG 11 are climate change, waste, air pollution, and particulate matter. This SDG mentions sustainable, resilient, and resource-efficient building and use of local building materials only and specifically in the context of least developed countries. It is not clear why the buildings of developed countries that were designed, constructed, and operated inefficiently and unsustainably are not included.

#### **5.3. Life cycle sustainability literacy**

dioxide to 1.5 ton. A closed cycle model where linkages and synergies will be highlighted is also part of the plan. Developers of Royal Seaport project agreed to a legally binding building

of smart city and sustainable city in projects like the Royal Seaport [44–46]. The political support for the Hammarby Sjöstad by Stockholm City Council was repeated for Royal Seaport by approving the environmental and sustainability program for the project in October 2010 [47]. The environmental, social, and economic sustainability goals of the district are to be realized through eight focus areas targeting technical and behavioral aspects. These are environmentally adapted residential and commercial premises; sustainable energy systems; sustainable water and wastewater systems; sustainable transport; sustainable recovery systems; climate-adapted

and green outdoor environment; sustainable lifestyles; and sustainable businesses [47].

Other discussions on examples from North America include the city of Portland's Pearl

As no city can be truly sustainable in isolation, a set of targets and indicators (e.g., [51]) to be adopted by all cities around the world is necessary. Despite its limited ambition, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015 with 2030 targets for all countries offer such a global framework that covers cities across the world. Of the 17 SDGs, SDG 11 on Sustainable Cities and Communities has most direct connection to cities. However, other goals such as SDG 3 on Good Health and Well-being; SDG 5 on Gender Equality, SDG 6 on Clean Water and Sanitation; SDG 7 on Affordable and Clean Energy; SDG 8 on Decent Work and Economic Growth; SDG 9 on Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, and SDG 10 on Reduced Inequality are all relevant to how we develop and manage our urban areas. The same with the SDG dedicated for dealing with climate change. In a work on the network and integrated feature of SDGs, SDG 11 is presented as connected to six other SDGs [52]. Direct and indirect connections can also be made between the SDGs and the material, energy, and water flows to and from urban areas.

SDG 11 has 10 targets and 15 indicators that together recognize housing (sustainable resilient and resource-efficient buildings), basic services, waste management, transport, and public spaces as physical assets of cities. It considers natural and cultural heritage, global GDP, life and health of people as safeguard objects. A close examination of this SDG unravels implicit and explicit performance attributes of a sustainable city such as adaptation to climate change; adequacy; affordability; accessibility; convenience; free of physical and sexual harassment; holistic approach; inclusion; increase in land use efficiency (low land use rate to population growth rate ratio); integration; mitigation of climate change; participation; protection of poor and people in vulnerable situations; reduction in disaster risks; reduction in disaster-driven deaths; reduction in number of people affected by disasters; reduction in adverse per capita environmental impacts such as fine particulate matter; resource efficiency; resilience to disasters; safety; substantial decrease of economic loss; and support for positive, economic, social, and environmental link within and to surrounding areas of urban centers. SDG 11 envisions a sustainable city that avoids disasters that damage critical infrastructure and disrupt basic

[43]. The literature is full of connecting the concepts

energy performance target of 55 kWh/m<sup>2</sup>

146 Sustainable Cities - Authenticity, Ambition and Dream

District [48, 49] and Minnesota's Winona [50].

services.

**5.2. Framework for global sustainability of cities**

Sustainable urban development's accounting for circumstances of constrained resources under which they occur needs to be undertaken in ways that avoid or minimize lock-in and rebound effects. Informed decisions regarding different elements of the urban fabric should be made with the goal of creating cascading positive impacts. For example, accessible golf courts that are organically integrated within the network of built-up areas of cities serve environmental functions on top of the social well-being, associated with recreation and active life as their accessibility and affordability, potentially lead to a reduction of long-distance leisure travels by local golfers and avoids or reduces impacts attributed to hotel and other related activities.

Life cycle sustainability consideration of all relevant aspects for creating new cities and redeveloping the existing comes with the complexity of working with "complementarities and contradictions within the dimensions of urban sustainability" [9]. To this end, life cycle sustainability literacy at technical and managerial level of cities is required on, for example, the material and energy ramifications of decisions passed by city council on upstream and downstream systems.

At the technical level, the capacity building task should cover on how to work with better data and state-of-the-art methodology.

At the managerial level, there is a need for understanding that life cycle sustainability assessment offers systemic view that recognizes the indivisibility of systems and sustainability even when looking at the subsystems and the individual dimensions before bringing everything into one whole.

A platform that seeks to address inequality and climate change in cities called Future Cities Canada identified areas to work on such as evaluation and impact indicators, needs-driven data, and evidence-based decision-making [53]. All these areas can be mapped into environmental and social bottom line of life cycle sustainability to be developed as part of a literacy kit for urban decision-makers.

Evidence-based decision-making at the decision-makers' and city residents' level has the potential to push cities on a sustainable development trajectory toward better sustainability. Life cycle perspective of such evidence-driven intervention recognizes long-term and lasting impacts of current decisions requiring continued commitment. Our urban world and our planet at large benefits from a depoliticized use of the life cycle view as a golden thread of planning and development. It provides a platform for engaging stakeholders along the life cycle irrespective of ideological orientation. That will potentially drive meaningful and long-lasting changes that leverage on a broader acceptance across the political spectrum.

**Author details**

Getachew Assefa

**References**

Address all correspondence to: gassefa@ucalgary.ca

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Capacity building and awareness raising efforts will be effective if they start on streamlined semiquantitative life cycle sustainability assessment without resorting to detailed quantitative assessment.
