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Can sustainability plans make sustainable cities? The ecological footprint implications of renewable energy within Philadelphia's Greenworks Plan
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Can sustainability plans make sustainable cities? The ecological footprint implications of renewable energy within Philadelphia's Greenworks Plan

Daniel Moscovici, Richardson Dilworth, Jerry Mead and Sheng Zhao
Sustainability : science, practice, & policy, v 11(1), pp 32-43
01 Apr 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2015.11908137
url
https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2015.11908137View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY-NC V4.0,  Open

Abstract

analysis city planning environmental impact land use metropolitan areas renewable energy resources
Municipal sustainability plans typically include laudable environmental goals, but they rarely explain the connection between these goals and a larger conception of sustainability. In this article, we examine one local sustainability plan, Philadelphia's Greenworks, through a city-based, rather than per capita-based, ecological footprint (EF) analysis. Our objective is to theoretically establish the extent to which at least one of the items in Greenworks-to have 20% of the city's electricity come from alternative energy sources-might reduce Philadelphia's overall energy footprint if implemented within the municipal boundaries. By moving away from the idea that per capita energy footprints add up to a citywide energy footprint, we posit that a city can reduce its overall energy footprint by utilizing internal resources, even if the total land used for that respective energy were to increase. For many cities this will result in the use of renewables, such as solar, biogas, wind, hydropower, geothermal, and other creative solutions. By extending at least one component of Philadelphia's sustainability plan through EF analysis, we provide a hypothetical example of how municipal sustainability goals might contribute to a larger goal of urban sustainability, at least in the limited sense that they become less reliant on outlying resources.

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