If every new city in the world wastes energy, takes hours to cross by car, sickens its citizens with its air and water like, say Lucknow, London or Los Angeles, then the world is going to be particular hot and unhappy in the coming years, observe realty experts.It is during this phase that the concept of sustainable cities emerged. Now, world environment day is also being observed every year on June 5 to raise crucial awareness on the importance of a sustainable lifestyle.

Gopal Sharma, a realtor says, the concept of a sustainable city is relatively new but it is catching up fast mainly because a sustainable city is no more an option but the need of the time.

Unlike the general perception, a sustainable city does not merely mean building energy efficient homes and cars. According to professor John D Macomber, Senior Lecturer (Real Estate), Harvard Business School, a sustainable city is the one which uses resources well provides opportunities for people to be their best without worrying about their drinking water or a four-hour commute and they are attractive to industry and the populace alike.

He talks about competitive and efficient cities yet sustainable cities. Singapore, Hong Kong, and New York are all huge cities where people live with high energy efficiently, clean water, excellent public transit, variety in building types, plenty of shared green space, little need for cars and a thriving economic environment. Their infrastructure and their density make them competitive, efficient and enduring. Cities need to be built and developed in such a way that there is minimum use and wastage of resources and ensuring no pollution is created in the process.

However, a number of challenges have to be met in order to make a sustainable city. Some of the challenges could be shortages of capital and a lack of collective will to act together. Macomber says, I believe that the capital is available and can be deployed if the will is found. But it is very hard for a community to think of how to move forward together when everyone is fighting for their piece of the pie or trying to expert leverage to get a better deal for something.

As it is said that every problem has a solution, Macomber says, This can be overcome in my view by long and tireless and open minded sharing of a common vision of how an initiative indeed increases the common good or makes the pie larger and that the larger pie slices will be allocated with some element of fairness to all involved.

An ordinary citizen in Macomber’s opinion can help pressurize the concern management to make a sustainable city. He says, an ordinary citizen can expect his or her political and business leaders to be working to grow the pie for everyone and to allocate that growth equitably. In the interim to do what ordinary citizens are doing now all over the world: taking the small steps in commuting or recycling or water management that add up to big strides when we take them together; and otherwise push back on unfair schemes, he says. Building sustainable homes will help the developers because it is the most convincing USP for prospective buyer.