ENVIRONMENT

Sustainable Communities

Scientists, environmentalists, socialists, and scholars all around the world are talking
highly about the concept of Sustainability, for the past few decades this concept has gained much
popularity in the world of science both theoretically and practically. It is observed that many
developed countries have already shifted towards sustainable practices. The United Kingdom is
also very rapidly adapting to it (McDonald, 2009), ), UK seems to have taken several steps and
shown remarkable growth in attaining sustainable growth in a very small time period. The UK
has catered to the needs of its citizens and has deployed strategies to regenerate resources for
future generations, UK has catered mostly the issues like homelessness, availability of decent
houses in decent places, suburbanization, housing supply, and demand gap (Power, 2004).
With the advancement in technology and widespread globalization, humans have become well
aware of the social issues that can harm them and their future generations, and similarly, with the
help of technology and careful strategies, humans can be taught how to deal with such issues.
Societies are being shaped by the concepts that are new in the world, humans tend to accept
change more effortlessly, and are more adaptive to change now than ever (E. Innes, 2000). Local
governments much take advantage of this fact and spread as much awareness as possible,
because sustainable growth will result in a better flow of useful resources for future
generations.
Sustainable communities are not just the need of the hour but in fact, they are required to fulfill
the needs of upcoming generations, conscious utilization of non-renewable resources will only
benefit them. Human beings must take responsibility for leaving enough natural capital as well
as a safe and healthy environment for the generations that are yet to come. Sustainable
communities are expected to practice certain principles:
 Healthy Environment: The citizens of a sustainable environment would work
towards the improvement of the environment, where wastes would be reduced,
pollution would be controlled maybe by imposing regulations on car emissions,
and maximum recycling would be practiced to help preserve resources, and
natural capital would be used more carefully. In such communities, careful
 planning is done to ensure that members of that community must benefit from the
quality of the environment like greenery or physical or social well-being (E.
Innes, 2000) .

 Another major contribution of such communities is that they are directed towards
a prosperous economy (E. Innes, 2000). They very prudently generate wealth
without harming the natural capital. In their view, humans should minimize
wastage and must develop skills that will help preserve non-renewable resources
effectively.
 Another contribution of sustainable communities is that they focus on the social
well-being of their citizens, when people from different groups get together and
build communities such neighborhood has diversity, and more acceptance of
different cultures and behaviors and they also tend to bring more productive
minds in a such healthy social environment (E. Innes, 2000) t.
Whenever Sustainable communities are being discussed, there are majorly three key players that
come into the picture: environment, economy, and society. The environment is referred to the
natural capital available to any community. As M. Roseland has discussed in an article
that “Natural capital refers to any stock of natural assets that yields a flow of valuable goods
and services into the future. For example, a forest, a fish stock, or an aquifer can provide a
harvest or flow that is potentially sustainable year after year. The forest or fish stock is “natural
capital” and the sustainable harvest is “natural income.” So in order to maintain any natural
capital members of sustainable communities should ensure that they are consuming the resources
efficiently leaving behind enough for the future.
Secondly, citizens of sustainable communities always put their best efforts to generate wealth
without destroying natural resources. So we can safely say that any community which has well-
integrated environmental, economic, and social objectives would be considered a sustainable
community for future generations (Roseland, 2000).
Having said all of it, there still are numerous challenges faced by local government
and town planning authorities while designing sustainable communities. Sustainable
communities are built with cautious planning even before they are set up there are a lot of
concerns that are thought through. For instance, suitable sites must be chosen to ensure that land
and its environment are appropriate for carrying out sustainable growth strategies. Secondly,
while planning sustainable communities’ local government must ensure that the location has
sufficient natural capital, good enough to begin with a sustainable approach. Lastly, the citizen,
are the key players in this concept they bind together the environmental, social, and economic
objectives of building sustainable communities. A well-aware and conscious citizen can help
maintain any sustainable community because citizens know that a certain sustainable community
is built after thoughtful planning and the resources present in it must be utilized cautiously.
Considering the natural resource crisis, we as humans built for us, it's very crucial that
now we take responsibility and start preserving what we are left with. We often read about the
replenishment rate and never realize that the earth is also facing this problem, the capacity of the
Earth to provide is reducing with time but on the other hand, humans are utilizing the resources
brutally causing a great deal of wastage. In today’s time, ecologists, environmentalists, and
activists along with NGOs are helping spread awareness that the earth is scarcely producing
“ecosystem services” that support human life. This is everyone’s responsibility to look after our
planet earth because it’s one of the dynamics of the “triple bottom line”. We should conserve our
resources instead of relying on water filtration, climate regulation, and/or maybe soil generation
to carry out life activities we should make the best use of our natural capital. This way we can
yield a better flow of resources for upcoming generations.

References
E. Innes, J. ,. B. D., 2000. Indicators for sustainable communities: a strategy building on
complexity theory and distributed intelligence. Planning theory & practice. 1(2), pp. 173-186.

McDonald, S. M. N. a. M. V., 2009. McDonald, S., MalyUrban regeneration for sustainable

Power, A., 2004. Sustainable communities and sustainable development:. a review of the
sustainable communities plan.
Roseland, M., 2000. Sustainable community development: integrating environmental, economic,
and social objectives. Progress in planning. 54(2), pp. 73-132.