S-Tiles - contesto

THE CONTEXT

According to the recent United Nations report “Population, Environment and Development”, today’s inhabitants of urban areas are the 47% of the total world population, by 2030 that figure will rise to 60%. Practically all population growth expected between the 2000 and 2030 will take place in cities.

Today more than ever, building and managing urban areas means being able benefit from aggregation while reducing its negative impacts at local and international level. In a sustainable and ecologically healthy city, called an ecocity or green city, the efficient use of energy resources, the prevention of pollution, the reduction of waste, through re-use and recycling, are essential. For example, thanks to a careful rethinking of sustainable waste flows, the production of solid waste can be reused, recycled or composted by a minimum 60%.

Until the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the adoption of Agenda 21, local authorities had little input into the international environmental policy process. Things have changed since then and the mayors of many cities, of all sizes and on all continents, are participating more and more in global decisions. This is another sign of the important role played by cities in the local/global debate and their potential to shift (or stall) development policies towards sustainability.