Green cities
As the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported at the end of 2009, in the future not only individual buildings will consume as little energy as possible, but entire cities, too.
The reason for this is that buildings in urban areas consume up to 70 percent of the required energy. According to the UN, three-quarters of the world's population will be living in urban areas in 2050. By this time, cities must be able to manage energy sustainably. In Europe there are already a number of smaller projects such as the Freiburger Ökoviertel or the BedZed development in London; China and Abu Dhabi have plans to establish carbon-neutral cities capable of housing 40,000 people. In order to completely eliminate their carbon footprint, the cities of the future are setting their stakes in sophisticated thermal insulation systems, renewable energy sources, e-mobility, and locally produced food.
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