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If Self-Reliant Cities is a snapshot of a certain historical moment, why then have we decided to reissue it more than a quarter of century after its original publication? Because we deeply believe the energy and climate crises must ultimately be solved at the local level. It is there that the proverbial rubber meets the road, where theory becomes practice, where policy must be implemented. Cities are where more than two thirds of Americans and half the world's population live. Cities are the locus of authority closest to the people. Cities have significant authority over land use and building standards.

Over 200 Illinois towns helped cut their citizens' electric bills in 2012, and some even achieved 100% renewable energy, thanks to a state law that lets cities choose their electricity provider. The law, called community choice aggregation, lets ...

Despite increasing green awareness and steadily rising gasoline prices, Americans and other denizens of the developed world - not to mention millions of new Chinese and Indian drivers hitting the road every week - are loath to give up the freedom and privacy of their personal automobiles. But snarled traffic, longer commute times, and rising pollution levels have given city transportation planners new ammunition in their efforts to encourage the use of clean, energy-efficient public transit. One of the newest tools in their arsenal is so-called congestion pricing (also called variable toll pricing), whereby cars and trucks are hit with higher tolls if they access central urban areas at traditionally congested times.

CityTouch, an online urban lighting management system developed by Philips that enables dynamic, intelligent and flexible control on a city-wide scale.

70% energy savings sound good. But how to claim 70% less maintenance costs. Less energy use means obviously less heat and more reliability. On the other hand, this is a much more complex system. It would be good to have an actual user stating this 70% reduction after installing the system and using it for a few years.

World firsts are always interesting. Here, a bus network in Adelaide, Australia will operate using a solar photovoltaic system. Of course, the region has enough sun to keep energy levels topped up. In regard to using solar for other city systems, it will be interesting to see how this model works .

A cyberattack has caused a power blackout in multiple cities outside the United States, the CIA has warned. The SANS Institute, a computer-security training body, reported the CIA's disclosure on Friday. CIA senior analyst Tom Donahue told a SANS Institute conference on Wednesday in New Orleans that the CIA had evidence of successful cyberattacks against critical national infrastructures outside the United States.

loess hill wind farmRock Port, Missouri is the first 100% wind powered city in the US.

"A groundbreaking project is currently being implemented on the Hönggerberg Campus of renowned Swiss Federal Technical Institute, ETH Zurich. In the future, waste heat from buildings on the Science City Campus will be stored in the earth during the summer through 800 ground probes."

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) announced on May 14, 2012, that it has formulated a policy for promoting energy conservation and management, titled "Toward a Smart Energy City Beyond Power-Saving" (unofficial translation). In addition to i...

Mecca, which hosts millions of pilgrims a year visiting Islam's most holy shrine, is working toward becoming the first city in Saudi Arabia to operate a utility-scale plant generating electricity from renewables. See it on Scoop.it, via Sustaina...

"Carbon neutrality by 2030 is the new standard for climate policies, and again the UK is leading North America in the climate debate with a bold national-level proposal about how to get there. The Centre for Alternative Technology just launched zerocarbonbritain2030 (ZCB2030), a collaborative project showing one possible scenario for making the entire UK carbon-neutral by 2030. ZCB2030 is a well-researched, well-written, and well-designed report on a set of possible pathways to a zero carbon Britain by 2030 (The goal, though bold, is not unique: Alex Steffen called for a very similar position for Seattle, a target which the Seattle City Council has included in their legislative priorities this year; and a variety of other nations and cities are approaching the same target, from Copenhagen to New Zealand). In 384 pages, CAT presents a comprehensive look at the kind of systemic changes needed to achieve dramatic emissions reduction in just 20 years in such areas as farming, energy generation, building codes, transportation planning, and economic frameworks. This report truly addresses the scope, scale and speed of the climate crisis and the solutions needed to create a bright green future. "

The thought of a driverless, computer-guided car transporting people where they want to go on demand is a futuristic notion to some.

Electric vehicles approved on Vancouver city streets (not highways)

It seems that in the last decade scientists have switched goals from producing efficient LEDs to producing "natural light" LEDs. However, whenever this was achieved, significant efficiency sacrifices were made to enable experimentation to work. Through use of a nano-crystaline coating, it seems that scientists at Bilkent University, Turkey have succeeded in creating an LED that "produces attractive white light while wasting next-to-no electricity". The definition of attractive is that for each watt of light produced, around 300 lumens are visible to the human eye. This compares with fluorescents which produce around 80 lumens per watt, according to the article. There is however a barrier to market. This is because the nano-crystalline coating is expensive and apparently difficult to produce.

Is there life after cars? Could your house be transformed into a unit in a mixed-use, multifamily building with a vegetable garden on the roof? Would you drink "toilet to tap" water - purified, recycled sewage - or would you rather die of thirst?