What is Sustainability?

In the context of our use case, The Oxford English dictionary defines sustainability as -

“The property of being environmentally sustainable; the degree to which a process or enterprise is able to be maintained or continued while avoiding the long-term depletion of natural resources.”

Basing our understanding on the above definition and taking it forward, for the goblins, sustainability also has to be:

• Social
• Achievable
• Measureable
• Verifiable
• Viable

Background:

After first understanding what sustainability means in general, and then specifically what it will mean in our implementation, we tried to understand the concept of the carbon footprint. We also tried and explored some related literature. In the book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, the author Jane Jacobs had critiqued modern North American city planning, and had advocated for dense mixed-use development and walkable streets.

Some Knowns

• Cars and light trucks emitted 1.1 billion metric tons CO2e or 17% of the total U.S. GHG emissions in 2019. Transport accounts for around one-fifth of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions [24% if we only consider CO2 emissions from energy].
• Gasoline releases 19.6 pounds of CO2 per gallon when burned.
• The average passenger car emits 0.78 pounds of CO2 per mile driven.
• Shifting to active transport could save as much as a quarter of personal carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from transport. If just 10% of the population were to change travel behaviour, the emissions savings would be around 4% of lifecycle CO2 emissions from all car travel.
• The average Canadian walks less than 4km (<5000 steps) in a single day. The figures are quite similar for the USA as well. (The CDC recommends that most adults aim for 10,000 steps per day.)
• Fewer than 4% of Americans walk or bike to work.

Our Assumptions from research*:***