Sustainability Fundamental
Development that meets present needs without compromising future ones.
What is sustainable development?
Gases like CO₂, methane, and nitrous oxide that contribute to global warming.
What are greenhouse gases (GHGs)?
Development clustered around public transportation hubs.
What is transit-oriented development (TOD)?
A social movement addressing environmental risks for disadvantaged groups.
What is environmental justice?
The 3 Rs of sustainable consumption.
What are reduce, reuse, recycle?
Government regulation of land uses and building form.
What is zoning?
The 3 pillars often used to balance sustainability goals.
What are environment, economy, and equity (the 3 E’s)?
A building that generates as much energy as it uses.
What is zero-net-energy?
A strategy to reduce urban sprawl by encouraging inward growth.
What is infill development?
A tax system where rates increase as income increases.
What is progressive taxation?
Wastewater from sinks and showers reused for irrigation.
What is greywater reuse?
A political-economic system where government regulates capitalism to reduce harm.
What is reformed capitalism?
A global framework of 17 goals adopted in 2015.
What are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?
Capturing CO₂ in trees, soil, or underground to reduce atmospheric levels.
What is carbon sequestration?
A legal tool to prevent development and preserve open space.
What is a conservation easement?
The skills and talents of people, used as a form of economic capital.
What is human capital?
Rooftop vegetation used for insulation and water management.
What are green roofs?
A declaration adopted in 1948 outlining fundamental human rights.
What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
Skills such as thinking long-term, holistically, and proactively.
What are key sustainability skills?
A city-cooling strategy using urban forestry, shading, and permeable surfaces.
What are cool communities?
Intermediate-density housing between single-family homes and large apartments.
What is missing middle housing?
Economic activities that value social, environmental, and financial goals.
What is socially responsible economic activity?
A food-growing philosophy based on mimicking natural ecosystems.
What is permaculture?
A term for taxes on inherited wealth and higher incomes to reduce inequality.
What are progressive and inheritance taxes?
The term for interconnected global crises created by human systems.
What is a polycrisis?
The idea that wealthy emitters should compensate climate-vulnerable communities.
What are climate reparations?
Redesigning streets to reduce car speed and enhance walkability.
What is traffic calming?
Businesses owned by workers, residents, or consumers.
What are cooperatives?
A system that grows food in urban areas such as rooftops and vacant lots.
What is urban agriculture?
A post-WWII global development framework featuring the World Bank and IMF.
What is the Bretton Woods framework?
A broad approach that considers diverse goals, disciplines, communities, and time horizons all at once.
What is holistic thinking?
Emissions from off-site activities such as commuting, procurement, and business travel.
What are Scope 3 emissions?
form of land development that is low-density, car-dependent, single-use, and disconnected.
What is suburban sprawl?
A paradigm where the public sector owns many or most businesses in a democratic society.
What is democratic socialism?
This post-consumer materials strategy connects individuals and businesses to unwanted yet usable resources, reducing demand for virgin materials through reuse.
What are materials exchanges?
A top-down approach to community planning, typically led by governments or private sectors.
What are master-planned cities?