Culture
Why Bigger Cities Are Greener
Denser, more populous cities are more energy efficient than their smaller counterparts.
Cities and metros are not only leading the way in sustainability; they offer an intrinsically greener, less wasteful and more energy efficient way of life. Earlier this week I mapped the geography of carbon emissions across U.S. cities and metros. Today I turn to the connection between greenness and city size.
The size and density of cities confers considerable economic advantages. Denser cities are seed-beds of innovation and productivity improvement, as Jane Jacobs long ago argued. Pioneering studies of "urban metabolism" by Geoffrey West and his colleagues at the Santa Fe Institute find that as metro areas get larger their metabolic rate essentially speeds up, making them more productive and inventive