How Does Your City Stack Up in Energy Use and Sustainability?

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      A report from Citibank explains that population density in cities is growing to higher levels each year. Each year, a higher percentage of the world’s population lives in cities. In 2012, 50% of the world’s population lived in cities, but the figure is expected to rise to 70% in the coming decades.  For this reason, it is so important to be able to find sustainable practices in urban environments. However, in developing countries, the fact remains that people in urban environments are hungrier for electricity and consumer goods.  In developed countries such as the United States, the reverse is true, wherein the urban regions use more energy than rural.  The statistics from New York, Tokyo, London, Shanghai, Beijing, or Bangkok are presented above. Take a look and see how each city is consuming energy. Here in the United States, with New York City as our example of an urban environment, buildings use more energy than industry and transport. However, in the less developed region, Bangkok, the opposite is true. 

  The difference between New York City and Bangkok show that the United States has made improvements in the energy efficiency of industry and transportation. Higher efficiency vehicles and industries have reduced their need for tons of energy.

                                                                    Households, however, tell a very different story. We are guilty in the United States of using far more energy per household than the other five cities on the list. Using New York City as the example, the city’s energy use per household is double Bankok’s and about four times Beijing and Shanghai’s.  American individuals and households should take this into account when assessing their environmental footprint. Even if our transportation and our industries are becoming more efficient, the responsibility still lies within households to act sustainably.