Sustainable urbanism consists of making use of the principles of the circular economy when planning cities and buildings, so that they function as an ecosystem with its own circular dynamics in areas such as energy, waste, water or mobility; in conjunction with the need to provide an adequate quality of life for the inhabitants. 

The circular economy is a model of production and consumption that seeks to share, rent, reuse, repair, renew and recycle existing materials and products as many times as possible to make them more useful. 

Copenhagen, the Danish capital, is considered the best model of circular urbanism in the world. This city has almost 800,000 inhabitants in the urban area and 1.3 million people in the metropolitan area.

By 2025, it is planned to meet the goal of climate neutrality. If it succeeds, it would become the world’s first zero-emission capital city. 

Jakob Norman-Hansen, an urban planning expert, pointed out that, in the 1980s, Copenhagen was in a deteriorated condition, as it was a very dirty and industrialized city, with polluted water. Nevertheless, it worked hard for the sustainable progress of the city. 

In the course of the 1990s, Denmark started with concrete actions to change the situation in the whole country, mainly in its capital. Norman-Hansen indicates that a new model of urban development was instituted, without affecting economic development and the quality of life of the inhabitants. 

Four Relevant Factors of its Urban Planning

1. Green Mobility: a large part of the inhabitants do not use cars, but instead use bicycles. This ease of getting around by bicycle is made possible by public-private financing of cycling infrastructure. Therefore, six out of ten citizens use bicycles to commute to work and therefore have better air quality. 
2. Renewable Energy: Copenhagen has an electric power plant that runs on waste, thus giving biomass a boost. 
3. It makes use of new technologies: such as monitoring and big data to streamline them. As of 2016, it has succeeded in greatly minimizing the pollution produced by heating systems. 
4. The circular nature of Copenhagen is linked to a rethinking of public spaces and smart urbanism.  For example, as of 2010, all new buildings were required to include green roofs, suitable for absorbing polluting particles. Likewise, a large part of the urban city is made up of green areas and some of them are set up to combat the effects of climate change. In addition, the infrastructures are simple and enjoyable for the inhabitants. 

If you want to learn how to build more sustainable cities, the International Iberoamerican University offers courses to broaden your knowledge on these topics. One of them is the Master in Design, Management and Project Management with a specialization in Architecture and Urbanism 

Photograph: All rights reserved. Source: Circular urbanism: the future of sustainable cities