Sustainable development in Bogotá and ParisIE APPLICATION

Natalia Orjuela Mahecha

PHOTOGRAPHY: Fôret de Fontainebleau(author's picture)

Do you think that the lifestyle of the inhabitants of your town or city reflects behavior that is in line with the concept of sustainable development? In your opinion, what should be improved?

“A way of human development consisting on meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

Definition of sustainable development

Building and developing economies without straining the resources

Maintaining the quality of the natural resources and, where possible, reversing its degradation

Ensuring the social prosperity of people

The three pillars of sustainable development

Balanced economic growth

Environmental protection

Socialwell-being

A tale of two cities

Paris, France• Where I spent the last six years• Where I started my professional career• Where I became a French citizen

Bogotá, Colombia• Where I was born• Where I grew up and studied• Where my cultural roots are

This presentation illustrates how the lifestyle of these two cities contributes to the concept sustainable development and proposes improvement actions

Contents

1. Bogotá

2. Paris

3. Proposed improvement actions

4. Key takeaways

1. Bogotá

PHOTOGRAPHY: Bogotá (author’s picture)

BogotáFounded on 1538Population: 7.7 millionDensity: 4,800/km2

GDP per capita: US$ 10,700SOURCE: http://www.investincolombia.com.co/PHOTOGRAPHY: La Candelaria (author’s picture)

After a period of economic booming, unleashed growth and limited urban planning have resulted in a transport

system not meeting the mobility needs of the city.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Transmilenio in Bogotá (http://thecityfix.com/)

Balancedeconomic growth

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012500,000

600,000

700,000

800,000

900,000

1,000,000

… handled through sustainable tourism initiatives

Number of foreign tourists in Bogotá

Constant growth in the number of visitors…

Standards andcertifications

Example: Sustainable tourism certification

Informativeactivities

Example: “X Encuentro turismo sostenible”

SustainableInfrastructure

Example: El Dorado green buildings for business purposes

1 The “sustainable tourism” aims to minimize the impact on the environment and the local culture and to create wealth and employments for local populationSOURCE: Observatorio Turístico de Bogotá; http://www.sanpablohotel.com/; http://www.redturismosostenible.org/; http://www.redturismosostenible.org/

Bogotá has embraced the concept of sustainable tourism1.Balanced

economic growth

The Bogotá river is heavily polluted, since it receives 65% waste water from the capital.

PHOTOGRAPHY: River Bogotá waste removal(http://mosquera-cundinamarca.gov.co/)

Environmentalprotection

People in Bogotá is not

used to waste recycling. To compensate

this behavior, the city has leveraged a

“natural” system of

waste pickers.

SOURCE:http://bogotabasuracero.com/PHOTOGRAPHY: Waste pickers(http://http://diarioadn.co/;http://www.presaverde.org.co/)

Environmentalprotection

Despite huge improvements during the last 10 years,Bogotá can still improve in terms of security.

Limited citizen sensitivity about violence

Significant urban insecurity

Number of murders per 100,000 people

048

1216

Bogotá New York

Poor political contributions

Bogota’s major Gustavo Petro Urrengo“[…] creo que ahí hay una campaña de cultura ciudadana que debemos acometer… no usar el celular en la calle”“[…] I think we should undertake a citizen culture campaign… do not using mobile phones in the street”

SOURCE: http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/bogota/ARTICULO-WEB-NEW_NOTA_INTERIOR-12822358.html/; http://www.corpovisionarios.org; http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/bogota/video-407145-no-usar-celular-calle-propuesta-de-petro-evitar-robo/

Bogota’s ten-year report on citizen’s culture

Socialprosperity

The city offers alternatives to

improve social well-being, such as

Sunday’s “ciclovía”.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Bogota’s Sunday “ciclovía”(http:/http://www.plataformaurbana.cl/)

Socialprosperity

2. ParisPHOTOGRAPHY: Tour Eiffel (author’s picture)

Paris (region)Founded on 1538

Population: 11.9 million Density: 990/km2

GDP per capita: €51,118

SOURCE: INSEE http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/tableau.asp?reg_id=20&ref_id=ecotc08101PHOTOGRAPHY: The Seine (author’s picture)

PHOTOGRAPHY: Agricultural Market in Courbevoie (author's picture)

Balancedeconomic growth

Equitable commerce is

booming in Paris, reducing transport costs

and helping local producers.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Paris family buildings (author’s picture)

Downtown Paris housing rental price is twice as expensive as suburbs’ rental price. As a result, those with less resources are forced to live far from Paris, facing externalities such as travel time and insecurity.

Balancedeconomic growth

Environmentalprotection

SOURCE: “Rapport 2011 gestion des déchets à Paris” (http://paris.fr”)PHOTOGRAPHY: Packed plastic waste (http://ecolologiesurleweb.free.fr/); Garbage truck (http://lefigaro.fr/)

Parisians are aware of the need of recycling. For instance, the amount of recycled materials increased by 3.5% between 2010 and 2011.

Environmentalprotection

PHOTOGRAPHY: Traffic jam (Fernando Mayor); Autolib & Velib (author’s picture)

Citizens have embraced eco-friendly transports like Velib, Autolib and subway. Despite that, the car is still the dominant means of transport, a source of traffic and pollution.

Socialprosperity

PHOTOGRAPHY: Bois de Boulogne (author’s picture)

“Green lungs” like Bois de Boulogne offer space for sports and entertainment.

Socialprosperity

SOURCE: http://www.inpes.sante.fr/CFESBases/catalogue/pdf/629.pdf; http://www.leparisien.fr/societe/pollution-30-milliards-de-megots-dans-nos-rues-31-10-2012-2281095.phpPHOTOGRAPHY: Smoking woman (http://www.mirror.co.uk/); Cigarette butts http://www.davidlebovitz.com/)

Smoking represents €10 million tax income for the French state. However, cigarettes are not only dangerous for health but also for the shape of the city. Each year, 30 billions cigarette butts are thrown on the street, taking 12 years to decompose.

3. Proposed improvementactions

PHOTOGRAPHY: https://ecenter.ee.doe.gov/EM/SPM/Pages/Step7_3.aspx

Foster sustainable and equitable commerce by sharing and exchanging products, instead of throwing and buying.

Increase public transportation in line with population increases and convince people to use it.

Allow for telecommuting for people living far from their job. Create a refill system for shampoo plastic bottles,

detergents, etc. Install led lamps for public lighting. Educate further on good citizenship: Respect others, throw

your waste in the garbage, help handicapped people, maintain your temper in public spaces, etc.

Encourage sustainable reward programs granting people with “points” every time there is positive act contributing to sustainable development (e.g., recycling, buying green products).

Some ideas to keep on improving

Socialwell-being

Environmental protection

Balanced economic growth

4. Key takeaways

1. Regardless of the economic development degree of a city, there are always things to improve. Paris is much more “developed” than Bogotá, but still shows significant sustainability gaps. In fact each one has a different way to tackle sustainability.

2. Bogotá is still on the way to become sustainable. New ideas are under development, but require a change of culture and also a lot of investment.

3. Paris has the resources to fight sustainability issues. However, this is not sufficient: Political intent and citizenship action is required to improve.

4. Lifestyle of the inhabitants of a city depends on public services, infrastructure and government urban management.

5. Sometimes, there are good initiatives in the pipeline. Still, poor execution often hinders from success. For instance, “Día sin Carro” and “Pico y Placa” in Bogotá intended respectively to improve air quality and traffic. “Día sin Carro” has proven to ineffective due to the number of buses, which consume low quality diesel. “Pico y Placa” has showed an increase in the number of cars, since public transport is not yet developed.

Key takeaways

Thank you!

PHOTOGRAPHY: Goats in Tuileries Gardens munching and naturally mowing grass (http://www.balladine.net/)