Global Ideas: Lessons on Sustainable and Equitable Urban Development

Sustainable Equitable Urban Development: Global Examples Could Help the U.S. Create Healthier, More Equitable Cities

From 2020 to 2024, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Global Ideas for U.S. Solutions team funded projects centered on three key themes: sustainable and equitable urban development, gender equity, and community power. This work generated a wealth of insights, partnerships, and practical experiences for policymakers, practitioners, advocates, and community members in the United States and beyond, proving that good ideas have no borders. We focused on sustainable urban development because we believe that for development to be long-lasting, healthy, and good for the environment, it must also be fair. 

Our Learnings

Through our grants, we aimed to answer key questions about programs, policies, and practices from around the globe that could improve outcomes in the U.S. Here’s what we learned: 

• How are cities addressing health, equity, and climate change together? We learned that cities are increasingly adopting a holistic approach to the interconnected challenges of health, equity, and climate change. For example, many communities are integrating urban planning, public health, and environmental resiliency programs and measures to respond to heat waves and flooding. Tempe, Arizona, is adapting ideas from New Zealand, Morocco, and Colombia to address heat-related outcomes in their community. Detroit, Michigan, is adapting zero-waste practices from the Philippines to increase access to urban farming and composting and improve air quality and quality of life for people living in some of Detroit’s most polluted areas. Additionally, cities are increasingly focused on ensuring that people closest to the urban challenges are engaged in developing solutions and that resources are targeted to places that need them most. For example, Seattle is adapting models from Brazil, Puerto Rico, and New Zealand to create a resilience district by leveraging community engagement. Lawrence, Massachusetts, uses climate adaptation practices and community-engagement strategies from London, Paris, Fortaleza (Brazil), and Bologna (Italy) to build resilience to climate and health impacts while promoting equitable access to community assets and resources. Finally, cities are integrating systems thinking into urban policies to achieve multiple benefits and address complex challenges simultaneously. Cleveland is applying lessons from Toronto, London, and Milan to develop a circular economy that reduces waste and pollution, creates local jobs, and promotes health and wellbeing.
• What can we learn from how other countries and cities outside the U.S. link sustainability and equity to health, and what stories and messages make their efforts effective? Countries and cities worldwide offer valuable lessons in linking sustainability and equity to health. For instance, Bolivia's Mother Earth Law, which is grounded in Indigenous principles, calls for a balance between human life and the natural environment and opposes the notion of Earth being a resource to exploit. Cities like Amsterdam, Brussels, and Nanaimo, Canada, are experimenting with "doughnut economics," a model aiming to eradicate global poverty using environmentally sustainable strategies. The Global Alliance for the Future of Food frames its work around agroecology, focusing on people and the planet. Initiatives like the Whanganui River Claims Settlement in New Zealand grant rivers legal rights, recognizing the intrinsic value of nature and promoting environmental sustainability.
• What strategies best promote sustainability and equity in sectors such as urban planning, transportation, housing, food systems, infrastructure, and disaster recovery? Urban places worldwide implement innovative approaches to promote sustainability and equity in urban planning, transportation, housing, food systems, infrastructure, and rebuilding after disasters. Barcelona, Spain, has created superblocks, which are large commercial or residential blocks with green spaces that are closed to traffic and crossed with pedestrian walks. This design promotes walkability and reduces air pollution. Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, the U.K., and China are designing neighborhoods where people can complete their daily life activities within a 15-minute walk from their homes, supporting local economies, reducing carbon emissions, and enhancing residents' quality of life. Vienna, Austria, has improved pedestrian and transit infrastructure to be more inclusive of women and caregivers, pioneering a strategy that scales neighborhood interventions to city-wide policies. 
• As the COVID-19 pandemic sheds light on urban inequities, what does equitable urban life look like? What kinds of strategies, programs, and movements create more equitable and sustainable cities? Gehl researched and translated learnings about the social infrastructure of communities across the globe before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of social justice movements. The Institute for Public Knowledge published about how the breakdown of social contracts influenced COVID-19 responses and social unrest. Topics included mask-wearing, the experience of people living alone during the pandemic, comparative analyses of Anglo nation's reactions and responses, and parental and youth experiences. 

Key Takeaways

• Public Transit That Works: Learning from Abroad to Build a Greener, More Just System: U.S. transit planning often relies on historical travel patterns and customer profiles that no longer reflect current needs and priorities. Transit schedules and bus stops need to consider the needs of 21st-century customers, including older adults, those with disabilities, and those with young children. Ignoring the intersectionality of urban development with gender equity and issues like climate can lead to inequitable systems and practices. Practitioners and policymakers must prioritize sustainability and equity in their development efforts to achieve healthier resident outcomes. U.S. practitioners can learn from and adapt approaches from other countries that conduct transit planning intentionally focusing on today’s customers and needs and contextual and environmental issues. 
• Inclusive Development: Lessons from Global Participatory Approaches: The process to advance more sustainable and equitable urban development is essential. Though there are many exceptions, U.S. approaches to sustainable and equitable urban development have often focused heavily on physical development with less integration of social and economic development. Participatory approaches to sustainable and equitable development, including community-led planning and shared governance, are growing internationally, offering valuable lessons that U.S. practitioners could use to address inequities like structural racism in development processes and outcomes. For development to be long-lasting and better for the environment, people’s current and future needs must be put at the center.
• Breaking Barriers: Lessons from Around the World for Fairer Cities: Finally, the grantees’ work emphasized that substantial barriers remain to sustainable and equitable urban development in the U.S. context, including misaligned development incentives that can reinforce residential segregation and opposition among whiter, wealthier communities. U.S. practitioners, policymakers, and funders can continue to learn from cities across the globe on how to tackle these challenges, incentivize equitable development practices, and employ community-driven planning. 

Collectively, our grants in this area helped us understand how to create healthier, more just cities for all people.