Urban living is greener, says study

Suburban vs. urban footprints

Wendy Natt, Feb 17, 09.

Based on a recent comparison study of estimated household carbon emissions in 66 city centers and their surrounding suburbs, Dr. Edward L. Glaeser, Senior Fellow at the conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute and professor of economics at Harvard University, draws the conclusion that low-density suburbs create a “significantly” larger carbon footprint than compact, walkable urban centers. He talks about the results of the study in a recent article in The Examiner.

“In almost every metropolitan area, carbon emissions are significantly lower for people who live in central cities than for people who live in suburbs. New York City has the largest gap in emissions between central city and suburbs of any metropolitan area in the country - unsurprisingly, since New York’s central city is the epitome of dense urban living.”

“In only four cases in the entire 66-city sample were carbon emissions higher in central cities than in suburbs. In Los Angeles, central-city residents are using far more electricity than their suburban counterparts - possibly because newer, energy-efficient houses tend to be in the suburbs and because the urban core has many large homes.”

Glaeser says that those environmentalists who resist new, potentially more energy efficient development in their own urban centers are “inadvertently” ensuring that these investments in greener development will take place outside the city, in lower-density areas where they will have less of an impact.

In an article in City Journal, Glaesner describes the results of the study in much more detail.

Download a pdf of the study report.

The Glaeser study follows a recent, extensive research project on the effect of compact, urban living vs. low-density, car-dependent suburban living by the Urban Land Institute, and published in the book Growing Cooler. The authors of this study emphasize that high-efficiency homes are only a fraction of the carbon emissions equation, and that one of the the largest emissions disparities between urban and suburban dwellers is found in their use of automobiles. High-density, mixed-use, transit-accessible development, the Growing Cooler report says, reduces driving from 20 to 40 percent, and more in some cases.