GREEN ZONING

VIBRANT SUSTAINABLE NEIGHBORHOODS, GREEN ARCHITECTURE

LOW-CARBON LIFE — URBAN INFILL — CO2 REDUCTION — POLICY CHANGE

Green Zoning means putting people close to jobs, transit, schools, parks, and amenities, where they can live a low-carbon life. It means incrementally increasing the number of households and types of housing in neighborhoods that already exist. 

The climate impacts of sprawling, car-dependent neighborhoods are well established. Yet current land-use policies continue to reinforce a fossil-fuel-dependent pattern by zoning land, with segregated uses, at a very low density.

There is a great opportunity to use incrementally more dense, urban infill development to fight climate change. In a recent study, researchers tested the impacts that doubling density within established urban areas would have on carbon emissions and found it would cut household travel by half and residential energy use by a third, equivalent to about 18% of our total CO2 emissions.  

CAST architecture is committed to a positive vision of more vibrant, sustainable neighborhoods and is working on policy changes that make for more abundant infill housing, flexible zoning, and better outcomes for the environment we all share.