Can sustainable cities be cool?

Sustainability seems to be the word du jour in the architectural, engineering and buildings industry. Although the concept of sustainability has been around for centuries, an ecological or sustainable movement started emerging in the 1950’s and sustainability is now in the mainstream. In the U.S., Congress passed legislation concerning air quality, water quality and other environmental issues throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s. As a response to environmental issues, energy and water concerns, the EPA was established in December of 1970 to enforce activities and to ensure environmental protection. Today we see many government, non-profit and commercial organizations focusing efforts on sustainability.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, sustainability is defined as: "Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. To pursue sustainability is to create and maintain the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations.”

In recent times sustainability in the U.S. has come to focus on three major issues; specifically, water, agriculture, and energy.

Here is why:

• In the U.S., we are seeing an increasing amount of states and cities dealing with droughts, water conservation, water management, and aging infrastructure delivering clean water. 
• Agriculture’s marriage with big business practices or “agribusiness” has dominated our food supply beginning in the 1950’s and is an ever-growing U.S. sustainability concern.
• Energy supply and production dominates the world agenda. Domestic non-renewable energy sources are depleting and our dependency on foreign non-renewable energy sources is increasing. 

As a result, these sustainability issues are now influencing the way we plan communities and cities. An international charrette held in Melbourne in 2002 developed a guideline of ten principles for sustainable cities which was endorsed by local governments at the Johannesburg Earth Summit that same year. The guideline known as the Melbourne Principles for Sustainable Cities notes as its first principle to “Provide a long-term vision for cities based on sustainability; intergenerational, social, economic, and political equity; and their individuality”. (Jennings, 2008)

If we are establishing sustainable principles “to create and maintain the conditions” for our communities in the future it is important to learn and understand root causes of unproductive harmony that has led to unstainable practices from the past. Many of our current community related sustainability issues relating to water, agribusiness and energy in the U.S. started in the 1950’s. Not coincidentally, refrigeration technologies had a growth spurt in the 1950’s with the introduction of residential, commercial, agricultural and transportation refrigeration innovations.

Could this innovation be the root cause to many of the water, agribusiness and energy sustainability issues in our U.S. communities today?

Let's take a look .....

Water: The Western portion of the United States is known for its beautiful national parks and unique environmental landscapes, expansive prairies, mountains, rock canyons and deserts. However, one important feature of this vast region is its lack of precipitation. In the 19th century explorers labeled this area the “Great American Desert. Today we still know parts of it as Death Valley…” (Discover our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary Series, n.d.)

In 1902, however President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Reclamation Act, also known as the Newlands Act that would forever change the development and population of the American West. This act directed the Federal Government to construct dams, reservoirs, and canals to irrigate arid and semiarid lands in the Western states. Twenty years later, the Colorado Compact established a guideline for apportionment of the use of the waters from the Colorado River Systems to seven states, namely Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Here’s what happened next. In 1900 Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, and New Mexico each had sequentially the lowest population per state in the U.S. But, while the overall population growth in the U.S. grew by 62% from 1900 to 1930; the population growth during that same period for the seven states listed in the Colorado Compact were as follows:

• Arizona 250%
• California 283%
• Colorado 91.5%
• Nevada 114%
• New Mexico 118%
• Utah 84%
• Wyoming 143%

The same pattern followed from 1940 to 1970 when the overall population growth in the U.S. grew by 54% and for example Nevada grew by 332%, Arizona by 256% and California by 187%.

The continued extraordinary population growth in these hot and arid states coincide with the development of commercial refrigeration for residential and commercial buildings in the mid 1900’s. (U.S. Population estimates were interpreted from data published by the U.S. Census Bureau (U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1999)

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1999

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1999

As air conditioning became more available and more affordable, areas that were known to have undesirable living conditions, saw population growths. The U.S. experienced an extreme heat wave in 1952 which was attributed to heat stroke and deaths. According to a House and Home June 1952 publication article, fewer than 1 percent of all homes had air conditioning in the U.S. in 1952. The Saturday Evening Post June 6, 1953 article titled “They’re Trying to Make Summer Extinct”, indicates a poll that notes very few home builders had planned to include central air conditioning in their 1952 construction while just a year later 40% percent said they would add this feature. Further, by 1953 southern builders had accepted air conditioning as mandatory in all new construction. Today the U.S. Department of Energy reports that three-quarters of all homes in the U.S. have air conditioning.

Meanwhile in the western states, the seven states referred to in the Colorado Compact currently experience drought conditions and water issues. Water issues, while always present had been eased by the Colorado Compact and the reliance on remote water sources. It’s hard to imagine that the population in these western states could have developed without the 1902 Reclamation Act that introduced water for farming, wastewater and public use. However, the population growth that these states have further experienced from the 1950’s forward resulted on the parallel growth in refrigeration and air conditioning.

Agriculture: The 1990 Farm Bill among many issues, addressed rural development and global climate change. Most notably it defined sustainable agriculture. Under that law, the term sustainable agriculture is defined as “an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long term: satisfy human food and fiber needs. Enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends. Make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls. Sustain the economic viability of farm operations and enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole."

Sustainable agriculture addresses the move from local farmers serving their communities to large industrial farms or “agribusiness”. The term agribusiness was first noted in an article written by Davis and Goldberg in the 1957 publication Journal of Farm Economics. “This work not only coined the term agribusiness, it also introduced the concept of viewing the production, distribution, and consumption of food and fiber as a commodity system—a forerunner to today’s value chain and supply chain analysis.” (Gill, 2013). Agribusiness was the product of the 1950’s and has been attributed with environmental impacts such as deforestation, soil degradation, pesticide pollutants and aquifer contaminations.

Farming had the greatest methodological changes in the U.S. starting in the mid-1930s with the increase of migrant workers and the use of child labor.  These changes further developed in the 1950s as chemicals used in World War II made their way into the pesticide market and onto the mega based plant farms. An increase in unregulated and often abused migrant and child labor into the farming industries during that decade, along with the use of pesticides to enhance farm production, created means to mass produce fruits and vegetables in centralized and large farms. At the same time agribusiness made its way into the dairy and animal farming as well. Up till 1950, animal farming remained a relatively small operation that allowed farmers to maintain a degree of independence. Drastic industry changes starting in the 50’s redefined what it meant to be an animal farmer. These changes produced concentrated ownership and large changes in the workforce that exploited laborers not to mention the animals. (Joshi, 2013)

The agribusiness movement with negative environmental impacts and labor issues influenced our principles for current and future sustainable agriculture growth. However, the root causes for these unsustainable practices can be closely tied to the development of commercial refrigeration. Before this development large productions of crops, would go to waste without the means for cold storage, freezing or transportation of the produce in refrigerated trucks. The advancement of refrigeration technology along with the increased “cheap” labor and the introduction of pesticides for increased crop volumes put together the ideal recipe for big agricultural business to capitalize on the farming industry.

George C. Briley, P.E. notes in the ASHRAE Journal article “A History of Refrigeration”; “…in the 1940’s and 1950’s, the rotary air compressor was converted to refrigerants in low-temperature applications…In the late 1940’s and even into the 1950s’, automatic hot gas defrost systems started to replace water defrost for air units in freezer applications….The 1950’s and 1960’s saw a major increase in the frozen food industry, which had been given impetus when Clarence Birdseye learned how to process vegetable for freezing.” (George C. Biley, 2004) As technology advanced in the 1950’s the average consumer saw more variety and selection of produce in their local grocery store. However, the average consumer was unaware of unregulated and often abused migrant and child labor, the use of pesticides, the mass abuses of animals, impacts to the land such as deforestation, soil degradation, pesticide pollutants and aquifer contaminations.  Nor did they connect the advancements of refrigeration technologies with these significant farming changes and the movement from local farmers to an increase “foodshed” footprint. 

Energy: It certainly makes sense that as cities develop, populations increase and energy demand follows suit. Yet, if we look a little closer, we see that energy is closely tied to water, agribusiness, refrigeration and air conditioning.

Austin Troy notes in the ‘Very Hungry City’; “The Los Angeles metropolitan area couldn’t support a fraction of its current population without imported water, which today accounts for nearly three quarters of its supply. Water distribution alone currently accounts for about 18 percent of the all energy consumed in the Los Angeles region.” (Troy, 2012)

The Colorado Aqueduct built in 1933, carries water along a 240 mile stretch through the desert. The California State Water Project (SWP) is a 444 mile aqueduct that initially pumps water 278 miles uphill going through 6 major pumping stations rising to an elevation nearly 1,300 vertical feet and to the base of the Telachapi Mountains. The energy required for this stretch uses an average electricity demand per year equal to the energy consumption of over a half million households in California. From the base of the Telachapi Moutains the water then continues to flow through the Edmonston pumping plant lifting the flow of water an additional 1,926 vertical feet above the mountain range. “Edmonston’s pumps, each the height of a five-story building consumes in aggregate as much electricity as nearly three quarters of a million California households, making the plant among the highest single users of energy in the world.” (Troy, 2012)

Similarly, the Central Arizona Project which uses fourteen pumping stations to carry water along a 336 mile 3,000 feet lift from the distant Rockies through to Tuscon and Phoenix Arizona. It is estimated that the energy consumption per year required to pump the water from the Rockies to these Arizona cities is equivalent to the electricity consumed by roughly 210,000 typical Arizona homes in a year.

As these western cities and states developed throughout the early and mid 1900’s the U.S. was pumping oil domestically, which seemed unlimited at the time. U.S. oil production steadily increased from the early 1900’s through the 70’s when we entered the U.S. “oil crisis” and production steadily started decreasing. The energy required to pump water was not a consideration when these western cities and states first developed in the early 20th century. In addition, the initial water demands from these remote areas did not account for increased populations due to improved environmental climate control with the development of refrigeration and air conditioning.

Today the real water issue is not drought or global warming; rather it is the increasing amount of energy required to deliver water from remote areas as previously planned for in the Reclamation Act to these states that continue to develop in population with increased water demand while non-renewable energy source in the U.S continue to decrease with correlating increased energy prices.

Michael Spivak notes in the 2013 September-October issue of American Scientist; “The United States currently uses more energy for air-conditioning than all other countries combined.” According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 87 percent of American households are equipped with air-conditioning, and the United States expends about 185 billion kilowatt hours of energy annually on residential cooling. Further, Troy notes in the ‘Hungry City’, that “by 2000, one-fifth of the electricity consumed in the United States went to air-conditioning.” (Troy, 2012)

Agribusiness grew in the mid 1900’s due to the advancement of refrigeration that allowed for mass storage of crops, meats and dairy both at the farm and the supermarket. As a result, energy consumed for the storage and refrigeration of crops increased substantially in the mid-20th century. Additionally, the advancement of refrigeration in shipping and transportation in the 50’s allowed agriculture to be transported to remote areas. Transport of agriculture with the ability for increased and remote shipping locations increased energy consumption used for that distribution.

Going Forward: Where would we be today without the amazing advancement of refrigeration technologies in the 20th century? It is hard to think of working in a commercial building without air conditioning or not having it in our home. Restaurants, movie theaters, and most retailers could not function without the comforts of refrigeration and air conditioning afforded to their employees and customers. We take for granted how refrigeration plays an essential role in the food we eat, the cold storage required and the refrigerated transport to remote areas. But we do not associate the 20th century advancements in refrigeration with current water concerns, agribusiness, or energy burden to our cities today. While refrigeration and air conditioning technologies have developed substantially since its early development days and have become more efficient, the bottom line is that it will always require the use of energy.

If we are establishing sustainable principles “to create and maintain these conditions” for our communities in the future it is important to learn and understand root causes of unproductive harmony that has led to some of the unsustainable practices of the past.

Going forward we must ask ourselves….

• Did refrigeration technologies exacerbate the water issues in developing U.S. cities and states through the 20th century?
• Will refrigeration technologies continue to play a role for increasing populations in the development of sustainable cities?
• Have the advancements of refrigeration paved a new path in creating farming changes from a past movement of local farmers to the current increased “foodshed” footprint in the US and is it time to bring back the principles of local sustainable food supplies with reduced requirement of refrigerated storage and shipment?

Planning our communities for the future will require implementations of sustainable practices. Determining the sustainable practices for the future requires examining past innovations and achievements with associated impacts.

Sol Hecht

References

Discover our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary Series. (n.d.). 2. Water in the West. Retrieved from National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/articles/2-water-in-the-west.htm

George C. Biley, P. (2004). A History of Refrigeration. 100 Years of Refrigeration A Supplement to ASHRAE Journal, S31-S34.

Gill, T. G. (2013). Case studies in agribusiness: An interview with Ray Goldberg. 16, Informing Science: the International, 203-216.

Jennings, P. N. (2008). Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems Principles and Practices. Washington: Island Press.

Joshi, R. G. (2013). Food Justice. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Troy, A. (2012). The Very Hungry City. New Haven: Yale University Press.

U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States. (1999). 20th Century Statics.