Bogota: Building a Sustainable City

I came across this video the other day, and thought that it would be interesting to publish it here too. It’s a look at Bogota (Colombia), my home town, and it’s current developments from a sustainability perspective.

The video itself is quite interesting and it portrays the work done on the city during the past decade and how it is meant to boost Bogota towards a more sustainable future. Having experienced the city and the new infrastructure first hand, I can honestly say that the video is a bit idealized, and that not everything is as pretty as it is portrayed, yet this is the first time that I actually see Enrique Peñalosa (the former mayor of Bogota who started some of the projects and who plays a central role in this documentary) explaining his rationale behind the projects, and I have to agree with him on his convictions and be hopeful that the future development of the projects will bring them to the end for which they where initially designed.

As a relevant side note, I’d like to explain the concept of “sustainability”, which is a word that gets thrown around all too often these days and to be honest, lots of people don’t even know what they are talking about.

The definition that I’ve found to be the most coherent and useful when trying to think sustainable, is the one coined by the UN’s Brundtland Commision that reads:

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

And this definition can be broaden by adding that sustainability is not a market trend but a global measurement to build durable and self sufficient systems for the future by balancing SOCIAL, ECONOMIC and ENVIRONMENTAL factors.