Who are these Guidelines for?

The Guidelines aim at guiding policy development and practical application in new developments and in regeneration of existing neighbourhoods. They target everyone who plays a role in creating or determining the sustainable quality of neighbourhoods.

This includes anyone who is interested in how to move forward the agenda of sustainable cities. It is important that professionals and stakeholders understand how to commission urban developments that create value for people who inhabit them, while achieving decarbonization and low-resource use targets. City leaders must thus not limit their actions to obvious sources of emissions but also identify the key drivers of their emissions trajectories on the long run. Working with a long-term perspective implies to identify critical actions that avoid locking cities in decades of high emissions path dependencies. This requires adopting an integrated planning approach and working proactively with stakeholders to build and invest in sustainable infrastructure. It involves prioritizing actions around initiatives that catalyse systemic change.

Sustainability solutions vary depending on geography, climate, culture, social and economic local conditions. As a result, these Guidelines do not set out to define what “the” sustainable neighbourhood looks like, but instead, it helps in guiding a range of initiatives.