How Mobility Can Shape the Sustainable Future of Cities

Tackling climate change is the moral and business imperative of our time. But what does that look like in practice? It can feel like an overwhelming problem, requiring the buy-in and collaboration of stakeholders from many sectors, industries, and parts of the world. Looking to our industry and expertise in the built environment, buildings—including their interiors, exteriors, and operations—have a huge role to play in taking on this challenge.

Buildings generate nearly 40% of annual global CO2 emissions, between day-to-day operations and, importantly, embodied carbon—that is, emissions that result from manufacturing and transporting the whole supply chain of building materials and construction. Gensler is actively working with our partners to reduce the impact of the materials we specify for our buildings. By 2030, our portfolio of designed work will save 300 million metric tons of CO2 annually, which is incredible, tangible progress.

However, the real estate and design professions have an opportunity to pave the way toward a more sustainable future through another avenue: mobility and the electrification of entire cities.

There are signs that a sea change is upon the mobility sector. At the end of September, Ford announced its plan to invest $11.4 billion in a new, electric vehicle (EV) assembly plant and multiple battery factories. The 3,600-acre campus, dubbed “Blue Oval City”—planned for a site near Memphis, Tennessee—will be carbon neutral, using solar power in addition to other energy- and water-conserving technologies. In their announcement, Ford said it will also work with its partners to develop a domestic supply chain for EV batteries, incorporating closed-loop recycling.

Why does this matter to the building industry? The automaker’s historic move signals to their industry that the future of mobility is electric. And that fact has a significant impact on the designers and architects who work with cities to plan their future.

Those who lead cities, those who design them, and those who live in them are of particular importance to the reimagined future of mobility, given that over half the world’s population resides in cities. Following the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, McKinsey Sustainability (part of the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company) and C40 Cities Climate Leadership (a network of large cities committed to addressing climate change) analyzed actions cities could take to accelerate the pace of reducing their carbon emissions. The report, Focused Acceleration, identified mobility as one of the key pathways toward a more sustainable future, with the potential to reduce carbon emissions in cities by 9.3 metric tons by 2030.

At Gensler, we are rethinking cities and urban areas with a more resilient and sustainable future of mobility in mind. Take, for example, gas stations and parking garages—common sights in urban areas where people rely on cars. Those pieces of real estate, already threaded throughout the fabric of a city, could be repurposed for new uses. Fueling stations are reconceived as charging stations that invite people in for a different kind of experience. In an electrified future, we will expect to be able to work, exercise, or enjoy an array of other amenities while charging an electric vehicle. Through design, we can transform this necessary part of personal mobility into a destination, rather than just an obligation. Already we are exploring ways to adapt and reuse gas stations and parking garages through a collaboration with BMW Designworks, considering how these structures can promote the health, wellness, and efficiency of communities of tomorrow.

The interconnected nature of health, climate, and cities has been brought into sharp focus by Covid-19. As we reimagine mobility of the future, we can also bring forward some of the key lessons learned during the pandemic. For much of the last two years, many urban and suburban areas saw innovations in the public experience. Outdoor dining flourished as restaurant seating spilled out to sidewalks. “Open streets” initiatives invited pedestrians and cyclists to enjoy real estate usually reserved for cars. Overall, people enjoyed the vibrancy of the public realm with renewed vigor, as the outdoors became the healthiest place to interact. The city was returned to the people. And the human experience of cities has flourished in new ways.

Now, as we acclimate to a “new normal” of living with variants, vaccines, and increased health and safety measures, we have the opportunity to bring these lessons forward. Electric cars, micro-mobility solutions like scooters and e-bikes, and, soon, autonomous vehicles will allow us to preserve the ways we enjoyed the public realm during the hardest months of the pandemic. They also contribute in a meaningful way to the long-term health, sustainability, and resilience of our planet, moving us toward a new era of mobility.