Sustainable Plan Assessment for New York City

Running head: SUSTAINABLE PLAN
Sustainable plan assessment for New York City
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1
SUSTAINABLE PLANExecutive summary
The UN Habitat Report on Planning Sustainable Cities is a guideline for establishing a
sustainable habitat for the urban areas across the world. The guideline aims to address various
sustainability issues of the urban cities, such as, carbon emission, infrastructure, water,
sanitation, housing affordability, education for all children, and a sustainable wage for the
population. This report evaluates the measures taken by the New York City to establish a
sustainable city for the people by 2050. It has been seen from the report that an initiative,
OneNYC2050 was formulated by the NYC to follow the sustainable criteria designed by the
United Nations and within four years of launch, NYC has made significant progress in
establishing itself as a city moving towards sustainability.

2
SUSTAINABLE PLAN
Introduction
This research report will present a critical assessment of sustainability plan and measures
adopted by New York City in an attempt to make the future better for the upcoming generations.
There is a sustainability plan for New York City, named OneNYC2050 to build a strong and fair
city. This is a strategy that was undertaken by the municipality and the government to secure the
future of the city against the challenges of today and tomorrow. The sustainability plan is aimed
at addressing the challenges like climate crisis, equity in the society, and strengthening the
democracy (Caputo et al. 2016). Under the Local Law 84 of 2013, OneNYC2050 is the long
term strategic plan of the New York City to achieve sustainability. Under this plan, the initiatives
that are taken by the city are vibrant democracy, inclusive economy, thriving neighborhoods,
healthy lives, livable climate, equity and excellence in education, efficient mobility and modern
infrastructure (Onenyc.cityofnewyork.us 2019). Thus, it can be said that OneNYC2050 is a
comprehensive plan about achieving long term sustainability for the future.
This report will evaluate the sustainability plan of New York City against the criteria set
by the UN Habitat Report on Planning Sustainable Cities. The United Nations has developed few
key trends for achieving urban sustainability in 1976 (UN-Habitat 2009). The purpose of this
habitat report or key trends designed by the UN is to work towards establishing a better urban
future. The mission of the United Nations is to promote or encourage the development of
environmentally and socially sustainable human settlements and achievement of adequate shelter
for all (Unhabitat.org 2019). The United Nations thus has focused on the challenges of growing
urbanization as it is expected that by 2030, 6 out of every 10 people will live in the urban areas,
and without proper planning, the consequences of the rapid urbanization could be drastic (Giles-