Know the territory’s metabolism so as to optimise local potential

This situation will not improve as long as we keep considering a macroeconomic “financial accounting” system. A “cost accounting system” is needed at territorial level to understand how territories mobilise and transform the biosphere’s resources and how they use and transform energy, water and materials. It is also necessary to know what flows are crossing the territories and what is recycled.

We have started counting water and waste, followed by energy, emissions and discharges at territorial level. But we are still too often unaware of the local or imported resources we use. We do not know what is circulated, lost, exchanged or transformed in our territories. That is what is called the “metabolism” of territories.

Sutton cultivates its territorial metabolism

London Borough of Sutton, United Kingdom - 194,000 inhabitants

By adopting the “One Planet Living” approach, the London Borough of Sutton intends to optimise all material, energy and transport flows on its territory so as to reduce its ecological footprint from 3 to 1 planet. The concept of sustainable territorial metabolism was first implemented in the Bedzed eco-district where 98% of construction materials came from sites within a 30 km radius. “One Planet Sutton” aims at extending the concept to the entire borough in order to analyse and experiment production and recycling flows and cycles in a more extensive, integrated way.

As a result, a new network of urban farms has been created to provide local quality food whilst developing local skills and creating new jobs.

Discover more than 80 concrete examples and Energy Cities’ 30 proposals for the energy transition of cities and towns on www.energy-cities.eu/30proposals.