The Sustainable City is attempting to become Dubai's first Net Zero Energy city. To do this, the city is allowing residents to grow their own food using environmentally friendly methods.
The Sustainable City, which opened in 2015, covers 45,700 square metres and houses around 2,700 people. The Gulf Cooperation Council has named it "The Happiest Community" for the past three years.
It includes a community park with 11 biodome greenhouses and about 3,000 square metres of ground for urban gardening. The villas are divided into five residential clusters, each with its own urban farm available to homeowners. Greenhouse biodomes, hydroponic, and aquaponic systems are all present on the farms. Vegetables, dates, and figs are all grown using these systems.
The Sustainable Human Project, founded by landscape architect and inhabitant of The Sustainable City, Phil Dunn, is also based in The Sustainable City. The initiative, which began in November 2020 and will last a year, will test sustainable living in the city.
Dunn said, "I hope my project gets people to start thinking about what that implies and the environmental impact it has with emissions from transportation and such reliance on others to get our food."
Dunn is developing a small-scale circular economy by growing his own food in communal farms and exchanging with neighbours for other necessities.
“The landscape here has been built to be productive, not just beautiful to look at,” Dunn adds. “It has always been envisioned that it would generate a lot of food for the residents, and I decided to put the design to the test.”
It also has a Sustainable Plaza, which includes businesses, restaurants, cafes, offices, and residences that help residents support themselves and their families.
The City's borders, which are surrounded with over 2,500 trees, operate as a pollution buffer and clean incoming air.
The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, which supports Dubai's efforts to strive toward a more sustainable future, has also proposed a new environmental strategy that focuses on conservation, air quality, and sustainable agriculture. They want to increase food security by maintaining natural resources and practising urban farming.
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