Does having more sustainable communities bring better sustainability?
Junze Zhang, Shuai Wang, Yanxu Liu, Wenwu Zhao, Bojie Fu
Abstract
Sustainable communities, while not explicitly defined universally, are now essential tools used by many countries to explore ways of enhancing regional sustainability, especially in China.1 To reduce the burden on the environment resulting from economic growth and to examine effective social governance models, China launched the construction of the Comprehensive Experimental Community for Social Development in 1986, since renamed the China National Sustainable Community (NSC) in 1997.2 Generally, NSCs are regions approved by the central government of China for exploring comprehensive solutions to various sustainable development challenges in the context of their development potential and to provide lessons for other regions, and they could be established in different administrative units such as cities or towns.