For Discussion: Can we Create a More Sustainable World in the Aftermath of COVID-19?

by Katherine Mortimer

This article was originally published in Green Fire Times: www.GreenFireTimes.com. It is included in our journal to foster discussion around the issues raised—there are many perspectives regarding recovery and sustainability. As COVID-19 has been a catalyzing force for social adaptations, we planners can take advantage of the opportunities provided and think of new ways to approach sticky, wicked community problems. Our hope is that it helps generate further thought.

The pandemic’s shakeup of our lives from the stay-at-home order due to COVID-19 has had some interesting silver linings. We have seen a decline in smog-producing greenhouse gas emissions, cleaner air, and cleaner water due to the sharp decline in driving and reduced manufacturing operations. As the economy begins to recover and reorganize, how can we retain the positive without entirely reverting to our old ways?

It’s not sustainable for all of us to stay home most of the time. Staying home has curbed our social interactions to the point where it’s affecting our well-being. We are social by nature and psychologically need to be in each other’s company from time-to-time. Networking is how we come up with new ideas to solve the challenging problems of our day, including sustainability and address historic inequities. 

There are three areas in particular where I see the potential to achieve real progress as we recover from this pandemic: addressing inequities, resilience, and retooling. The first is in addressing inequities. COVID-19 has inequitably affected communities of color and people experiencing poverty. Recovery efforts, if not done thoughtfully, could further disadvantage these already heavily impacted individuals. It is imperative that we design recovery investments and policies to intentionally address both historic and COVID-19-related inequities.

The second area is to create greater resilience to “shock events” that will happen in the future. It’s not a matter of if we will have new shocks to our society—it’s only a matter of what the next shock will be and when and where it will occur. Climate change has exacerbated the frequency and intensity of natural disasters and has added rising sea levels to that list. Prior to COVID-19, the risk of a pandemic seemed extremely remote; the last global pandemic of this magnitude was perhaps the Spanish Flu 100 year ago.. People are now aware of the risk and may be more open to investment in creating resilience so we can be better prepared for future shocks..

The third area we can focus on is how to shape our economy for jobs in emerging markets rather than the jobs that we previously had. Now that employers have seen that working from home is feasible they will, hopefully, continue to allow their employees to reduce the number of trips they make to an office or group setting. Even before the pandemic, brick-and-mortar retail in particular was hit hard by online sales. It is now even more vulnerable. Many retail stores in the nation may not reopen. Locally, in Santa Fe and New Mexico, we are likely to see a lot of empty retail storefronts. Historically, when cities and towns have faced a loss in the local economy, such as rust belt towns that were hit by closing factories and mills, it created empty districts and derelict buildings. 

Before the pandemic we had a lack of affordable housing, both nationally and locally. What if we decide to prioritize and incentivize repurposing some retail spaces in shopping areas for housing? We could create neighborhoods where suddenly residents will be able to walk to the existing retail outlets that survived and create new demand for local-serving retail and service businesses. These are just some of the benefits that could result from this strategy.

Arguably, the time we are in could be called the “New Depression” because of its large, global impacts. The proposed Green New Deal (GND) is modeled after the original New Deal, which helped get us out of the 1929 Depression. It has a lot of forward-thinking aspects that could help accomplish goals for sustainability. In light of what we’ve learned from COVID-19, I think that the GND is something we need to take a look at. It has the potential to be a guide for how we can get out of the situation we now find ourselves in. However, in light of the pandemic, some things in the GND such as how we increase urban density, the future of public transportation and next-generation public health infrastructure will need to be closely examined.

There are other areas where we could invest, such as making access to the internet universal so everyone can be connected. Another investment could be in electric vehicle infrastructure so as we become more mobile while creating better air quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This might look like affordable EV-sharing services, as it is being tried in Austin and Los Angeles, or it may need to be something completely different. The key is to elevate the voices of people with the greatest transportation insecurity in our community, allowing them to guide the design and implementation of the solutions we pursue that best meet their needs.

The next big area to address is developing new, cleaner methods of electrification.  This is a challenge for New Mexico, where the state budget is so tied to extractive fuels. However, COVID-19 has impacted those operations and rather than return to them, why not restart our energy producing capacity by jump-starting the transition to clean energy? We can work towards building the solar and wind capacity to replace gas and oil dependence with clean energy, if we stimulate the industry by creating transmission and storage infrastructure, and develop a strong, equitable transition plan.

Having to shelter-in-place has forced the rat race to stop. All of us were put in a position where we have had more time. That has naturally led to reflection and connecting with our fellow “inmates.” We have had to be very careful about how we interact with each other because everyone has been feeling a little nervous about getting sick. There has been a return to connecting to what’s truly important in our lives. That has also been a silver lining to this otherwise very grey cloud. 

This article was originally published in Green Fire Times. www.GreenFireTimes.com. The views expressed are those of the author’s.

Katherine Mortimer is the founder and principal of Pax Consulting, weaving sustainability into policies, plans and operations. For more of her musings, see her blog at www.paxconsulting.biz/musings. This article was originally published in Green Fire Times. www.GreenFireTimes.com