Skip to content
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Menu
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Happy News

The 15 Minute City Concept

Concordia University researchers in Montreal have proven that neighborhoods can become completely self sufficient in vegetable production while slashing carbon emissions by 98 percent by dedicating just 13.8 percent of rooftops, 10 percent of building walls, and 15 percent of unused lots for growing fresh food locally. The groundbreaking study published in the journal Sustainability combines the 15 minute city concept where everything sits within walking distance with rooftop gardens, solar powered electric delivery vehicles, and local farmers markets that eliminate dependence on gas guzzling trucks bringing food from distant locations. The team tested their Food Production and Transportation Framework on West 5, a real neighborhood in London, Ontario that already serves as a testing ground for the university’s electrification research program, calculating exact numbers for food production capacity, walking distances to markets, and solar power requirements. The financial results look incredibly promising with the solar powered delivery system paying for itself in less than three years and producing clean electricity at around 92 cents per kilowatt hour after the initial investment period ends.

Lead researcher Caroline Hachem Vermette explains the goal centers on integrating energy, mobility, land use and social functions to bring daily needs closer to residents and help people reduce fossil fuel consuming trips they currently make for basic necessities. The system works by converting spaces communities already have but often waste, transforming flat rooftops from empty expanses of tar into vegetable gardens, building facades into vertical growing systems, and empty lots between houses into productive community garden plots. Solar panels embedded into sidewalks generate electricity while people walk over them, with electric vehicles collecting harvested vegetables and bringing them to grocery stores and farmers markets within one kilometer of most homes so everything stays local and produce arrives fresher. Beyond environmental gains, growing food and sharing it with neighbors fosters real bonds between people that build community resilience, with researchers planning to expand their model to include workplaces, schools, health centers, and recreation facilities creating interconnected neighborhood clusters that share food, energy and amenities.

PrevPreviousScientists Made Real Leather Without Harming Any Animals

Recent Articles

Happy News

The 112 Year Old Christmas Tradition That Just Went Nationwide Online

December 25, 2025

The U.S. Postal Service’s Operation Santa program, now in its 112th year, has expanded nationwide online allowing anyone in the United States to adopt letters written to Santa by hopeful children and families in need and send responses and gifts on his behalf. What began in 1912 as a small

Read More
Happy News

How The Military Tracks Santa

December 25, 2025

Every December, millions of families around the world track Santa’s Yuletide journey through the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s Santa Tracker, a holiday tradition that has grown from humble origins into a massive volunteer operation. NORAD’s powerful North Warning System features 47 radar installations strategically positioned across Alaska and northern

Read More
Happy News

This Is How NORAD Santa Tracker Started

December 25, 2025

In 1955, Sears Roebuck & Co. ran a newspaper advertisement in Colorado Springs with a phone number children could call to speak with Santa, but a printing error connected eager kids not to the North Pole but to the red phone on the desk of Continental Air Defense Command director

Read More
« Previous Next »
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2025 HappyNews.