Challenging the Concept of Sustainability to Perform Global Actions: Rotterdam as a Case Study

Over the past few years, the concept of sustainability has grown in popularity increasingly configuring itself as the best possible balance between human (social and economic) and environment needs, for now and the future. A Venn diagram with three interlocking rings referring to the aforementioned areas has been widely accepted as the main scheme able to put sustainability at its core. Despite the global urgent call for action represented by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), though, a concerted effort to achieve sustainable standards is still missing and this gap brought inevitably to start challenging the said concept of sustainability. The research intends to explore this scenario, by deepening the context of the city of Rotterdam (the Netherlands) as a case study. The city is progressively dealing with a process of urban transformation which is allowing to move away from its industrial past and to approach to a profile as cultural capital. This path is put in place through concrete strategies able to cope with sustainability matters both at a global level, since the city is part of the so-called “Delta Cities Network”, sharing best practices with similar hubs mainly about the issues of sea levels rising and flooding, and at a local level, dealing with the difficulty of supplying drinking water at the same time, among other issues. It clearly emerges, then, the need to structure international frameworks for achieving sustainability globally but acknowledging the unequal starting points that the different countries need to face and tailoring the strategies accordingly, recalling the difference between the concepts of equity and equality. Useful lessons will be drawn in encouraging planners and policymakers towards structuring these global frameworks but implementing tailored initiatives, which are paramount for improving the liveability of the whole city system and coping with sustainable matters.