1. Unfortunately the lifestyle of the majority of Odessa inhabitants has nothing in common with the basis of
sustainable development. However I am fully confident that this state of affairs can be improved within
the next few years. In my opinion, the principal condition for these changes is an active position of the
citizens.
The old Russian proverb says: “Fish rots from the head…but should be scaled from the tail”.
In real it completely represents the current situation in Odessa. The “head” is stuck in a endless process of
promotion of “sustainable” laws. But can we afford to stay inactive because of the lack of appropriate
legislation?! I think NO. The “tail” should start fighting for increasing the quality of human life. And the
first fight is certainly against our own prejudices, habits and ignorance.
I also believe that the active social position will be able to awake the political one. And then joining our
forces we will achieve the status of sustainable city.
In this presentation I describe the most urgent, to my point-of-view, improvements required for the
current situation in Odessa. They concern the activity of government, city authority and population as well
as the collaboration between all of these levels. All my propositions are based on the common sense and
successful experience of other countries and regions in each certain sphere.

2. Renewable energy
Thanks to the location (Odessa is surrounded by sea
and steppe) the region is an ideal place for wind
energy, that can be produced in:
 Wind farms in plain areas
Such project has been recently realized in Ukrainian
region Zaporizhia. Now it generates 90 MV.
 Offshore wind farms
Never used before in Ukraine, but successfully
produce energy in Denmark, Sweden, etc.
Thanks to the high sun activity and number of
sunny days per year as well as to the spacious plain
territories Odessa region has a huge potential to
become a leader of solar energy in Ukraine with:
 Photovoltaic power stations
Such project has been realized in 2009 in Ukrainian
region - the peninsula Crimea. Now it generates 100
MVt.
For ecologist: The construction of the 100MV photovoltaic powers station and a complex of 200 MV wind farms
in Odessa will have the capacity to reduce about 835.000 tons of CO2 each year.
For economist: The pay back period of such projects is about 5 years, thanks to the high feed-in tariff established
by government until 2030.

3. Sustainable architecture
and design
The systems of alternative energy should be also
supported by private houses and lands owners as well as
by the residents and developers of high-rise apartment
buildings with the usage of:
• solar water heaters (it is also necessary to provide
the obligatory law for new houses, similar to the
Spanish one, and also to the houses on the 1st sea
line)
• solar roof panels (special conditions for developers
of high-rise apartments, since now it is used only by
a small private sector)
• solar kitchens for country summer houses (Finnish
innovation that is not well-known in Ukraine yet
but is widely used in Chinese villages)
• wind farms on the private lands
Another “green” innovations that we can use in our houses are:
• light tubes that provide indoor space with a daylight during the day hours (practiced in German and Australia)
• furniture, items of décor and accessories made of recycled materials (fashion trend in German, Swiss, etc.)

4. Planting and Gardening
Odessa has always been well-known by its beautiful parks and alleys. The
majority of the inhabitants of the city are involved either into planting
flowers, bushes and trees in the surrounding areas or into gardening in their
country houses’ lands.
The improvements that should be undertaken in this sphere are the following:
• to substitute old, non oxygen-efficient trees for the new tree and bushes types in
both private and municipal lands (practiced in the USA)
• to plant the city lawns located along the roads with the most oxygen-efficient plants
• to lay out new parks, alleys and gardens in the city, esp. in bedroom communities
• to promote and realize the idea of the roof gardens, esp. for the high-rise apartment
buildings in order to enrich the air with oxygen as well as to increase noise
protection and reduce heating (practiced in Norway, the USA, etc.)
For ecologist: The green roof reduces the usage of the conditioning by 40-60 %, that
consequently decreases the usage of electricity
For politician: Berlin authority pays 60% back to the owner of the house that lays out a
garden on its roof
For economist: To equip the roof for the intensive green in Odessa costs 73 euro/m2.
This sum can be paid back during 3-5 years by using the roof as an agriculture space
(intensive green roof) or as a golf area (extensive green roof).

5. Green transport
To decrease the number of autos in the roads of
Odessa is possible launching the following programs:
NEW MUNICIPAL TRANSPORT CHANGES IN TRANSPORT LEGISLATION
• to substitute old transport into innovative and eco-friendly • to create a special road line exclusively for
one, to increase its amount and to improve its service quality, to cars with passengers (practiced in Spain)
put some extra services (e.g. free wi-fi) in order to level up the
citizens loyalty to it (such reforms were carried out in Ukrainian • to provide the owners of electric and hybrid
city Vinnytsia) autos with fringe benefits (e.g. free
municipal parking)
• to develop new kinds of city transportation: e.g. local sea • to minimize the car utilization fee from 500
transport (that functioned during the years of the Soviet Union)
and air metro (popular in Venezuela, Barcelona, Hong Kong) euro (current min rate) to 50 euro (like in
Holland) and create the program for the
CARPOOLING utilization of autos older than 20 years
• to create special website for registration of people that can according to which the owner gets and
share one car in the journey to the same direction (practiced government payment (as practiced in
in the USA) Denmark with cars older than 10 years)
BICYCLING
• to reconstruct the current bicycle lanes and develop new
ones
• to put into operation bicycle stations with the service of rent
(by the example of Velib in Paris)
WALKING AND MARAPHONS
• to reconstruct the current walking paths
• to promote advantages of walking, to establish an awarded
marathon as one of the brightest events of Odessa (practiced
in Japan)

6. The critical points
All the improvements enumerated above are necessary for THE SEA PORT PROBLEMS
Odessa that is going to embark on the path of sustainable
development. Neverheless, in this chapter I draw the attention • to eliminate the uncontrolled emissions
to the priority problems of the region that should be solved as of oil during the throughput with the help of
a preliminary step in its evolution. the total sea port modification
• to minimize the oil supplies thanks to the
increasing of dry cargo supplies and the
RECYCLING PROBLEM development of capacity of the terminal for
In contrast to the most European cities and even some international passenger liners
Ukrainian regions Odessa still doesnt have the system of
separate utilization. The local authority has urgently:
• to provide the city streets with the necessary amount of
refuse bins for separate utilization
• to provide the parks, fardens, beaches and other places of
leisure with special dustbins at a distance not less than 5 m
from each other
• to minimize the quantity of the garbage dumps
THE DRYING OG THE PONDS
Odessa region has the same problem with several ponds
during the latest years, but the situation with Kuyalnik Estuary
(a famous in Ukraine mud health spa) got its climax! It is
urgently necessary:
• to bring Kuyalnik Estuary back to life with the help of
laying a tubing btw it and The Black Sea

7. Education and science
I know the lion’s share of the success in creation of sustainable
city can be achieved as soon as all layers of Odessa society are
informed about the problems existing in the city, educated in
the principles of sustainable development and interested in its
innovations. So, this is just necessary:
• to introduce a new subject based on the document of The
Earth Charter into educational program of schools (the same
practice took place in India)
• to conduct a serious of lectures dedicated to the sustainable
development for students, government offices and
businessmen
• to carry out a persuasive advertising campaign of the
principles of sustainable city in order to promote its ideas
btw the population
I also believe that the level of knowledge of our scientists (biologists, ecologists, physicist, etc.) is high enough
to be involved in the solving of such world-wide problems as the development of the third-generation green
technologies and the method of elimination of greenhouse gases in atmosphere. To motivate the scientific
progress, it is necessary:
• to provide the government sector with the appropriate financing
• to establish an award for the inventions in this sphere (e.g. Virgin Earth Challenge established by British
corporation Virgin)