Background A green environment includes the geographical area and the natural state that has not yet been developed and development must not negatively impact the existing infrastructure and the environment. The design of green cities needs various environmental programs and suggestions from a multi-agency perspective. Environmental abuse must be reduced. Abuse is exploitation through extraction of raw materials for production without protective measures to restore nature’s former state. Most cities now are paved with concrete and asphalt where the grasses, trees and plants are not anymore around. Cities should provide a wholesome green environment emphasizing environmental preservation. There are cities which have developed sustainability plans stressing on those areas, like for example, PlaNYC for New York which is a model environmental plan focusing on the environment, economy and equity (Rosan, 2012, p. 960). An eco-friendly community is one built on many aspects of environmental preservation, that include cleaning up the surrounding; adequate programs for waste management disposal; the presence of different varieties of species on earth, in short biodiversity; reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and pollution; sustainability and the concern for the future needs of the planet (Maczulak, 2010). All these underline the topic on green cities. Problems of industrial cities Pollution The growth of cities has impacted on global sustainability as can be seen on their environmental effects. Urban areas need large volumes of resources which produce more greenhouse gases in the form of methane and carbon dioxide. Industries have exacerbated air pollution. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission is the number one problem. City planners should focus on reducing GHG emissions with the use of renewable energy. Pollution has produced a plume spinning the earth (Balaram as cited in Bugliarello, 2011, p. 4). This plume is composed of toxic substances that warm the environment and destroys the ozone layer, our protection from the sun’s ultra-violet rays. Pollution reduces air quality and increases air temperature, exacerbating global warming. The “heat island effect” is created wherein the temperature of the city is higher than the countryside (Bugliarello, 2011, p. 4). Urbanization The urban cycle concept is linked with environmental use and abuse. First, agriculture was invented about ten thousand years ago. Cities were formed, knowledge was improved, alongside material and social capital, and then came the discovery of oil, the so-called black gold. The discovery of fossil fuel impacted on industries, technologies, and other social phenomena. The urban cycle resulted in the production of “negative products,” environmental degradation, urban migration and poverty and the many social ills as a result of migration. With a large population to feed, agriculture has to be improved which resulted in “the development of energy- and fertilizer-intensive industrialized agriculture” (Bugliarello, 2011, p. 5). Urban migration exacerbates environmental problems and slum areas continue to grow. The emphasis of environmental justice is to focus on these slum areas since many poor families, ethnic communities and so-called marginalized, live