This is the second in a series of ten posts commenting on trendwatching.com’s “10 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2010.” The first was Business Unusual, in which I shared my thoughts on how businesses should respond to the issues of sustainability, moving with the culture, and doing things differently. This week I’m pondering what happens as the vast majority of the world’s citizens are living as urbanites.

A defining trend for 2010, 2011, 2012, and so on: urbanization on steroids. We’ll let the numbers speak for themselves:

“Less than 5 per cent of the world’s population lived in cities a century ago. In 2008, for the first time in humanity, that figure exceeded 50 per cent. In the last two decades alone, the urban population of the developing world has grown by an average of 3 million people per week.”

“By 2050, it will have reached 70 per cent, representing 6.4 billion people. Most of this growth will be taking place in developing regions; Asia will host 63 percent of the global urban population, or 3.3 billion people in 2050.” (Source: the Global Report on Human Settlements 2009, October 2009.)

This doesn’t really surprise me. Given the industries that seem to be generating most of the world’s wealth and creating the global economy it seems perfectly logical that people are moving to urban areas where technology, financial services, healthcare and other key industries tend to be located, as well as the service industries that support them. Increasingly, cities are where the jobs are. Urban areas are also rich with cultural and educational institutions, great dining and entertainment, and a myriad of other things that make living an urban lifestyle stimulating and fulfilling.

In my absolutely biased opinion, urban areas also provide an aesthetically pleasing environment in which to live. After a period of prosperity when cities thrived and underwent tremendous revitalization, I believe they can provide more attractive alternatives to the suburban and rural areas that are now dying in the wake of the economic crisis. Think of the ghost towns of McMansions and sprawling rows of tract houses that were built to house hoards that never came. Obviously no one wants to live there because no one does! Of course it’s lovely in the mountains and in countrysides around the country, but the view doesn’t pay the rent.

Where will this lead us? We’ve dubbed this extreme push towards urbanization ‘URBANY’, representing a global consumer arena inhabited by billions of experienced and newly-minted urbanites. The significance?

A forever-growing number of more sophisticated, more demanding, but also more try-out-prone, super-wired urban consumers are snapping up more ‘daring’ goods, services, experiences, campaigns and conversations.

And thanks to near-total online transparency of the latest and greatest, those consumers opting to remain in rural areas will be tempted to act (and shop) online like urban consumers, too.

This of course creates fertile grounds for B2C brands keen on pushing the innovation envelope in any possible way. As Alex Steffen, editor of WorldChanging stated:

“I’m certainly not saying that all innovation is urban, or that the suburbs are brain dead or anything. I am saying that compact, wired and wealthy urban communities seem to me to be becoming the epicenters of innovation these days, and that is going to change what innovations emerge.”

It goes without saying that goods and services are going to go where the population that consumes them lives, or at least fashion themselves according to what that consumer demands. Are those “‘daring’ goods, services, experiences, campaigns and conversations” being created solely as a result of this great population shift to urban environments though? I would argue that it’s more likely a result of the way that technology has changed the way we communicate and consume than a simple answer about location, especially given the statement that suburban and rural consumers will behave like their urban comrades.

The question about innovation is more intriguing however. Are cities the “epicenters of innovation” and if so, why?

One possible answer to this question, at least in the US, is that many of the best universities are in urban environments. Here in Boston MIT is a perfect example. And it’s not just the great minds that are connected to universities that spawn innovation, but resources and facilities. Again, here in Boston, there are a number of top-class medical schools with hospitals and research facilities that are responsible for some major innovations in health care and treatment.

And then it just becomes a matter of momentum and numbers. The more people who live in urban environments – who are attracted to the city for all of the reasons discussed above – are probably going to be the ones capable of creating innovation themselves, in whatever area they happen to move and shake. They have ideas about goods and services that they would like and find ways to create them if they don’t already exist.

Oh, and don’t even get us started on the growing consensus that cities could actually be the most sustainable form of human settlement. But we’ll save that one for a future briefing.

This is actually the aspect of the trend toward ‘Urbany’ that interests me the most, although it’s hardly a new idea. In the 1950′s, urbanist, writer and activist Jane Jacobs was bringing people’s attention to the need to preserve urban environments to keep vital communities healthy and in tact. In 1961, she wrote what is probably the most important book ever written on city planning, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, which challenged and successfully defeated modernist city planning and set off the revival of old-fashioned neighborhoods that later inspired the New Urbanists. Way ahead of her time, Jane Jacobs’ activism and writing laid the groundwork for contemporary thought and movement toward embracing city living as the best way to keep a sense of community and making urban living a more sustainable way of life.

There is an overwhelming abundance of resources for anyone who wants to build, support or live a sustainable life in the city. For example, this one website has an enormous amount of information – geared mainly toward architects and city planners – on how to improve the quality of life and sustainability in urban environments. There books galore on the subject of living a more sustainable urban lifestyle, ranging from the scientific and academic toward more demographically-targeted books like one that sits on my bookshelf, The Eco Chick Guide to Life: How to Be Fabulously Green.

I’m sure there are some who would argue this point with me, but I actually think it’s easier to scale down and embrace a more sustainable lifestyle in an urban environment, where you can rent a small apartment, get rid of your car and take public transportation, find public services who can reuse furniture, clothing and other items you no longer want, and any number of other ways to reduce your carbon footprint and even become more of a locavore. I see how so many restaurants, just here in Boston, are embracing sustainable foods and are keeping many of the local small farmers in business by choosing to use their products. I’m probably doing more for sustainable farmers by dining out and utilizing the summer farmers market than I ever would be if I lived in a suburb where the only food I had access to was a big-box grocery store that had everything shipped in from some central distribution center hundreds of miles away.

It’s a fascinating topic and one I’m sure could sustain much more discussion. Certainly, as a trend for 2010 I’m excited to see where this ‘Urbany’ takes us.

Next week: Real-Time Reviews

Source: www.trendwatching.com. One of the world’s leading trend firms, trendwatching.com sends out its free, monthly Trend Briefings to more than 160,000 subscribers worldwide.