Cartagena de Indias ranked seventh among 105 heritage cities in Europe and Latin America in a sustainability study by statistician Martin Sebastian Rondon Raigoza, scoring 0.96 out of 1. ^[1] Martin Sebastian Rondon Raigoza said that the cultural advantage of cities such as Cartagena and Cusco lies in heritage being part of everyday life rather than only a tourist attraction. ^[2] The study by Martin Sebastian Rondon Raigoza compared 105 heritage cities in Latin America and Europe, including 73 European and 32 Latin American cities with UNESCO World Heritage historic centers. ^[3] The study found that Latin American cities scored higher in the cultural dimension (average 0.658 vs 0.598 for European cities), while European cities scored higher in the social (0.816 vs 0.720) and economic (0.927 vs 0.909) dimensions. ^[4] John Vasquez grew up in Ciudad Bolívar, Colombia, where he observed environmental conflicts associated with urban development, including the 1997 landslide at the Doña Juana sanitary landfill. ^[5] Over the last ten years, Vasquez's initiatives have conducted more than 40 workshops and laboratories, training over 1,000 people in bioconstruction methodologies. ^[6] The United Nations Environment Programme states that the construction industry accounts for 34% of global greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy consumption and the production of materials like cement and steel. ^[7] Vasquez founded the Laboratory of Earth Construction and the Integral Experience of Bioconstruction to experiment with natural materials and recover ancestral knowledge. ^[8]