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Will London be a clean, shiny, sustainable metropolis in 50 years’ time?  Or will we turn it into an overheated, polluted scrapheap?

A glimpse of our future will go on show at the Truman Brewery in Brick Lane tomorrow, when a new exhibition, Future London: Footprints of a Generation will reveal how small decisions made today will affect our city tomorrow.

“London’s future hangs in the balance,” says James Bidwell, CEO of  Visit Britain, the organisers. “We are quite green but not very green at the moment. There is much we could easily do. That is what the exhibition is going to show.”

Among the ground breaking technology on display will be pollution-free vehicles fuelled by hydrogen gas that produce only water as a waste product, thus cutting smog levels on city streets.

Hydrogen-fuelled buses already operate on the RV1 route from Tower Hill to Covent Garden. Engineers are trying to produce the hydrogen they need using renewable sources, which would make such cars, buses and vans completely sustainable.

Also on show will be “green roofs”, specially designed roof gardens which environmentalists hope will soon appear on the top floors of buildings across the capital.

Planting short grass or a layer of moss on roofs keeps houses and office blocks cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.  They reduce flooding by absorbing rainwater, as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Many London buildings have already gone green on top, including the Liffe building in Cannon Street, Jubilee Park in Canary Wharf and North Harringay Primary School in Tottenham.

The exhibition will showcase sources of renewable energy that can be installed on individual houses, from state-of-the-art solar panels to mini-windmills.

Charles Secrett, the chief environmental adviser to Ken Livingstone, says: “At the moment, you’re seeing these as isolated dots across the city, but in the next ten or 15 years, they will become the norm. They help the environment, and they also reduce energy bills.  They make sense for individuals, as well as for the city as a whole.”

A section of the exhibition will be devoted to food, showing how much pollution our current eating habits cause.

Analysing a typical shopping basket of 26 items showed that they had travelled a distance equivalent to six times round the Equator, 150,000 miles. Such a journey releases as much CO2 into the atmosphere as a typical family cooking meals for eight months.

Sourcing food locally could reduce the volume of  CO2 produced by 80 per cent. The exhibition will highlight the growth in popularity of farmers’ markets, which decrease the distance food travels, as well as offering healthier, tastier local produce.

Secrett is optimistic about the future.  He says: “The innovations on show are not just likely but inevitable – they make so much ecological, social and economic sense.  We want to prove that you don’t have to live on an island off the Scottish coast to go green.”

Fast Facts

Future London: Footprints of a Generation, an exhibition, will be on display at the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane from 8-16 September, before moving to the Science Museum from 25 September to 1 October 

Admission is free, and the exhibition is open until 8pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays 

For more information, call 020 7234 5800 or visit futurelondon.co.uk

Other useful sites

Recycleforlondon.com

Reduce the amount of waste you throw away

Carbonfootprint.com

See how much carbon dioxide you produce, and how to reduce it

London.gov.uk

Information from the Mayor’s office on how to make London a greener city