USGBC and CCI Partner to Promote Green Urban Development

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) have partnered to form the Climate Positive Development Program, which will support large-scale urban projects and real estate development with net-zero onsite carbon emissions. The program will include 16 projects in communities with a combined total of nearly one million people living and working in them.

Participating governments and developers must agree to implement cost-effective green building measures, generate clean energy, conserve water, manage waste and wastewater in an environmentally friendly manner, and develop transportation systems that conserve energy. Consultants from CCI and USGBC will work with project leaders on planning and implementation of the projects and will develop metrics by which the success of each project can be measured. No metrics have been set, however, so it is hard to say how projects will be compared.

The projects chosen for the program vary in scope, but most feature mixed-use development within existing cities. It is unclear how any of these projects, most of which are new developments, will serve as models for environmentally sensitive development for impoverished areas in existing urban centers.