Building the world's cleanest city
In a Persian Gulf desert, a U.S. engineering firm drives clean tech forward.
By Marc Gunther, senior writer
(Fortune) -- Halfway around the world, a zero-carbon, zero-waste, automobile-free city known as Masdar is rising from a 2.3-square mile plot of desert in Abu Dhabi.
If all goes according to plan, Masdar - financed with $15 billion in oil money - will become a showcase for smart urban planning, green building, renewable energy, sustainable materials and advanced recycling.
"There is nothing like it in the world," says Masdar CEO Sultan Al Jaber, without exaggeration. "Masdar has a simple promise - to be the world's center for future energy solutions." Should this grand experiment work, Abu Dhabi will profit from the clean energy economy of tomorrow, just as it profits from $100-a-barrel oil today.
To get from here to there, Abu Dhabi will tap into the vision of London architects Foster and Partners and the skills of a big U.S. engineering firm called CH2M Hill. Last week, I visited CH2M Hill's headquarters in Englewood, Colorado, a Denver suburb, to learn more about the project, and about the company that's been hired to make it real.
Masdar "is about a journey to zero carbon, zero waste," says Jim Otta, a senior executive with CH2M Hill. "It's like the U.S. on its quest to the moon. Nobody quite knew how to get to the moon when Kennedy announced the goal. Yet a decade later, people were walking on the moon." |
The Future Cities Project has been set up to critically explore issues around the city. From the urban renaissance to the urban village; from sustainable development to under-development; from density to sprawl; from greenfield to green politics, the Future Cities Project seeks to explore why the terms of the debate - especially around cities - have become so fraught. We recognise that all questions around "the city" seem to be more intractable and less clear cut than they once were. But does that mean that city questions have become more complex, or have we become less confident to answer them |
Earth Day Network’s Urban Environment Report (UER) scores the current environmental performance of 72 of our nation’s cities based on over 200 indicators, taking into account those populations which may have greater sensitivity or susceptibility to environmental, health, and social problems.
The Urban Environment Report broadens our view of environmental quality of life by taking into account those who often suffer the most but are heard the least. Earth Day Network’s mission is to grow and diversify the environmental movement worldwide, and to mobilize it as the most effective vehicle for promoting a healthy, sustainable planet. We pursue these goals through education, politics, events, and consumer activism. |
