The UK has announced that all new secondary schools --200 are planned over the next three years-- will be designed to be carbon neutral, or at least with greatly reduced carbon emissions. This vast undertaking will involve not just implementing green building techniques but integrating green thinking in classes and school culture.

The booming cities of China and Southeast Asia face both economic and cultural hurdles to improving energy efficiency -- not unlike their Western counterparts. Fortunately, simple solutions abound: from adjusting building codes to changing the norms of building air conditioning and heating.

The 100-unit "BedZED" zero-energy housing development in Surrey could be a model for the future of environmentally sound living encouraged in forthcoming federal tax breaks in the UK.

While hundreds of megawatts of Northwest wind power are slated to come online in 2007, most of that power will have to travel many miles via transmission lines to reach electricity customers. As regional experts attempt to tackle wind integration issues, a handful of wind technology innovations could bring small-scale wind installations where power is needed most: urban centers.

New warnings on climate change, and Washington's reluctance to act on them, have led 16 major US cities to sign up for a deal brokered by former President Bill Clinton that lets them borrow money for energy conservation retrofits of municipal buildings, then repay the loans with the resulting cost savings.

After more than a decade of tightening guidelines, Europe has made green architecture an everyday reality. In the United States, however, the federal government has yet to establish universal efficiency standards for buildings. Today the average building in the U.S. uses roughly a third more energy than its German counterpart.

Sixteen major cities around the world will begin saving energy and cutting carbon emissions by renovating city-owned buildings with green technology under a program spearheaded by former President Clinton's foundation. Major global banking institutions have committed $5 billion to finance the upgrades.

One B.C. developer is taking green design to the bank by combining its energy-efficient building techniques with an innovative financing scheme that lets home buyers benefit from green technology without having to pay all the costs up front.

Timothy Beatley explains what planners and local officials in the United States can learn from the sustainable cities movement in Europe. The book draws from the extensive European experience, examining the progress and policies of twenty-five of the most innovative cities in eleven European countries. Beatley focuses on the key lessons from these cities and what their experience can teach us about effectively and creatively promoting sustainable development in the United States.

The new towns — with up to 20,000 homes in each — will be built on brownfield sites. Each of the new homes in the five towns will be built to zero-rated carbon standards and all their energy supplies will be generated locally from sustainable sources. The towns will have new road and rail links and will include zero-carbon schools and health centres. 40 of the UK's local housing authorities have already expressed an interest.