Catalyzing Investment in Urban Sustainability
U.S.-Brazil Joint Initiative on
Urban Sustainability

Communities & Social Programs

"Green City, Clean Waters"

"Green City, Clean Waters" is Philadelphia's 25-year plan to protect and enhance the City's watersheds by managing stormwater primarily with innovative green infrastructure.

Brazilian National Solid Waste Policy

In 2010, Brazil finalized its National Solid Waste Policy, a cross-cutting law that aims to decrease the total volume of waste produced nationally and increase the sustainability of solid waste management from the local level to the national level.

Brownfield and Land Revitalization

Environmental policies combined with community development strategies can reduce environmental, public health, and financial risks by encouraging safe reuse of brownfields instead of the conversion of undeveloped land.

Brownfield Area-Wide Planning (BF AWP)

This policy approach seeks to maximize brownfield cleanup and revitalization efforts at multiple sites in a local area through community involvement, planning research, technical assistance, and public-private partnerships.

Environmental Job Training

Environmental Workforce job training policies encourage hiring of local residents in the area of environmental management and remediation and response, in partnership with local training service providers.

Green Design and Certification

Communities across the United States and in other countries are looking for opportunities to decrease energy consumption, this has led to the development of green building standard-setting organizations.

Green Streets and Alleys

Green streets and alleys can help local governments green their transportation network by managing stormwater runoff within transportation rights-of-way.

Morar Carioca: Integrating Informal Settlements

As in many large cities in the developing world, a large portion of the population of Rio de Janeiro lives in informal settlements or slums, called favelas.

Municipal Recycling Collection Expansion

Currently, the City of Rio de Janeiro gathers only 1 percent of recyclables through official collection of separated materials, and reaches less than one-third of the City through its efforts.

Organic Materials Management

U.S. EPA policy on organic materials management makes source reduction and food recovery priorities in order to achieve a wide range of benefits, including renewable energy production.

Participatory Budgeting (PB)

PB is a process whereby citizens provide their priorities for civic improvement and have direct influence over the budget allocations of their municipalities, often focused on construction and service budget allocations.

Philadelphia Sustainability Plan—Greenworks

In Mayor Michael Nutter's January 2008 inaugural address, he pledged to make Philadelphia the number one green city in America.

Public Participation Tools for Community Engagement

Local and national authorities in Brazil, the United States, and other countries increasingly recognize that successful projects require meaningful involvement of all affected people, which includes reaching out specifically to minority, low-income, and indigenous populations.

Renewable Energy Development/RE-Powering Initiative

Electricity production will need to increase by nearly 30 percent over the next two decades to meet growing demand. As communities become more concerned about the environmental impacts of fossil fuels, renewable energy technologies will play a greater role in meeting future electricity demand.

Rio "Bicycle Capital City"

Increased bicycle infrastructure in urban environments promotes the importance of cycling as a mode of transportation, resulting in improved urban mobility, environmental quality, social inclusion, and economic benefits.

SEPTAinable Transit Sustainability Plan

"SEPTAinable The Route to Regional Sustainability " is the sustainability plan for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), which provides public transit for 5 Pennsylvania Counties, including Philadelphia.

Site Cleanup Incentives-Financial Policies

Numerous financial strategies exist to reduce risk and "level the financial playing field" between undeveloped land and previously used, often contaminated brownfield sites.

Special Districts and Areas of Interest

In communities in the U.S., Brazil, and elsewhere, local governments are searching for ways to create vibrant communities that attract jobs, foster economic development, and are attractive places for people to live, work, and play.

Transparency Policies and Public Reporting

Transparency policies and public reporting are considered essential to responsive and participatory governing structures.

Urban and Community Supported Agriculture on Former Brownfields

This policy approach promotes urban agriculture as a brownfield and land revitalization approach in under-served, "food desert" areas.

Zero Waste Strategies

A "zero waste" goal recognizes that incremental improvements in resource efficiency may not enable us to reach a sustainable future in the way that a more comprehensive goal of eliminating waste can.

Brownfield Cleanup Tax Expensing Incentive

The tax Incentive, targeted to private site owners, allows recovery of cleanup costs in the year incurred, rather than having to be capitalized over time (up to 30 years for many projects).

Public-Private Partnerships for Urban Sustainability

A public-private partnership is an agreement between a public agency (federal, state, or local) and a private-sector entity that uses the specific skills and assets of each sector for the delivery of a service or facility used by the general public.

Revolving Loan Funds

A revolving loan fund (RLF) is a gap financing measure primarily used for development and/or expansion of a specific initiative, often in the case of environmental investment it's related to water management or environmental cleanup.

Tax Credits and Incentives to Promote Sustainability

Governments have often used tax credits or incentives to motivate or increase investment in a particular sector or area.

Tax Increment Financing (TIF)

As is evident in major cities around the United States, TIF can be a valuable public finance tool for redevelopment projects.

Technical Assistance Loans

Technical assistance loans are intended to provide a range of institutions, including municipal, state, and national governments; private-sector entities, including small, medium, and large companies; financial intermediaries; and nonprofit organizations, with initial low-interest or in some cases zero-interest rate capital to finance activities that help the borrower develop the capacity to absorb high-interest rate loans and financing.

Transit Revitalization Investment District (TRID)

In 2004, the state of Pennsylvania passed the TRID Act.

American Street

The American Street corridor is an historical industrial center in North Philadelphia.

Asta Social Business

Asta, a social business and producers/direct-sales network, has worked since 2008 to "transform lives by producing 'for good'" -promoting the production and distribution quality goods that also do good for those in the network and Brazilian society at large.

Baixada de Jacarepaguá Water Infrastructure

Since 1995, the Baixada de Jacarepaguá area was the fastest growing region of Rio de Janeiro in terms of population and new construction, but the lack of available potable water seriously threatened the quality of life in the region.

Big Green Block

The goal of the Big Green Block project was to transform the sites of the Shissler Recreation Center and the Kensington High School for the Creative and Performing Arts and the surrounding area into the biggest, greenest block in Philadelphia.

Columbus Square

The stormwater planters at Columbus Square are the first of their kind to be installed by the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD), converting a portion of Reed Street into a green street.

Crowd-Sourcing Green Entrepreneurs

Rio de Janeiro's entrepreneurial culture is helping the City build a greener economy.

Fundão Channel Recovery and Revitalization

The Fundão Channel, which divides Fundão Island from the mainland of Rio de Janeiro along the busy Red Line highway, became polluted over the years by dumped petrochemical residues and contaminated runoff.

George W. Nebinger School

The Philadelphia Water Department (PWD), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), and the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE) have joined together to advance green stormwater infrastructure in Philadelphia while educating students and local residents.

Gramacho Landfill Gas to Energy System

The Gramacho Landfill was receiving over 3 million metric tons of waste per year until 2012, producing at its peak 119 million Nm3 methane (normal cubic meter CH4) through decomposition within the landfill, which represents both a contribution to global climate change and a loss of a potential low-pollution energy source.

Greenfield School

Greenfield Elementary School is a model of sustainable site improvement and community involvement in Philadelphia.

Herron Playground

At Herron Playground, the Philadelphia Water Department collaborated with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and the City's Capital Program Office to design and construct green stormwater infrastructure systems as part of a playground renovation.

Percy Street

The 800 block of South Percy Street in South Philadelphia showcases the city's first porous green street.

Porto Maravilha: Urban Waterfront Revitalization

Since the 1970s, the Port of Rio de Janeiro has fallen into disrepair-currently 1 million m2 of real estate are under-occupied and many historic buildings have not been kept up.

Prove: Cooking Oil Reuse

The Reuse of Vegetable Oils in the State of Rio de Janeiro Program, or Prove (for the Portuguese-language acronym), was created in 2008 by the Secretary of State for the Environment (SEA) in order to stimulate the collection of used cooking oil and its reuse in the production of soap and alternative sources of energy such as biodiesel.

Rio Operations Center

The Rio Operations Center, inaugurated in December 2010, integrates the data and monitoring functions of approximately 30 municipal and state agencies and corresponding utilities under one roof.

Sanitation Program for Municipalities Surrounding the Guanabara Bay (PSAM)

PSAM was developed by the Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat of Environment (SEA) in 2010 and is part of the Pact for Sanitation (State Decree 42.930/11) subprogram Rio+Clean.