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

Water Quality & Water Management

"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.

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.

Pact for Sanitation

Designed by the Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat for the Environment (SEA), the Pact for Sanitation (Pacto pelo Saneamento) program aims to universalize public sanitation in Rio de Janeiro. In 2007, when the Pact was conceived, only about 60 percent of sewage was collected and only about 24 percent of that amount was treated.

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.

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.

Stormwater Utility Rate Structuring

As Philadelphia's stormwater management costs increase, it has become more important to the City to receive payment for providing stormwater service.

BVRio: Incentivizing Green Credit Systems

Bolsa Verde do Rio de Janeiro (BVRio) or the Rio de Janeiro Green Exchange is an organization created to develop and operate environmental markets in Brazil.

Climate and Green Bonds

Climate and green bonds are fixed-income financial instruments that are issued in order to raise capital for the implementation of environmental projects, often climate change mitigation- or adaptation-related activities or renewable or energy efficiency projects, and therefore allow investors to report to their members on how their secure investments are also contributing to addressing environmental challenges.

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.

Stormwater Credit Program

The Philadelphia Stormwater Regulations provide the legal measures for implementing stormwater billing. The Gross Area and Impervious Area of a property are used to determine the Stormwater Management Services (SWMS) Charge.

Sustainable Public-Private Loan Strategy

Public-private loan structures can support sustainability projects that might not otherwise take place.

American Street

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

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.

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.

Green Buildings at the Navy Yard

Every building developed in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, a rapidly developing area, is required to meet and will be registered for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

Green Districts Program: Ilha do Bom Jesus

In order to stimulate innovation and concentrated economic development, the State of Rio de Janeiro has developed the concept of "Green Districts."

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.

Morar Carioca "Verde": Greener Development

The Rio de Janeiro Municipal Secretariat of Housing (SMH) made respect for the environment a core principle of their interventions in the "favelas" (slums) of the city.

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.

PWD Biogas Cogeneration Facility

In 2012, the Philadelphia Water Department and the company Ameresco, Inc. announced an agreement to develop and maintain a cogeneration facility at PWD's Northeast Water Pollution Control Plant.

Queen Lane

The Philadelphia Water Department installed Philadelphia's first stormwater bumpouts, or landscaped curb extensions, on Queen Lane in East Falls in 2011.

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.

West Zone Sanitation

Approximately 30 percent of the population of Rio de Janeiro lives in Planning Area 5 (AP-5) of the City, but in this West Zone region today only 50 percent of sewage is captured and only 4 percent is treated.