ASHRAE Joins Former President Clinton in Climate Initiative

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has announced that it will join with former President Bill Clinton in an initiative to reduce carbon emissions and increase efficiency in the world's largest cities.

The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) is a Clinton Foundation program dedicated to making a difference in the fight against climate change in practical and measurable ways.

"Recognizing the impact of buildings on global energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, ASHRAE will work with city planners to support development of codes, standards, energy use metrics and other programs that lower environmental impacts," according to an agreement signed by ASHRAE and the Foundation. "ASHRAE's assistance will facilitate the transfer of existing tools and technology, and support solutions to common energy and greenhouse gas emission challenges facing large city group leaders."

The CCI-Large Cities partnership is initially targeting 22 of the largest cities in the world: Berlin, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Caracas, Chicago, Delhi, Dhaka, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Toronto and Warsaw. Many of these cities will be visited by ASHRAE leaders later this year.

Other partners in the Clinton Climate Initiative include the U.S. Green Building Council, the Alliance to Save Energy and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.

The CCI will assist the large cities in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy efficiency. To enable partner cities to do so, CCI will:

• Create a purchasing consortium that will pool the purchasing power of the cities to lower the prices of energy-saving products and accelerate the development and deployment of new energy-saving and greenhouse-gas-reducing technologies and products.
• Mobilize experts to provide technical assistance to cities to develop and implement plans that will result in energy efficiency and low greenhouse gas emissions.
• Create and deploy measurement tools and internet-based communications systems that will allow cities to establish a baseline on their greenhouse gas emissions, measure the effectiveness of the program in reducing these emissions and to share what works and does not work with each other.