Skip to main content

Caterpillar Foundation supports sustainable cities Initiative

The Caterpillar Foundation today announced a five-year, $12.5 million grant to the World Resources Institute (WRI) to advance the progress of environmentally sustainable and livable cities in China, India, and Brazil.
April 25, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The 178 Caterpillar Foundation today announced a five-year, $12.5 million grant to the 5224 World Resources Institute (WRI) to advance the progress of environmentally sustainable and livable cities in China, India, and Brazil.

WRI intends to develop low-carbon city models and pathways for environmentally sustainable urbanisation (ESU), and to promote the diffusion of environmentally smart and livable cities. The institute will partner with up to five urban centrer to demonstrate how they can use “avoid, shift and improve” strategies to increase energy efficiency, curb greenhouse gas emissions, and improve water quality, urban mobility and land use.

“Sustainable urbanisation is challenging, and the World Resources Institute has a proven track record of developing innovative approaches to the world’s biggest environmental and sustainability issues,” said Kevin Thieneman, Caterpillar China, India and ASEAN country manager. “Caterpillar is proud to support WRI’s work to create more sustainable and livable cities. It is our hope that the lessons learned in China, India and Brazil will guide the world’s urban centres toward more sustainable growth models that will generate practical solutions for managing rapid urbanisation and improve the lives of millions of people.”

WRI will create “blueprints” — low-carbon plans for environmentally sustainable and livable cities — to catalyse and help implement large-scale, high-impact demonstration projects. It will then conduct a prodigious targeted outreach effort to disseminate lessons learned to other growing cities to help them scale up and adapt key elements to their own conditions.

China, India, and Brazil are among the world’s most rapidly urbanising nations. In China, experts predict that by 2030 more than 70 per cent of its people will live in cities, and that 221 cities will have at least one million residents, while in India and Brazil, urban growth is explosive and poses poses substantial challenges.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Caterpillar eyes better performance in 2015 amid stormy weather
    May 13, 2015
    Caterpillar vice president Paolo Fellin sums up the past year for the global equipment manufacturer and looks at the increasing importance of telematics and machine control. David Arminas reports from Caterpillar’s Demonstration and Learning Centre in Malaga, southern Spain First the good news. Despite the difficulties, especially of the financial markets, 2014 was “a record year for a lot of things” for global heavy equipment maker Caterpillar.Now the bad news. Hang onto your seats because despite some
  • Nigeria’s Eko Atlantic project: a city on the sea
    September 27, 2013
    Imagine a megapolis rising, Atlantis-like, from the sea. An urban development similar in size to New York’s Manhattan that boasts thriving business and residential districts to help transform not just a city but an entire country. It sounds like the stuff of science fiction. But the Eko Atlantic project in Lagos, Nigeria, is real and has become one of the most dazzling and most discussed construction developments in the entire world. One hundred years ago, the area of land on which the new city will be bu
  • Rolls Royce Power Systems bullish
    February 28, 2022
    Rolls Royce Power Systems is bullish with a strong performance
  • Roads a priority in Oman’s $14.8bn infrastructure spend
    May 29, 2013
    An upcoming summit will look at opportunities offered by Oman’s infrastructure plans. Oman is planning to spend some US$14.8 billion on infrastructure in the coming years. The figure, almost half of the country’s 8th Five-Year Development Plan for 2011-2015, has been earmarked for overhauling roads, ports and airports with the objective to link the three modes of transport to improve interconnectivity. Oman’s huge infrastructure will include numerous road projects, bridge structures, tunnel constructions an