Hours before making the official announcement, former president Bill Clinton shared details of his Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program with attendees of Cushman & Wakefield's annual economic and real estate luncheon in New York City late last month.

Clinton urged more than 1,500 owners, developers and brokers to incorporate sustainability into their business practices since buildings account for a significant portion of global greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. He revealed that his foundation is partnering with mayors of 16 major cities around the world to reduce energy consumption in existing buildings.

As part of the Clinton Climate Initiative, the EEBRP aims to promote the retrofitting of existing structures with more energy-efficient products and technologies. Participating cities, which include New York City, Chicago, Houston, Mexico City, Mumbai and London, will develop and implement energy saving programs at municipal buildings and provide incentives for private building owners to do the same.

ABN AMRO, Citi, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and UBS have each committed $1 billion to finance the upgrades. With these funds, cities and private building owners can do audits and retrofits of their properties at no net cost, with paybacks for the bank loans plus interest coming from the energy savings that projects achieve over several years. The exact structure of the financing will be determined by the corporate sponsors and the CCI in coming months. Energy service companies Honeywell, Johnson Controls Inc., Siemens and Trane have signed on to conduct energy audits, perform retrofits as well as guarantee the energy savings of the retrofit projects.

"My offices are in Harlem and after three hours on a 90-degree day, the surface of that building can be as hot as 105 degrees," said Clinton. "If you put simple sod down and seal the roof, you can take the temperature down to 80 degrees. That has breathtaking implications for the amount of energy used in the building and lowers the utility rates of all the tenants."

The foundation says its changes could potentially reduce energy use by 20% to 50% in existing structures, which comprise the bulk of the building stock in most cities. The cutback could mean a significant decline in heat-trapping carbon emissions, as well as cost savings on energy bills.

Beyond that, Clinton suggested that embracing sustainability could significantly impact the US economy. "Just think about all of the jobs it would create for people who have limited education, but could green all these roofs, replace all these windows," he said.