Sustainable Projects Hold Up Overseas for Now

BOSTON-At the opening of the United Green Building Council’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo here yesterday, the theme was very much international. A panel highlighting plans for recent and future large-scale projects proved that there are still big developments on tap overseas, even though the economic recession has become very much international.

Some of the proposals are huge in scale. One of those projects is Pedra Branca, a 10-mile-wide island off the coast of Brazil. The 700-acre plan already has 4,000 residents, 600 houses and condos and offices that house 4,000 workers. Developers are looking to up those numbers to 30,000 residents and 15,000 employees, said contractor Valerio Gomes.

There are also plans in the works to construct a 20-block downtown area with ground-floor retail. In the sustainability area, the new city will be pedestrian friendly, Gomes said, with a concentration on mixed-use, dense building.