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Positively Beneficial to the Climate

Clinton Climate Initiative lauds developments that aid the planet.

By Debra Hazel | Updated on June 26, 2009

Is it really possible to have less than zero carbon emissions? Sixteen projects worldwide, including Zonk’izizwe Town Center in Midrand, Gauteng, South Africa, will attempt to find out with the help of a former US president and his foundation.

Zonk’izizwe, a $1.5-billion, five-million-square-foot mixed-use complex to be built over 15 years by Old Mutual Properties on 554 acres between downtown Johannesburg and Pretoria (Tschwane), will consist of residential, commercial and transportation uses. But it’s the commercial core, which will include 1.6 million square feet of retail and entertainment, a 12-story hotel, office towers and a transportation center surrounding a man-made lake, which will provide the early demonstration of climate positive development.

“We’ve been master-planning the project for the last 10 years,” says Roy Higgs, CEO of Baltimore-based Development Design Group, with green aspects as an important consideration throughout. The master plan includes bike paths and trails to allow easy pedestrian and bicycle traffic between the project’s components, reducing auto dependence. A shuttle also is being discussed for more distant elements. Office and residential towers will rise as high as is permissible for a complex located near a regional airport.

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