Hours before making the official announcement, former presidentBill Clinton shared details of his Energy Efficiency BuildingRetrofit Program with attendees of Cushman & Wakefield's annualeconomic and real estate luncheon in New York City late lastmonth.Clinton urged more than 1,500 owners, developers and brokersto incorporate sustainability into their business practices sincebuildings account for a significant portion of global greenhousegas emissions and energy consumption. He revealed that hisfoundation is partnering with mayors of 16 major cities around theworld to reduce energy consumption in existing buildings.

As part of the Clinton Climate Initiative, the EEBRP aims topromote the retrofitting of existing structures with moreenergy-efficient products and technologies. Participating cities,which include New York City, Chicago, Houston, Mexico City, Mumbaiand London, will develop and implement energy saving programs atmunicipal buildings and provide incentives for private buildingowners to do the same.

ABN AMRO, Citi, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and UBS have eachcommitted $1 billion to finance the upgrades. With these funds,cities and private building owners can do audits and retrofits oftheir properties at no net cost, with paybacks for the bank loansplus interest coming from the energy savings that projects achieveover several years. The exact structure of the financing will bedetermined by the corporate sponsors and the CCI in coming months.Energy service companies Honeywell, Johnson Controls Inc., Siemensand Trane have signed on to conduct energy audits, performretrofits as well as guarantee the energy savings of the retrofitprojects.