Engineer partners with HSBC and Shanghai Industrial Investment to develp Dongtan Institute for Sustainability
Arup, HSBC, Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation (SIIC) and Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL) have formed a partnership to develop the funding model for eco-cities in China.
The consortium will work with the Dongtan Institute for Sustainability to become a world centre for examining the connection between the environment and economic performance.
Ma Chengliang, SIIC director, said: “This signing of collaboration creates a China-UK professional consortium, which will facilitate the development of Dongtan eco-city and develop the establishment of Dongtan Sustainability Institute.
“The consortium intends to cooperate together and develop eco-cities in China, to explore systematic solutions for eco-cities.”
The announcement was made on Saturday a Memorandum of Understanding witnessed by the prime minister Gordon Brown who is in China as part of his overseas trip to Asia.
Dongtan, the eco-city being built near Shanghai, is the first project where this funding model will be put into practice. The idea is to take this model and create the means to put it into practice in China and around the world.
The institute will be the focal point not only for the commercial development strategy for Dongtan but also for addressing the challenges of urbanisation and environmental degradation across the globe.
The four companies will work with Tongi University on the development of the institute.
The announcement follows the signing of a deal between the UK and Chinese governments to foster collaboration between Dongtan and the London Thames Gateway scheme through the eventual partnering of the Dongtan Institute for Sustainability with institutes created in the Thames Gateway.
