ICLEI’s Sustainability
Leadership
What we do: Connect leaders, accelerate action and serve as a gateway to solutions across a global network of 1,000 cities, counties, and towns. Our Network
ICLEI is the leading global network of more than 1,000 local governments committed to climate action and sustainability. The network is comprised 12 mega-cities, 100 super-cities and urban regions, 450 large cities as well as 450 small and mediumsized cities and towns in 84 countries. Headquartered in Bonn, ICLEI serves cities in every region through offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, Toronto, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Capetown, Freiburg, Seoul, Tokyo, New Delhi, Manila, and Melbourne. ICLEI has a staff of approximately 150 urban sustainability professionals throughout the world.
Our Expertise
ICLEI’s mission is to build capacity in cities around GHG emissions management, climate resilience and risk management, energy, and other sustainability concerns. ICLEI sets national and international standards and develops cutting-edge tools, trainings, and processes. We help local governments measure and report their progress to show results. Our networks connect local government leaders to share challenges and solutions to accelerate progress.
Our Opportunity
On climate and energy issues, cities are where the action is. Some of the most powerful initiatives to mitigate and adapt to climate change can only be undertaken by local governments, whose policies and programs can impact development, energy use, transportation, and waste. As they take these actions, local governments are generating data on emissions, energy use, and climate risk to better manage their performance. At the global level, this local government data can be collected and shaped into powerful tools for better understanding urban challenges and solutions. ICLEI is drawing on its global network to make this happen through an online community platform and database.
ICLEI USA’s Impact and Success Success Stories Climate Action: Over the past 20 years, ICLEI USA has assisted more than 800 U.S. cities and counties with their climate protection initiatives, providing a clear process, expert guidance, and software tools. Municipal leaders have set goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 293,368,922 metric tons per year by 2050. Emissions Software and Standards: ICLEI USA worked with California’s investorowned utilities and the California Air Resources Board to create a suite of cloud-based software tools for emissions inventories, forecasting, decision support, and monitoring that is now being versioned for national application. These tools reflect the most widely-used emissions accounting protocols for local governments, developed by ICLEI USA.
Renewable energy: Working through the Department of Energy’s Solar America Communities program, ICLEI USA is helping to train thousands of local government staff on how to scale solar projects in their communities. Green Business: ICLEI USA’s innovative Green Business Challenge program is a friendly competition that helped Chicago businesses save $17.5 million last year in energy costs. Other communities are scaling the program with ICLEI’s cloud-based Green Business Challenge App, which has been utilized by more than 1,000 business participants. Resilience and Risk Management: ICLEI USA’s climate resilience program has helped several dozen cities in evaluating and managing climate-related risk and vulnerabilities. Most recently, ICLEI worked with the City of Los Angeles to analyze the vulnerabilities of City assets to sea level rise impacts.
Accolades for ICLEI “New York City, and cities around the world, need organizations like ICLEI to help us share our successes and learn from each other to achieve a common goal of leaving our cities better off for our children and grandchildren.” –Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City “Sustainability is as much about creating economic opportunity as it is environmental quality. By becoming more sustainable, San Antonio is positioning itself to compete successfully in a 21st Century global economy, and ICLEI is helping us to accelerate our progress.” –Mayor Julián Castro, San Antonio, TX “Livable, resilient communities are the foundation for a more prosperous America. ICLEI understands this, and empowers mayors and local leaders with the tools and resources to turn our visions into reality.” –Pam O’Connor, Mayor, City of Santa Monica, CA