WBCSD Zero Emission Cities framework to guide Birmingham Smithfield redevelopment

The city of Birmingham in the UK has taken another step along its sustainable development pathway, by appointing Lendlease as the chosen developer for a transformational project of a large inner-city site.

Birmingham Smithfield is a £1.5 billion redevelopment project that will create a new home for the city’s shopping centre as well as a new public square, leisure facilities and more than 2,000 new homes.

WBCSD has worked closely with the City of Birmingham on this project. In 2017 we published a Zero Emissions Cities framework that was adopted by the city, and which is now the reference sustainability framework for Lendlease as it moves into the construction phase.

The Sustainability Framework draws together a range of sustainability standards and examples of best and aspirational practice. When they are embedded, they can deliver the sustainability aspirations for the Smithfield site. This framework was a ‘blueprint’ for the WBCSD vision of the delivery of a highly sustainable development and was developed jointly by WBCSD, our members, and stakeholders from the city of Birmingham.

This framework is also now referenced as best practice by the UK Government, which has used it in a call for proposals for “Sustainable Urban Development Strategy” in greater Birmingham and Solihull.

Learn more about WBCSD’s work with Birmingham here. It was part of WBCSD’s Zero Emissions Cities project, where WBCSD members worked together from 2015-17 to jointly drive concrete CO₂ emissions reduction projects that can help a city get on a pathway to zero net emissions. The ZEC framework underpins all of WBCSD’s work on cities, and inspired the Sustainable Cities Engagement Model.