Portland, GE form sustainability partnership

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The city of Portland and General Electric Co. plan to team up on projects that could finance various city initiatives and develop clean technologies.

Portland Mayor Sam Adams and General Electric representatives signed a memorandum of understanding calling for the two sides to:

• • Help local companies, through global product licensing, develop and expand into new markets.
• • Implement residential and commercial energy efficiency retrofits.
• • Develop “eco-districts” throughout the city.
• • Work to complete the Oregon Sustainability Center.

Portland is the first city in the United States to ink such an agreement with General Electric.

“The signing of today’s (memorandum) is a milestone in our efforts to move forward aggressively on our city’s economic development strategy and our climate action plan,” Adams said in a press release.

Rob Bennett, executive director of the Portland + Oregon Sustainability Institute, said the GE partnership is the first of several that the city hopes to sign in the next three months.

"We're actively talking to three or four others," Bennett said.

The sustainability institute is looking to sign on corporations as research and development partners to build the Oregon Sustainability Center, which is slated to be one of the first net-zero high rises, and to partner on future energy-neutral or high-performance buildings.

"The OSC will be the first of many buildings that these partners will work on," Bennett said.

The Oregon BEST center is working with the sustainability institute to put together a consortium of these partners. A more detailed memorandum will be developed to define GE's role in regards to the Oregon Sustainability Center project.