United Technologies Executive Charts Path to Greener Cities

BEIJING, March 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- In a keynote address at a leading green building event, a top United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) executive said the world must think beyond individual buildings in order to realize the greater efficiencies possible from sustainable city-scale solutions.

Sandy Diehl, United Technologies Vice President for Integrated Building Solutions, said developers, urban planners and government officials have only begun to achieve the environmental and economic benefits that come from creating large-scale projects with systems that work cooperatively for greater efficiency.

Diehl's remarks were delivered at the opening of the International Conference on Green and Energy-Efficient Building & New Technologies and Products Expo in Beijing, China.

The event, now in its seventh year, is initiated by China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and co-organized by the National Development and Reform Commission of China, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Environmental Protection, and Ministry of Finance. United Technologies has been the top sponsor of the event since its inception in 2005, reflecting the corporation's dedication to China's campaign for energy-efficient buildings and reduced emissions.

"As developers take on bigger projects, it's clear that a different set of sustainable solutions can be adopted to ensure smart growth. This will be done by leveraging the presence of high densities of technologies in urban environments through integration. It will also be done by choosing alternative energy solutions best suited to the scale of  projects being built," Diehl said.

While single buildings rely primarily on efficiencies realized from individual systems, city-scale solutions hold promise for harnessing such clean power alternatives as wind power, combined heat-and-power systems, and solar projects. Greener "eco-cities" will unite the efficiencies of individual buildings with the potential of clean power generation to decrease the overall energy footprint far beyond what either strategy alone could provide, Diehl said,  citing the groundbreaking work on eco-cities being done by the Chinese Society for Urban Studies.

"We must be committed to the bold but essential vision to build vibrant cities for tomorrow with the least environmental impact," he added. "And we'll do it by ensuring that all the important pieces work together as a system."

The theme of this year's United Technologies exhibit at the Expo is "The Power of Efficiency." United Technologies' units participating include Carrier, Otis, UTC Fire & Security, United Technologies Research Center, and UTC's Integrated Building Solutions group. UTC's portfolio also features clean energy solutions offered by its Pratt & Whitney Power Systems and UTC Power units.

United Technologies, based in Hartford, Connecticut, USA, is a diversified company providing high technology products and services to the global aerospace and building industries. UTC's products include Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines, Sikorsky helicopters, Carrier heating, air conditioning and refrigeration systems, Hamilton Sundstrand aerospace systems and industrial products, Otis elevators and escalators, and UTC Fire & Security systems.

SOURCE United Technologies Corp.