YourArlington.com received an email from state Sen. James Marzilli (D-Arlington) about his October trip to Berlin, Germany for a forum on environmental issues.

Check out the statement below:

Governments, non-governmental organizations and businesses around the world have increasingly turned to state and local governments in the US to find partners to build an environmentally sustainable economy. The Heinrich Boell Foundation, affiliated with the German Green Party, is one of the most active NGOs encouraging a trans-Atlantic approach to sustainability. 

I spoke as a guest of the Boell Foundation at the ‘Greening the Economy' conference in Berlin on Oct. 8-9, focusing on green buildings and encouraging conservation and renewable resources in electricity markets.

Sustainability is about long-term economics. A sustainable economy builds profits through avoided costs and creating competitive advantages in the future instead of depriving future generations of resources.

Buildings that are constructed according to green design principles reduce the annual cost of their operation and save fuel and construction materials. Energy conservation and the development of renewable resources can reduce costs to consumers and are an essential part of the effort to reduce the threat of catastrophic climate change. Germany and US states have taken different approaches to encourage sustainability, and we are learning from each other's experiences.

I also attended a second conference while in Berlin, "New Challenges to Infrastructure Theory and Policy - Markets and Planning, Development and Sustainability" on Oct. 10-11. This conference was oriented more toward academic and business economists.

These two events were part of a string of events I have participated in with German partners. In 2006, I was invited by the U.S. State Department to travel across Germany and speak about the approach that state and local governments are taking towards climate change, along with two other conferences with the Boell Foundation and the German Marshall Fund, in Berlin...

All events were privately funded and no state tax dollars were involved.