About EMBARQ

On this page: About EMBARQ | How EMBARQ Works | Who EMBARQ Works With |

About EMBARQ

Established in May 2002, with the support of the Shell Foundation, EMBARQ - The World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport - acts as a catalyst for socially, financially, and environmentally sound solutions to the problems of urban mobility.

Working with politically and financially empowered authorities at local and global levels, EMBARQ can dramatically reduce the costs, risk, time, and complexity required to diagnose key transport problems,  and design and implement sustainable, “best practice” solutions.

Through the formation of public-private partnerships, EMBARQ has turned the attention of the private sector towards the needs of cities, their citizens, and their environment.  EMBARQ has also proven that the design and implementation of sustainable urban transport strategies in the developing world can translate into economic opportunities for the forward-thinking business.

Assets & Competitive Advantage

 

• A core of world class experts in geography, environmental science, public finance, public policy, transportation, engineering, energy, and economics
• A network of firms, people, technology, and development banks from around the world
• Global business skills applied to fast-paced urban transport development
• World Resources Institute’s mission, values, and reputation

How EMBARQ Works

EMBARQ 's strategy is to foster viable government-business-civil society partnerships whose members are committed to finding solutions to the transportation-related problems facing the cities in which they operate. Within the framework of these partnerships, EMBARQ is empowered to identify, test, evaluate, and implement reasonable and effective solutions to local transport problems within a three to five year time horizon.

EMBARQ 's business model calls for working partnerships with three major cities every five years, entered into on a staggered basis. This model will ensure EMBARQ 's ability to effectively manage multiple-city projects while still engaging in education, outreach and prospecting for future partner cities.

The staggered initiation of projects, in two-year intervals, will allow appropriate engagement on the part of EMBARQ staff to carry each project through five proposed stages:

• Establishment of a city partnership.
• Creation of a city-based Center for Sustainable Transport in the partner city, staffed primarily by local actors in the transport community.
• Identification of a sustainable transport system appropriate to the partner city.
• Creation of an ambitious, achievable, work plan that results in transport changes which provide measurable improvements in traffic congestion, air quality, and overall quality of life for the city's inhabitants.
• Expansion of activities to other cities within the country or region to leverage the capacity and learning created through the initial partnership.

Who EMBARQ Works With

The EMBARQ model represents a social and political approach to transport planning and traffic management. EMBARQ 's research, strategies, and activities inherently recognize that traffic, air pollution and congestion are made by individuals with different needs and interests, whose roles (driver, pedestrian, homeowner, and politician) change, even during the course of a day.

• Government - EMBARQ identifies and works with key decision makers who are politically, socially, and financially empowered to find and implement lasting solutions to transportation and air quality problems in major cities in the developing world. Governments must be the dominant force in these partnerships, as the implementation of transportation policy is inherently a governmental activity.
• Private Sector - Historically, it has been the private sector that has played a vital role in any lasting transport solutions. They alone are positioned to make the investments in clean fuel and vehicle research and development that will lead to the kinds of cost-effective and efficient technologies needed to solve the problems of urban transportation. Increasingly, the private sector sees its role as a partner with government in finding solutions to urban transport problems. Furthermore, the private sector is beginning to take on the provision of urban mass transit, freeing governments of the fiscal burden.
• Civil Society - Over the past decade, engagement with civil society has become an increasingly prominent precursor to successful implementation of both business and government initiatives worldwide. What government and business sector entities are able to do has become increasingly dependent upon what they are empowered to do by civil society.