His college, with its 11,000 faculty members and students, is one of the first occupants of Carlsberg Byen, or Carlsberg Town, a $2 billion redevelopment<br />that is central to Copenhagen’s ambitious plan to be the world’s first carbon-neutral capital city within a decade.<br />The project is part of plans to turn Copenhagen into the world’s greenest capital<br />city, which local officials say will be the first ever to be carbon-neutral.<br />Just months ago, Mr. Jakobsen, the rector of University College Copenhagen, was sitting<br />in a suburban campus between parking lots and a residential neighborhood.<br />When buildings are torn down, more than 96 percent of the materials are recycled<br />and used to help assemble new structures, both in Carlsberg Byen and elsewhere.<br />“One may smile at green rooftops, but they send a signal that this building isn’t just a block of concrete,” Mr. Jakobsen said.<br />Rooftops are covered with solar panels or gardens that collect rainwater for reuse,<br />while ground water is used to cool buildings through air-conditioners.
