Greener city planning -on the way?

John Prescott "proposes national college to educate planners and politicians in sustainable growth, using 'core cities' to lead the way" -says it all really and sounds like a good thing too. But there's many a slip twixt cup and lip... One of the things I'[ve been picking up as I slowly read through "Natural Capitalism" is that we have the means to plan neighbourhoods, houses etc in ways that are environmentally friendlier and also cheaper to maintain and to run [because less resource hungry]. The problem identified in the book is that often planners and architects don't know what is possible. I would hope that this proposed centre could help in this.