The Zoning for Zero Foundation is a planetary-scale research and infrastructure initiative. We codify the relationship between urban form and climate impact, providing the mathematical standard for carbon-neutral cities.
Urban planning decisions regarding land use, multi-modal connectivity, and structural density create path-dependencies that dictate the carbon intensity of cities for decades. We believe that decisions made at the planning level hold significantly greater decarbonization potential than granular building-level refinements.
Our goal is to move the built environment sector from a fixation on construction-phase hyper-precision toward Strategic Agility—leveraging high-impact urban planning data (UPD) to drive systemic change.
We maintain a strict boundary between public utility and commercial innovation:
- The Foundation defines the Math Contract: standardized schemas and computational logic for climate proxies.
- The Ecosystem (Commercial Partners) handles Delivery: building the APIs, visualizations, and end-user services that power the transition.
- zzproxies: Our production-grade Python engine. Modular, schema-driven, and infrastructure-agnostic.
- datalab: The research hub where we bridge raw spatial data (Overture Maps, Urban Atlas) with new zoning ordinances and policy innovation.
The Foundation is governed by a Scientific Advisory Board to ensure that every proxy in our registry meets the highest standards of mathematical and environmental validity.
"The math of our planet should be smart, open, and simple to leverage."
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