Curitiba has long been hailed as one of the world's best models in terms of urban planning. It mainly owes to the bold initiatives of its three-term mayor, Jaime Lerner. His aggressive moves in the early 1970s led to the transformation of a six-block-long downtown into a pedestrian zone (“done in secret under the cover of darkness”), and the creation of five express-bus avenues featuring futuristic tubular boarding platforms. Further, he encouraged recycling and sustainable design long before it became popular, and planted trees and built parks on an enormous scale. Curitiba, situated in south of Brazil, is the capital city of Paraná. It sits on the plateau of Serra do Mar that is 330 kilometers southwest of Sao Paulo. It is only a little more than 100 kilometers southeast of the seaport of Paranagua with railway linking the two places. Industries mainly include food, tea making, textiles, paper making, wood and metal processing, chemistry, and cement. Curitiba is reputed as the ecological capital of the world. In 1990, Curitiba was rated by the United Nations to be one of the first most suitable cities for human habitation, together with Vancouver, Paris, Rome and Sydney. In 2001, Curitiba was recognized by the UN as the city with the highest living standard index in Brazil. All the titles were resulted from the reasonable comprehensive urban planning, of which the Green Exchange Program for waste recycling, was a representative measure for the environmental and social win-win benefits.