The London Development Agency has announced plans for an enterprise district to capture London's share of the global market in low-carbon goods and services in east London and the Thames Gateway.
The Green Enterprise District will focus on undeveloped plots of industrial land where, it is hoped, 6,000 new jobs can be created in green industries.
As well as significant public land holdings and good transportation, the District also contains London's largest concentration of protected industrial land use.
Many of the sites are beside the Thames and the LDA's Green Enterprise District report says water freight could be encouraged. It also includes biodiversity proposals.
"The District has a lot of brownfield land which is currently unused awaiting redevelopment which can be used for temporary food production," it says.
"This would mitigate the carbon emissions associated with intensive food production and long distance food transportation, and the increasing costs of fresh food. It would also animate currently disused areas throughout the District. Opportunities for permanent food growing sites will also be explored."
The first project is a plan by Siemens for an exhibition and conference centre at the western end of the Royal Docks near the Excel centre and City Airport.
"Nowhere else in the UK is undergoing transformation on the scale of Newham," said the Borough's mayor Sir Robin Wales.
"London is moving east and there is huge potential here for investment, growth and greater prosperity."
The three-storey building is to be designed by Pringle Brandon and Wilkinson Eyre and will feature high performance glazing, photovoltaic panels, energy efficient lighting and metering, rainwater harvesting, water efficient appliances, ground source heat pumps, solar water heating, sustainable drainage and water-efficient landscaping.
"I hope the Siemens Pavilion will act as a catalyst for wider community involvement in the debate about how we best address the challenge of climate change in our cities," said Siemens chief executive Andreas J Goss.
