Detailed proposals received for SB13 & SB14 Conferences

Rotterdam and Penne du Tarn, 4 July

The period for receiving detailed proposals to hold SB13 and SB14 conferences has now ended, and representatives of CIB, iiSBE, UNEP-SBCI and FIDIC, led by Dr. Bill Porteous, will now begin to review the proposals.

The SB Conference series was established a decade ago, and is now recognized as the pre-eminent conference series related to sustainable building and construction. The founding international sponsor organizations were CIB and iiSBE. UNEP-SBCI joined in 2005 and FIDIC earlier this year.

The conference series has evolved into a three-year cycle, with Year 1 focused on preparation and planning, Year 2 consisting of a series of several national events, and Year 3 culminating in a world conference. The total number of delegates for the last two cycles
was approximately 6000 delegates. It should be noted that the uniqueness of the series lies partly in the peer review of papers and its non-commercial aspect, and partly in that delegates tend to be researchers, policy makers and practitioners who are all specialized in sustainable building.

The last event of the current conference cycle will be the World SB Conference in Helsinki, during 18-21 October of this year.
See for details.

Requests for expressions of interest for the 2013-2014 cycle were issued in January and 8 detailed proposals have been received for
2013 national events, and 3 bids for the single global conference in 2014. The global partners reserve the right to include a small number of additional SB13 national events in order to provide geographic and thematic balance.

It is expected that an announcement will be made at SB11 Helsinki of the names and locations of the selected 2013 national events and of the winning global 2014 event.

Nils Larsson
Executive Director, iiSBE

International trends in the development of rating systems

As part of a larger conference for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization, a two-day seminar on green buildings was held on 3-4 March 2011, in Washington DC. The seminar, Green Buildings and Green Growth: the Enabling Role of Standards and Trade, brought together some 100 people from 10 countries from the fields of trade, business, standards and building technology. Delegates known to most iiSBE members included Niclas Svenningsen of UNEP and Kazuo Iwamura from Japan.

Beyond welcomes and introductions, some 40 substantive presentations were made. Issues covered included the role of standards, EPDs (environmental product declarations) and rating systems in promoting or hindering global trade. Nils Larsson represented iiSBE and delivered a presentation titled International trends in the development of rating systems., which is attached.

IEA Task 23 documents

IEA Task 23 explored the role of the integrated design process (IDP) in enabling buildings to reach very high levels of performance. The three files attached provide an overview of the project, which ended in 2003.

The Integrated Design Process; History and Analysis

Nils Larsson, Executive Director
International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment (iiSBE)
larsson@iisbe.org, 21 August, 2009

Abstract: The Integrated Design Process (IDP) is a method of intervention in early stages of the design process that supports the development and design team to avoid sub-optimal design solutions. IDP is not a new concept, and may in fact have been applied in the past by some design teams on an ad-hoc basis; but the formal implementation of the process is a development that has taken place over the past 15 years. This paper provides a partial history and some analysis of the characteristics of IDP.

Synergy grids update

One of working groups within iiSBE is WG Synergy Grids. Attached document summarizes basic concepts and ideas.

File updated Jan 30, 2011