2004 Conferences on Sustainable Building
Overview
The overall planning and organization for the 2004 SB Regional Conferences is being supported by CIB, iiSBE and UNEP, but the regional organizers play the primary roles and responsibilities in managing each event. Each conference will therefore be unique, but organizers are following the same generic structure in all cases. The results should therefore provide valuable opportunities for comparative analysis. In addition to two or three days of presentations and workshops, each of the regional conferences will also include:
---- A preliminary study or the state-of-the-art of Sustainable Building in the region, including best practices, techniques and tools, policies, codes and standards and related issues.
---- An awards ceremony, honouring best practice in sustainable building in the regions.
---- A post-conference publication that will act as a strategic implementation document for each region and serve as input to SB'05. Proposed strategies and projects will be presented, and will be tabled with International Financial Institutions who will be invited to respond in advance of the SB'05 conference in Tokyo.
Currently, all the events are in active planning stages and international or regional sponsors are being sought. Participation in one or more of these events offers sponsors a major opportunity to reach all major actors in the field of sustainable building.
Background
In 1994, the first international green building conference was organized by CIB (The International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction) in the UK. This was followed by an even larger event in Paris in 1997. A somewhat different formulation was later developed for conferences related to the international Green Building Challenge process. The first event in this series was the GBC'98 conference in Vancouver. Following this, CIB and iiSBE (the International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment) decided to collaborate on an on-going series of SB conferences, beginning with the SB2000 event in Maastricht and SB02 in Oslo. This on-going series of international conferences is now seen as the premier international event in the field of sustainable building, as evidenced by an attendance of 600 (with 150 turned away) at GBC '98 in Vancouver, some 800 at SB2000 in Maastricht, and over 1000 at SB02 in Oslo. CIB and iiSBE decided to hold the next event in 2005, and Tokyo has been selected as the venue. UNEP has now joined iiSBE and CIB in planning the series of SB events.
More information about these past events can be found at www.iisbe.org.
A emphasis on developing regions
Keynote speakers at the Maastricht and Oslo conferences emphasized the need to place an increasing focus on regional development and on the needs of tropical and developing countries. The organizers of the Tokyo event indicated in their proposal that a special effort would be made to support the attendance of students and professionals from developing countries. The change from a two-year sequence to a three-year interval between events created the possibility to organize input on regional needs and development, and to organize input from regions onto the global level.
Given this, it was decided to launch a series of regional conferences in developing countries about one year before the Tokyo SB05 event. Having a series of regional events one year ahead would give time to develop detailed action plans to advance sustainable building agendas in these regions, with SB05 being used as a venue to announce responses by international financial institutions, and to promote cross-fertilization of ideas.
To improve the level of basic knowledge of participants in the regions, it was decided that each regional event should be preceded by a training course, carried out in a partnership between the Sustainable Building Centre in Netherlands and local partners (e.g. universities and/or research institutes)
It must be noted that the emphasis on developing countries and warm climates for most of these conferences is not intended to displace the issues relevant to northern or developed countries, but rather to ensure that:
---- awareness of sustainable building issues is increased within regions;
---- local and regional knowledge on region-specific topics is exchanged;
---- the concerns of developing and tropical countries are given greater prominence at the global sustainable building conferences; and that
---- conclusions of the global conference in 2005 will reflect a more inclusive vision.
Regional Conferences
The five regional conferences on sustainable building in 2004 include the following:
Date
18-21 July
13-18 Sep.
20-22 Sep.
27-29 Oct.
19-21Dec.
11-13 Apr. 2005
9-11 June, 2005
Region
Latin America
Africa
China
Central/Eastern Europe
Arab State
South-East Asia
Mediterranean
Location
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Stellenbosch, South Africa
Shanghai, China
Warsaw, Poland
Cairo, Egypt
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Anthes, Turkey
The Latin-American Conference on Sustainable Building
The Latin-American Conference on Sustainable Building (claCS´04) will be held in São Paulo, Brazil, from 18th to 21st July, simultaneously with the ENTAC´04 (Brazilian Conference on Technology for the Built Environment). ENTAC´04 is the 10th edition of the prestigious biannual meeting promoted by the Brazilian Association of Technology of the Built Environment (ANTAC), multidisciplinary entity that aggregates around 400 Brazilian and foreign participants. The conference hosts are PNUMA, ANTAC, iiSBE and CIB. The Conference will be coordinated by an alliance of Brazilian universities, namely State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), University of São Paulo (USP), Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES) and Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC).
claCS 04/ENTAC 04 will be a unique opportunity and a broad, multidisciplinary and integrated platform for discussion of the multiple issues involving the role of the building sector in a sustainable development, in the Latin American context. It is expected that the main participating countries in the Latin-American event include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Jamaica, among others. São Paulo is a central, easy to get to location in LA, very well served in terms of infrastructure for major conferences.
The conference program is being prepared to stimulate attendance of students and professionals related to the built environment field, and advance in bridging the gap between theory and practice. In this sense, special sessions for presentation and discussion of practical cases (buildings, products, public policies and institutional initiatives) are scheduled, as well as an exposition of demonstration projects.
Two plenary sessions are scheduled as morning sessions in all three days of the event, covering major themes related to sustainable building. Each plenary will count on one Brazilian and one invited keynote speaker. Parallel sessions in the afternoons are dedicated to presentation of papers and cases study. Note that the official languages for the conference are Spanish and Portugese.
Sustainable Settlement in Southern Africa
( http://www.sustainablesettlement.co.za/event/SBE2004/index.html )
The SB'04 - Africa conference is one of several international conferences on Sustainable Building that are being held in 2004. The SB series has become the pre-eminent international forum for mapping the process towards creating a more sustainable built environment.
The conference will be a working conference, starting with an introductory course on sustainable building and planning presented by the Spier Sustainability Institute, using the experience and examples of The Village at Spier and the Lynedoch Estate to illustrate sustainability in practice. As the conference format aims to stimulate dialogue, authors will then participate in panel discussion sessions, discussing the main conclusions of
their work, rather than presenting their papers. To facilitate this process, the organisers will be distributing accepted papers to all registered conference delegates for reading prior to the event.
You can register by using the First Call for Papers and registration form. If you would like to register and pay online, and keep up to date with the conference programme, please visit the conference website at http://www.sustainablesettlement.co.za/event/SBE2004/index.html.
The Chinese Conference on Sustainable Building
The Chinese Conference on Sustainable Building will be held in Shanghai, in September 2004, simultaneously to two major construction-related events. It is expected that the main participating Provinces/Cities in the Chinese event include Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Hunan, Liaoning, Henan, Jiangsu, among others. Shanghai is a metropolitan, easy to get to location in east China, and very well served in terms of infrastructure for major conferences.
Please see update at Circular
The Regional Central and Eastern European Conference on Sustainable Building
The Regional Central and Eastern European Conference on Sustainable Building will be held on 27th-29th October 2004 in Warsaw/Poland.
Take the opportunity to present your projects to the building community and submit a paper to the Regional Central and Eastern European Conference on Sustainable Building.
Detailed project goals for Warsaw Conference are:
--- present Sustainable Building concept,
--- increase awareness of sustainable buildings,
--- exchange local and regional knowledge on region specific topics,
--- give greater prominence to concerns of developing countries at sustainable building conference,
--- ensure the international conference in 2005 reflects an inclusive vision,
--- providing basis for local/regional development of SB assessment tools,
--- discuss the state of art of SB regarding the actual EU regulation Directive Energy Performance on Building),
--- and other themes e.g. energy efficiency, social coherence, preserving cultural heritage, improving life quality in built environment etc.
Arab Sustainable Building and Construction
Pursuant to the United Nations Environment Programme's regional initiative, which has been adopted and endorsed through a resolution by the Council of Arab Housing and Construction Ministers (CAHCM), an Arab Consortium of stakeholders was formed to co-organize the 1st Arab Forum on SBC (Cairo - Egypt, December 19-21, 2004), in preparation for Tokyo SBC05 Conference (September 2005). The Forum's Committee includes UNEP-ROWA, the League of Arab States (LAS), the Arab Union of Cement and Building Materials (AUCBM), and Egypt National Institute of Housing and Construction Research (NIHCR). Other Arab governments and organizations are also invited to take part.
As collectively agreed upon, the Forum will conclude with a comprehensive Arab SBC Paper to be submitted to Tokyo SBC05. The Arab SBC Paper will address the following themes, with due consideration to Arab specific conditions, inheritance, outlook, developments, needs and priorities:
1. The Current State of Building and Construction Industry (B&CI) in the Arab region:
2. The Sustainable Management of buildings and infrastructures
3. Methodologies and Mechanisms of developing B&CI
For detail information, please see here
Conference on Sustainable Buildings - South-East Asia
The Construction Technology & Management Centre (CTMC) , Universiti Teknologi Malaysia is the local host to the Conference on Sustainable Buildings 2004 - South-East Asia (SB04-SEA). Previously in 2002, CTMC had collaborated with CIB and UNEP in the development of Agenda 21 for Sustainable Construction in Developing Countries in South Africa.
The SB04-SEA conference will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,11-13th April, 2005 and hosted under the auspices of the CIB, iiSBE , UNEP to advance sustainable building agendas in South East Asia.
The conference is also a part of the EU Asia–Pro Eco Programme aiming at building capacity and developing an action plan for the implementation of Sustainable Buildings construction practices, technologies and techniques in Asia.
The conference provides an opportunity for professionals, governmental and non-governmental organisations, academics and researchers in these areas, decision makers to present their works and exchange information and eventually participate in a working conference to establish action plans for Sustainable Building and Construction for South-East Asia.
The event will be complimented by (i) a Pre-Conference Training/Course (ii) an award ceremony honouring best practices in SBC and (iii) technology showcase on the state-of-the art exhibition for SBC.
Sustainable construction: action for sustainability in the Mediterranean region
You are invited to take part in the Sustainable Building 04 Event for the Mediterranean region ( SB04MED ) to be held in Athens on 9-10-11 June 2005.
This event will be a full part of the SB04 regional event series and as such treated in the preparation for the Global Sustainable Building 2005 Conference to be held in September 2005 in Tokyo ( SB05Tokyo, url: www.sb05.com ). Main outcome of this Mediterranean Event will be the Sustainable Building and Construction Mediterranean Report addressing the regional issues to be solved regarding the concept and implementation of sustainable building and an overview of issues and barriers that require regional, European and international attention.
The conference is addressing to as many as possible stakeholders dealing with SB issues, policies and relevant practice, in the Mediterranean. The event is co-ordinated by the SD-MED Association, a Hellenic-French and International scheme aiming at promoting and developing scientific and technical co-operation between players at various different levels (local, regional, national, European, international) and between civil society agencies actively involved in sustainable development and sustainable construction fields in the Mediterranean region. For detail information, please see here.
During the Conference, an SB-MED Award Ceremony will be organised, based on the LIFE SB-MED Project philosophy and concepts about the "sustainable school building" in the Mediterranean area.
The Conference will also include a conventional part with exhibitors from building enterprises. For further information, please click here.
Sponsored by
The 2005 World Sustainable Building Conference
At the last conference in Oslo in 2002, Tokyo was selected by iiSBE and CIB as the next venue for the Sustainable Building series of conferences. The 2005 World Sustainable Building Conference will be held in Tokyo during September 27-29, 2005. A large number of building researchers, practitioners, officials, industry representatives and students from all over the world will gather at this conference to exchange the latest knowledge and experience regarding "Sustainable Buildings". The conference will also feature reports from a series of related small SB conferences being held in 2004 in developing regions.
The web-site (http://www.sb05.com/) provides complete information on this conference and will be continuously updated as the planning develops.
