07/06/2012

Number of visitors of the Green Building Conference doubled

The main theme of the Green Building Conference and Expo 2012, held 10th of May 2012 in Prague, was energy efficiency and sustainable building. The event reached over 400 participants, roughly twice more than last year. Most of the participants were businessman (85%), tenth were academics, about 5% of the state administration. Participants rated the event very high (average 7.95 out of 10 points in an anonymous research). The research also showed that 98% of participants would recommend the conference to their colleagues.

The event consisted of 26 program sections. "We discussed environmental certification, measurement of the value of green buildings, or new legislation that will affect construction business in the near future," says Boris Zupančič, Director of the Czech Green Building Council. "There was also a lot of information to the sustainable materials and technology specialists," adds Zupančič. Special sections were devoted to the urban planning of Prague or green construction in London.

The conference was visited by many foreign guests, for example Jane Henley, CEO of the World Green Building Council, Martin Townsend, Director of BREEAM, Marc Coroler, Central Europe Senior Vice-President of Schneider Electric or Patty Fong of the European Climate Foundation. There were also top Czech researches and economists among speakers.

The event was not unique only by its program. It was the first carbon neutral event held in the Czech Republic. The conference produced about 4200 kg of CO2, equivalent to around 5500 kWh consumption. This energy will be saved now in Clarion Congress Hotel in its annual operations. The Czech Green Building Council will monitor the savings together with its partners such as Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, Dr. Vladimir Koci from College of Chemical Technology, who evaluated the life cycle of the event.

Sources:

Website of the conference in English with presentations and audios

Video interview with Martin Townsend, director of BREEAM

Video interview with Jane Henley, CEO of the World Green Building Council

Short video from the conference