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Sustainable Building 2002

  E N Q U I R I E S

Chrisna du Plessis
CSIR Building & Construction Technology
Tel: +27 12 841-3891

    E M A I L

Sustainable Building 2002

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During the last week of September, over 1 000 delegates from 68 countries congregated in Oslo for a series of workshops, meetings of international working groups, and Sustainable Building 2002 (SB'02). This series of conferences grew out of the International Green Building Challenge, as a mechanism for sharing knowledge on sustainable building. Since 2000, the conference has been co-sponsored by the CIB and iiSBE (International Initiative for Sustainable Built Environment), and the themes addressed have expanded to include issues such as policy, procurement, investment strategies, and urban sustainability.

CSIR Building and Construction Technology's Chrisna du Plessis, who gave the closing address at the conference, reports back on what is rapidly becoming the main international conference series on sustainable building.

Photographs provided by Andy Hamilton, Salford University

Conference conclusions

Several conclusions could be drawn from the conference (click here for the full outcomes report):

1. It was clearly brought forward that progress in sustainable building, especially in those countries with a large existing building stock, is only incremental. This will not be enough to meet Kyoto targets or to avoid severe problems in resource availability, water supply and social cohesion in urban settlements. New revolutionary concepts, radical change in the management of our resource cycles, and initiatives for providing shelter are needed. Moreover, in addition to preventing climate change, the building sector will have to anticipate the effects of climate change.

2. Although there is still a strong emphasis on design and construction of new buildings, it was noted that, for many countries, the main starting point for sustainable building and housing strategies should be the rehabilitation of existing building stock and neighbourhoods.

3. There is a clear need for simpler methods and tools for small and medium-sized companies in the building sector, both for technical aspects and business process aspects.

4. Public procurement is a major factor in many economies and we therefore conclude that continuous and active government involvement in establishing a sustainable built environment is essential. In addition, public procurement should be seen as a basic and important instrument.

5. The need for an international initiative aimed at addressing sustainable construction on the level of materials and material cycles, including reuse and recycling, has still not been addressed.

6. Professional bodies, such as the UIA, need to collaboratively re-invigorate their own agendas of work and actively engage their membership in sustainable building.

7. While participation by countries from the Eastern Block has improved considerably, participation by developing countries still lagged, with only 78 of the participants coming from developing countries, despite some effort on behalf of the organisers of the Oslo conference to remedy the situation.

SB in developing countries

The relevance of the SB conferences to developing countries has become a major issue. To address this, a simultaneous series of regional developing country conferences are planned for 2004 to be held in Cape Town, Sao Paulo (provisional) and Sydney (for the Oceania region). The conferences are envisaged as one "three-continents 24-hour" conference, with daily sessions broadcast via satellite to link the three locations. From these conferences, a number of papers will be selected for presentation at the SB 2005 conference in Tokyo. The organisers of the Tokyo conference have also committed to providing financial support to 200 participants of developing countries (of which half have to be students). So put on those thinking caps - you may win a trip to Tokyo!

Visions of the sustainable city

In parallel with the conference, CSIR Building and Construction Technology (Boutek), together with the University of Northumbria at Newcastle, hosted a half-day workshop on "Visions of the sustainable city". The workshop was an initiative of CIB Task Group 38: Urban Sustainability, that is jointly coordinated by Chrisna du Plessis and Dr Bob Giddings of the Centre for Urban Sustainability at Northumbria.

Photographs provided by Andy Hamilton, Salford University

Over the past year, members of TG38 and other institutions were asked to contribute images of what a sustainable city or aspects of it might look like. Over 200 images were received from all over the world and from a number of different social actors, ranging from built environment professionals to schoolchildren. The workshop participants were asked to each pick a number of images that appealed to them, and explain why they thought the images represent the sustainability city. From this, a number of themes were identified e.g. "visual" themes (greenery), "soul themes" (community and spirituality), and the more practical "use" themes (productive land use and multi-use). The team is now looking for funding to expand the project, with the aim of having a multi-media exhibition and a book ready for the SB 2005 conference. If you would like to contribute images to the project, please contact Bob Giddings at bob.giddings@unn.ac.uk. All images used will be credited appropriately.

Download the closing address in pdf format:

	Taking sustainability to the corners of the earth - Challenges and opportunities of the way forward [File size 200KB]
	Official Report of the Oslo Conference [File size 129KB]

Related links:

International Initiative for Sustainable Built Environment (iiSBE)

For more information contact: Chrisna du Plessis Tel: +27 12 841-3891 Fax: +27 12 841-3400 E-mail: cdupless@csir.co.za

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