What’s in store for 2017? 

As our Annual Report demonstrates, 2016 has been a year of great change and progress for the global green building movement (see item below). But what’s in store for the next 12 months?

Our final Global Update of the year provides the perfect opportunity to share some of the major activities and initiatives planned for 2017. Here’s a taste of what’s to come…

– a new World Green Building Council website
– a communications campaign for our Advancing Net Zero project
– a bigger and better World Green Building Week
– a further developed business case for healthy, green buildings through Better Places for People
– a new WorldGBC research function to establish global leadership on green building data and market insights
– Regional Managers in place for all five Regional Networks by the end of 2017
– WorldGBC Members’ Day in October

There will be many more activities and events added as our plans for the year ahead develop. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please contact the relevant member of staff.

 

Year in review – check out our Annual Report
Earlier this week, we were delighted to publish our Annual Report for 2015/2016, outlining our major achievements and those of our global network of Green Building Councils over the past year. As our CEO Terri Wills notes in her foreword, the work of the green building movement has been “transformative”, and that GBCs have “accomplished so much in a short space of time.” We’d like to thank all of our member GBCs and our Supporters over the past year for enabling us to progress our mission to realise green buildings for everyone, everywhere. Read the report and the news story.

Catching up on Congress – slides available
Did you attend WorldGBC Congress in Stockholm, and want to recap on the sessions? Or perhaps you couldn’t make it to Sweden, but would like to know what was discussed? All of the presentations from WorldGBC Members’ Day are now available for GBCs in this shared folder. These include those from the morning and afternoon agendas; the breakout sessions on membership, the future of certification, and governance; full notes from Members’ Day, and guidance on GBC Board development. If you have trouble accessing the documents, or for further details, contact [email protected].

MENA Green Building Awards 2017 now open
The MENA Green Building Awards identify and recognise organisations for innovative and outstanding sustainable building principles and practices in the Middle East and North Africa region… and they’re now open! Hosted by Emirates GBC, in partnership with Jordan GBC and Lebanon GBC (and supported by WorldGBC), the Awards programme is composed of 15 professional Award categories, including “Green Building of the Year” for commercial, hotel, school and residential categories. To enter the Awards, visit the website here. The deadline for submissions is 16 February 2017.

The Europe Regional Network meets in Paris 
GBCs and Regional Partners in our Europe Network have just returned from two days together in Paris, hosted by the newly merged Association HQE-France GBC and Saint-Gobain. After enjoying tours of ‘Maison de l’Île de France’, a zero energy student residence, and Saint-Gobain’s ‘DomoLab’, the meeting focused on how GBCs are working together with multi-nationals in the region to increase their engagement in the GBC movement at both regional and local level. In 2017 the Network has 8 Regional Partners, and hopes to grow this to 10 companies. [Picture copyright Deerns]

Expanding green bonds in your market
WorldGBC has been in recent discussions with the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI), an investor focused not-for-profit organisation working to mobilise the global bond market for climate change solutions, including increasing green buildings. Several GBCs have worked with CBI on green building performance data in their markets in order to provide financing for green building, and others have expressed interest. WorldGBC and CBI have prepared a Briefing Note and we invite interested GBCs to contact CBI ([email protected]). Please copy Jonathan ([email protected]) so we can track your interest.

World Green Building Week 2017 – dates
We’re delighted to announce that World Green Building Week 2017 will be held in the last week of September – from Monday 25 September to Sunday 1 October. Over the next few months, we’ll be working on developing the theme for the week, the flagship event of the global green building movement. Last year’s week was hugely successful, with Green Building Councils, businesses and other organisations spreading the ‘Change your Perspective’ message to reach an audience of over 1 million people on social media. If you have any initial ideas or comments, please contact Jim at [email protected].