SB Conference Series wins the CIB award to Sustainable Building

Author of the page

Gala Fombella Shuckburgh

3093 Last modified by the author on 28/05/2013 - 15:13

The Sustainable Building Conference Series has had the honour to receive the first Triennial CIB Construction & Society Award. A collective effort taking place over more than 15 years, it in this present edition that the SB Conference Series, with events in the year 2013 all over the world,  has been granted the prize to the person, program, or organization, who has made the most relevant and successful contribution to the theme of Construction &Society through Research & Innovation for Building and Construction.

This conference series takes place in three year cycles. Preparation and organisation happens in the first year; the second year hosts Regional Conferences all over the world; and the third year sees the World Conference. In this edition, Regional events will happen in 2013, and conclusions from these conferences will be shared in the great World SB14 Barcelona, Spain, in October 2014.

 

This prize acknowledges that the SB conferences have played a fundamental role in raising awareness within the field of building and construction about the social, environmental and technological challenges currently experienced across the globe, and in stimulating innovation within built environment responses to these challenges. The unique formula of presenting both research and examples of good practice encouraged cross-fertilization and uptake of ideas between academia, industry and the policy environment. The fact this series has grown to reach an estimated 10 000 people through the regional and main conference series cycle, demonstrates the successful uptake of the concepts that underpins sustainable building and construction which the conference series aims to promote.

Furthermore, by encouraging a great number of regional events, the SB conferences are also reaching a wide audience in developing countries, enabling context-specific discussions and new solutions.

The SB Conference series have become the pre-eminent global event for the sharing of research and innovation in sustainable building and construction. In this cycle, GBCe (Green Building Council España) is in charge of organising the world conference, while coordinating regional events. As Emilio Miguel Mitre, SB13 Conferences Coordinator and World SB14 Barcelona International Representative, says: “It is a privilege to prolong this long line of events and people that have worked to achieve a sustainable built environment. This award, in the year in which GBCe has the task of continuing the Sustainable Building Conferences movement, encourages us to keep working towards a greener construction sector”.

Previous editions of the World SB Conferences have taken place in Vancouver (Canada) in 1998, Maastricht (Netherlands) in 2000, Oslo (Norway) in 2002, Tokyo (Japan) in 2005, Melbourne (Australia) in 2008 and Helsinki (Finland) in 2011. Furthermore, it is important to note that these events have, over the years, developed an identity and functioning structure and business model of their own, thereby ensuring their own sustainability.

The SB Conference series embodies everything that the CIB aims to achieve in promoting research and innovation that is to the benefit of society. The major societal challenges of sustainable development, depletion of resources, resilient urbanization, health, housing and dealing with the challenges of developing countries lies at the core of what the Sustainable Building Conference series addresses to find innovative solutions in all aspects of Building and Construction. 

The prize was collected last 8thMay 2013 by Vanessa Gomez and Chrisna Du Plessis at the CIB World Building Congress in Brisbane, Australia.

Share :