South Africa’s capital, the City of Tshwane, will be the site of national and international knowledge sharing when it hosts the 10th annual Green Building Conference on 1 and 2 June 2016.

The focus at Green Building16 will be on leap-frogging straight to the latest thinking, innovations, and technologies, enabling built environment designers to imagine and indeed construct higher performing healthier buildings now and into the future.

The longest running conference of its kind in South Africa, the Green Building Conference forms part of Sustainability Week 2016.

Hosted by the City of Tshwane and organised annually by Alive2Green, Sustainability Week, which will run from 31 May to 02 June 2016, aims to advance the ‘Green Economy’ through the sharing of knowledge and experience across disciplines, sectors, markets and continents, while actively seeking to develop and accelerate sustainability-oriented pipeline projects.

Building Smart: The Necessity Imperative

“Green Buildings form an integral part of the Green Economy conversation, especially in South Africa where energy efficiency remains a focus and, as such the Green Building Conference is a much anticipated highlight of Sustainability Week 2016,” says Llewellyn Van Wyk, chairperson of the Green Building Conference, and Principal Researcher in Building Science and Technology at the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR).

This year’s edition will be held under the theme “Building Smart: The Necessity Imperative” and invites delegates to engage and exchange ideas around current challenges facing human settlements and strategies to manage those.

The objective is to share knowledge and experiences, especially in the form of case studies, and find solutions, while sharing lessons of the past, international best practises, and perspectives from across a number of different sectors.

A well rounded line-up

Speakers at the Green Building Conference encompass design, architecture, and urban development professionals from around the world whom have experience in regard to the theme, and will include a panel led by:

• Jordi Farrando of Spain, a founding member of the Urban Projects Department of Barcelona City Council, lecturer at Politechnycal University of Catalonia and currently Secretary General of the International Union of Architects
• Nela de Zoysa of Sri Lanka, the principal of Design Corp and founder of Nela de Zoysa Design Corporation, who has vast experience in the areas of Design, Design Development and Construction Management
• Buhle Mathole, founder of Kabu Design Architects, a firm with a deep sense of African heritage, and a master architect who has been involved in large-scale projects such as the Gautrain stations, who heads a stellar line-up of South African speakers who will engage in highly interactive sessions around much-anticipated topics.

“In South Africa, and internationally, Green Buildings are being driven by Blue Chip tenants on the one end of the value chain and by the investment community on the other; facilitated by effective organisations, and encouraged through supportive government policies and well administered cities.

“The Green Building Conference aims to advance this dialogue with our African and international counterparts on innovative ways in which we can contribute to the great work already being done across our African cities,” Van Wyk concludes.