Green Building Solutions Awards : solutions provider for COP21

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Sylvain Bosquet

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3526 Last modified by the author on 13/03/2015 - 09:11
Green Building Solutions Awards : solutions provider for COP21

From May 18th to December 3rd, the Construction21 international network and its partners will be buzzing with the Green Building Solutions Awards. As a matter of fact, the network is already busy enrolling other countries to organize the contest locally and sponsors to support it. On March 11, in Brussels, Construction21 held a conference to present its international competition to professionals, industrials and institutions.



The conference was introduced by Vincent Berrutto, Head of the Energy Unit at the European Commission's Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises,.

Through the Intelligent Energy Europe programme, Mr Berrutto was already involved with the Construction21 initiative. "The Construction21 project lasted 2 years and I'm glad to see it continues, even though it no longer receives funding from the European Union. It is not so common, so it's worth highlighting. I'm even more pleased to see that the initiative keeps delivering results and is mobilizing a very large number of stakeholders in Europe", Mr. Berrutto commented, after explaining the interest the European Union keeps for the Construction21 network and the Green Building Solutions Awards.

"The European Union is facing important challenges concerning its energy" he added. What challenges?

  • Increasing energy security: today more than 50% of EU's energy needs are covered by imported products which account for more than EUR 400 billion per year.
  • Ensuring the competitiveness of European industries and the affordability of energy for consumers
  • Fighting against climate change: energy production and use represent more than 80% of all manmade greenhouse gas emissions.

According to Mr. Berrutto, initiatives like Construction21 help the EU to respond to these challenges by promoting energy efficiency and renewable energies in buildings and cities. "Energy efficiency has become a top priority for the European Union. The EU budget in the period 2014-2020 will dedicate a large amount to improve the building stock across Europe. The refurbishment of existing buildings is essential to meet the EU energy policy targets. In this respect, I was very pleased to see that the Green Building Solutions Awards include a category for refurbishment, demonstrating how much this initiative fits well in today's context."

What's new with the Green Building Solutions Awards 2015?

"This year, the Green Building Solutions Awards expand to other countrie, beyond the Construction21 borders. National organisations, dedicated to sustainable construction, such as professional associations, universities or public agencies, can run the contest in their country", answers Véronique Pappe, Co-Director of Construction21 international and Director of the French chapter. "For these participating countries, this would be the first step to building a national database of exemplary buildings, they could also benefit from the powerful media that Construction21 is to promote their national innovations through the world".

In addition to that, this new edition is directly connected to the UN International Conference for Climate, in Paris, in December 2015. "Our goal is to present climate solutions to the COP21, during our Awards gala and via a specific video on Internet. Through the Green Building Solutions Awards, professionals from all around the world can promote their technical solutions to adapt to the climate change. The winners will be presented in December during the COP21", Véronique Pappe adds.

An international benchmark for exemplary green buildings

Two other members of the Construction21 network, Luc Minne (Belgium) and Bruno Renders (Luxemburg) testified of the benefits they gained by deploying their own national platforms and by running the Green Building Solutions Awards. "Our organisation, Greenwal, a training center, needed a system to communicate towards building professionals. Construction21 came on top because it offers everything we were looking for and the tool is evolutive. Also, the development costs are mutualized between the Construction21 chapters", Luc Minne explains.

"In Luxemburg, the building sector faces an incredible challenge. By 2020, 100% of the buildings need to be passive by the German standards. We needed to find a tool to communicate directly with professionals, to incite them to train and share their knowledge, their best practices, and also learn from experiments in other countries. Construction21 allows that and has that social media dimension. A dimension that is not to be forgotten for the next generation of digital native professionals", tells Bruno Renders.

VELUX Group, 1st international sponsor of the Green Building Solutions Awards

The 2015 edition of the contest sees a new category rising: Health & comfort. Considering their commitment to sustainable living in buildings, the VELUX Group chose this category as the first international sponsor of the contest.

Catherine Juillard, Marketing Development manager at VELUX France tells why her company joins forces with Construction21: "The name VELUX is the contraction of VEntilation and Daylight (LUX in Latin). These two elements are central to the well being of inoccupants and users. And our work is to ensure their health and comfort with our solutions. Our approach is holistic and includes Energy efficiency, Environment and Comfort. Because of our philosophy and our involvement in international experiments, it made complete sense to sponsor this category of the Green Building Solutions Awards".

The VELUX Group firmly believes in experimentation and participates in the Active House Alliance, which counts 21 full scale experiments in 12 countries. "To quote our founder, Villum Kann Rassmussen, one experiment is better than a thousand expert views".

Participate to the Green Building Solutions Awards 2015!

You still have a few weeks left to:

Download the Green Building Solutions Awards 2015

The competition for building professionals will start on May 18th. Begin to select your best realisations!


For more information, contact the Construction21 team : info (at) construction.org

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