Green Building Conference 2008

On the 21st of August, the second Green Building Conference was held at Vodaworld, Midrand. With last year including just over 500 delegates, this year proved to be bigger and better with over 600 attendees, several international speakers, including a live-link up with Mick Pearce from Australia, as well as numerous local experts within the built environment, sharing their knowledge and experience on Green Buildings.

The green event covered various aspects of ‘green’ and sustainability, ranging from design, products and materials, construction, case studies, technologies and software to predict and analyse waste, water conservation, energy-efficiency from both the building to the site.

The second day of the Green Building Conference included two different break-away sessions. The first slot was broken into several break-away rooms, each covering a different building type and what type of systems, rating systems and green techniques could be implemented within that industry. The second time slot saw the several break-away rooms being divided into the different stages of the life process for buildings.

Throughout the green event, over 70 exhibitors demonstrated their products and services in the exhibition hall. A third day was included for the public to view the exhibitor stands. Products and services ranged from energy efficient air-conditioners, grey water systems, solar cookers and low VOC paint products.

A few points that came out of the Conference included a need for skilled experts in the professions, which included training systems for all professionals, in sustainability. It was recognised that in order for green buildings to be effective, long term solutions need to be implemented. Designing a green building is not enough.

Another point was the need to be able to work as a team, including architects, projects managers, engineering and quantity surveyors. Professionals need to come together and create, plan and implement with a green goal in mind, in order for the system to work. This included maintenance and up-keep of the green concepts.

Several green projects were announced, including the re-cap of the Schneider Green Award, which will be held at next years Retrofitting Seminar in April, 2009, as well as the Green Building Hand Guide, which will be published next year.

Presentations that are available for public viewing will be loaded on the greenbuilding.co.za website in the next few weeks, along with bullets from the break-away sessions. Other announcements from the Conference will also be made official on the site in due course.

Green Building Media would like to thank the following companies:

Partner Sponsors:
Dimension Data
Dulux
Autodesk
Eskom

Networking function Sponsor:
LEXUS

Associate Partners:
BASF
Aluminium Federation of South Africa
EcoStruct
Department of Water and Forestry

Organisation Partners:
CAA
GIFA
Enerkey
WITS
One Planet Living
CBE
CIFA
KZNIA
PIA

Supplier Sponsors:
Backsberg - gifts
Biobox - lanyards