The Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) has started preparing for its fifth yearly convention and exhibition, taking place from October 23 to 25, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

The convention aimed to provide a platform for education, knowledge sharing and peer networking centred on sustainability within the built environment.

“With the green building movement fast gaining momentum in Africa it has become increasingly important for professionals within the built environment to understand what constitutes best practice and how to go about achieving it,” says GBCSA CEO Brian Wilkinson.

The conference would enable access for delegates to obtain updates on Green Star South Africa (SA), government policies, the greening of existing buildings and the economics and socioeconomic sustainability of green building.

Further, the exhibition offered a platform for businesses involved in sustainability to showcase their services, products and innovations.

The council had lined up, among others, 2012 London Olympics director of sustainability Dan Epstein and Netherlands-based Maastricht University finance and real estate associate professor Dr Nils Kok.

The council added that leading experts were ‘cherry-picked’ from the GBCSA’s international and local network of professionals.

The convention would host pre-conference days covering a number of detailed master classes, discussions and workshops, including the Green Star SA-accredited professional course and the project certification workshop.

GBCSA, with the aim of diversifying and broadening the conferences’ scope of local content, called for proposals from the South African market. “We’re hoping this will provide us with an even better range of local content,” commented GBCSA education and training manager Donné Putter.

The GBCSA would also use the conference to officially launch the final version of the Green Star SA public and education building rating tool. The tool enabled the rating of public buildings such as, besides others, community centres, public transport terminal buildings and convention centres.
 

To subscribe to Engineering News's print magazine email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or buy now.