The conference takes place on 24 and 25 June 2015 during the annual Sustainability Week at the CSIR International Convention Centre in Pretoria.
Buildings are a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions and therefore a more sustainable built environment is needed. The Green Building Conference will focus on these issues as citizens have a responsibility to minimise electricity usage, with demand exceeding supply in both commercial and residential areas.
"The world's population could reach almost ten billion by 2050. Most people will live in cities. To accommodate an additional three billion people, we'll need to build the equivalent of one new city that can support one million people, every five days between now and 2050," says Professor Barbara Norman, foundation chair of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Canberra. Norman will present extensive insights into building resilient and healthy cities for the 21st century.
Co-founder architect of UNITYDESIGN Inc and researcher at Tokyo University, Tomohiko Amemiya, will discuss how to improve urban living in high density residential areas. Amemiya will share insights gained from his work on the award-winning Slum Housing Project, Megacity Skeleton, in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Kenneth Stucke, director of Environment Response Architecture (ERA Architects) will present two green building case studies of energy, water and waste efficiency. Stucke will discuss the value of climate, geology, geography and ecology as a resource with which architecture synthesises to produce built form.
"We define sustainability as a balance between economic success and social and environmental responsibility. Sustainability is at the core of our business with global standards implemented across all value chains, and we'll be showcasing our innovative solutions that drive sustainability," says Joan-Maria Garcia-Girona, vice-president and head of Business Centre South Africa and sub-Sahara at BASF.
"South Africa is now seeing a strong move to sustainable development. We have always played a leadership role in the industry and promoted cooperation in sustainable development. Green building in the broadest sense of sustainable development is an integral part of all aspects of our business strategy, and that is why we attach such importance to the Green Building Conference 2015," says Felix Motsiri, national mineral and sustainability manager at Lafarge South Africa.
