The next cycle of conferences on sustainable building will consist of national or regional events in 2016, followed by a global conference in 2017. For this cycle, the international co-promoters have decided that a more appropriate title for the series is Sustainable Built Environment (SBE), rather than the Sustainable Building title used so far. This shift is a more appropriate reflection of the fact that we wish to cover small urban issues as well as building-scale concerns.
The iiSBE Board authorized a contribution of $1000 CAD to go to efforts in the Philippines to recover from the recent typhoon in late November. Greg Foliente, who knows the region well, suggested that Habitat for Humanity would make good use of the money. Below is the acknowledgement from Habitat for Humanity.
We are happy to be able to offer a free PDF copy of a major new IEA publication titled Transition to Sustainable Buildings -- Strategies and Opportunities to 2050, which would normally cost 80 Euro. If you are interested in receiving the PDF please respond to and we will then verify your membership and then send you an invitation to share the IEA document in our DropBox, where you will find the 23 MB document and the password. Please note that the IEA requires that the document should only be available to bona fide iiSBE members, so please do not pass this on to non-members.
Several iiSBE-related meetings that took place in Paris, during the period 22 to 26 November. Events included Eye on Community Sustainability and Resilience Special Initiative Coordination Meeting, a meeting with international co-promoters (CIB, UNEP-SBCI, FIDIC and iiSBE) of the SB conference series, and a two-day technical symposium sponsored by Green Building Performance Network (GBPN) and UNEP-SBCI.
A letter from the U.S. General Services Administration on 25 October 2013 has leveled the playing field for rating systems in the U.S. The letter, addressed to the Secretary of Energy makes six new recommendations for the Federal government's use of green building certification systems. The recommendations were developed after an evaluation of existing systems carried out by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and were followed by input from advisory groups.
In brief, the recommendations include the following:
1. Agencies should continue to use third-party certification systems;
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