This two-day event was the 16th in the SBE16 series of national / regional conferences, and took place during 5-6 November. The conference theme was Low carbon cities; Low carbon buildings. The Chair was Prof. Andrew Baldwin, while Prof. Qingqin Wang served as Co-Chair, Prof. Runming Yao Scientific Chair with Prof. Meng Liu as Co-Chair.
Keynote speakers came mainly from the UK, with Prof. Chimay Anumba, Robin Nicolson and Prof. Runming Yao, all having strong ties to UK universities and organizations. A particularly memorable point, made by Robin Nicolson, is that the global industry needs to halve energy demand, double efficiency and halve carbon content in the energy supply.
Another keynote speaker, Prof. Qingqin Wang, is Vice President of the China Academy of Building Research (CABR) and is a key actor in the world of Chinese building-sector policy and technical research.
Plenary speakers included Dr. Benny Chow, Dr. Lennon Choy, Prof. Clement Croome, Prof. Scott Fernie, Alan Kell, Dr. Michael Murray, Dr. Teresa Parejo-Navajas, Dr. Queena Qian, Prof. Alan Short, Briony Turner, Chris Twinn, Prof. Shengwei Wang, Dr. Irene Wong and Prof. Hiroshi Yoshino.
The conference was structured with mornings devoted to plenary speeches and with two parallel sessions each afternoon. The plenary presentations covered a wide range of technical topics and a few high-level policy issues. Nils Larsson, representing the SBE series partners, presented a brief background about the conference series and an overview of the activities and plans of the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GABC). Dr. Benny Chow from HKGBC provided an overview of the WSBE17 global conference to be held in Hong Kong in June 2017.
There was a high level of interaction between participants in this relatively small conference.
Nils L.