sabato 31 gennaio 2009

Annual General Meeting of UNEP SBCI - Washington DC








The Annual General Meeting of UNEP SBCI will be held on 15-17 April 2009 hosted by SBCI Member the US Green Building Council, Washington DC.
The Washington DC meetings are being organised to raise the profile of the building sector in relation to tackling climate change and the COP15 negotiations which conclude in Copenhagen in December 09.
The events in Washington DC provide a crucial opportunity for the Building Sector to speak with one voice on the need for special strategies to be included in the next global greenhouse emissions framework. Our ambition is for the SBCI meetings to be a very important international event and a milestone for the building sector on the road from Bali to Copenhagen.
The annual meeting is also the forum for members to elect the SBCI Board, decide on the annual work-plan and influence the direction of SBCI for the next 12 months.
Outline Agenda:

15 April 09: Buildings & Climate Change—Call for Action
• To present an international consensus on the need for the property and construction sector to be supported to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by sector-specific measures under the post-Kyoto UNFCCC.
• To raise international awareness of the issues
• To present a united voice from the building sector
The Climate Change Think Tank has drafted a ‘call to action’ on Buildings & Climate Change which is proposed to be ratified at the meetings. This ’call’ sets out the case for the building sector to be prioritised in the COP 15 agenda and given support to develop the strategies, methodologies and mechanisms that will enable the sector to deliver deep cuts in emissions. The ‘call to action’ is supported by a briefing document being prepared by the climate change think tank – which concisely sets out concrete measures that can be taken to encourage invest- ments that will support emission reductions from the building sector. The ‘call to action’ is focused specifically on influencing COP 15 and would be an activity with which we could involve and achieve a 'common-voice' from influential stakeholders.

16 April 09: Buildings & Climate Change—Taking Action
Policy work and building case-studies to be presented in the context of a forum for policy makers, negotiators and industry on the strategies that have been proven to work to reduce GHG emissions from buildings. This would draw on the Policy and Benchmarking work so far and support the climate change think tank and the theme of the meetings in general which are to influence the country delegations to COP 15.

17 April 09: SBCI Annual General Meeting .


Further Information:

venerdì 23 gennaio 2009

Agreement to build Sustainable Buildings in the Piedmont Region for the professional soldiers families











In December 2008, the Piedmontese Government, in cooperation with Northern Military Headquarter, wrote a draft of agreement to build flats for professional soldiers' families. These flats will be sustainable and ITACA Protocol will assess the sustainability level. Infact, the Piedmont Region and the Northern Military Headquarter focus a lot of attention on the environment. The flats will be built with regional financial support and this agreement will promote the renewal of old real estate. The Piedmont Region President and the Military Commander of the Northern Region have signed this agreement in Turin the 29th January 2009.

Further Information:

domenica 18 gennaio 2009

Italian Eco-Districts























The purpose of the Italian Eco-Districts is to manufacture the eco-friendly materials. All products of the Eco-District should belong to the same production area (building, energy), to have an ecofriendly product.
In Piedmont, Al Tech develops these objectives and a few Monregalese wood Industries (Monregalese is between Turin and Genoa) work to develop another Eco-District.
In Puglia, there are the "Puglia Eco-District" and the "Puglia Energy District". The "Puglia Energy District" develops wind power industries' and the "Puglia Eco-District" develops research, learning and quality building.
Synergies, between the "Treviso Eco-District" (taht develops training corses on sustainable buildings) and the "Puglia Eco-District", have been promoted to develop sustainable buildings.


download:
(Puglia Energy District);
http://www.distrettobioedilizia.it/ (Treviso Eco District).

Further Information:

lunedì 5 gennaio 2009

Public Mechanism to Mobilise Investment in Climate Change Mitigation













UNEP drew up a study on Public Mechanism to Mobilise Investment in Climate Change Mitigation.
In Italy initiatives exists to develop investment in Climate Change and these concern:
- incentives for home loan and insurance policies (Intesa San Paolo Bank; RAS and Reale Insurance Companies);
- financial support, to build social housing and to develop eco-friendly districts (Regione Piemonte; Regione Veneto; Regione Puglia).
Other initiatives are promoted by Municipalities.


download

Public Mechanism to Mobilise Investment in Climate Change Mitigation:
http://www.unep.fr/energy/finance/documents/pdf/UNEP_PFM%20_Advance_Draft.pdf

Further Information:
sefi@unep.fr ; info@itaca.org .

sabato 3 gennaio 2009

Building materials


















ITACA and the Italian Regions approved research on eco friendly materials which ITC-CNR (Governmental Research Council) have doing. The research will define the characteristics of eco – friendly materials; so it will be possible to have a list of these materials and to certify them. June 2009 is the deadline. Today a brochure by Piedmont Region exists that illustrate the technical characteristics and the performances of building materials.

download of Piedmont Region Brochure:
Further information:

Piedmont Region new Division to develop sustainable building

















The Piedmont Region starting, from 2nd January 2009, a new Division for sustainable building. The "Statistic and Studies" Division have competence to draw up guidelines and new proposals to develop sustainable building. Also, the Regional Division have competence to support and to cooperate with other Regional Divisions on sustainable buildings and to acquire information to estimate the efficiency of Regional policies.


Further Information: