The City of Warsaw's representative on the C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, Leszek Drogosz, will welcome a group of international sustainability experts and real estate business leaders next Wednesday, 27th February to The Green Debate, to discuss ways in which the Central & Eastern European real estate sector can address the challenges of climate change and urban sustainability.
A report recently issued by the United States Green Building Council showed that, globally, buildings are responsible for almost half (48%) of all green house gas emissions annually. However most new buildings can be designed to use only a small amount of energy at little or no cost through proper site planning, building form, glass properties and location, materials selection and by incorporating heating, cooling, ventilation and day-lighting strategies.
The Green Debate is an initiative by CEE Insight Forums as part of the Central & Eastern European Real Estate Quality Awards, the CEE property sector's main industry awards event held in Warsaw each year. Organised in association with the Financial Times and supported by Colliers International and Eurohypo. The Green Debate is a senior level forum and concept debate hosted on the morning preceding the annual awards gala and ceremony, offering a series of headline presentations on world class sustainability by some of Europe's leading policy, engineering and financial experts. The presentations will be discussed by a panel containing some of the sector's top developers, financiers and consultants focusing on ways the sector can take private sector leadership on the issue.
The Key Note speaker Bob Evans, Director of the Sustainable Cities Institute in the UK, will provide an overview of the political and scientific backdrop. One of the most respected scientific and policy leaders on the subject of urban sustainability in Europe today, he is author of numerous books on the subject, and was the UK Chair of the European Union's Working Group on Urban Environment Management.
Presentations by Arup Associate, Andy Mace on the company's groundbreaking Dongtan Eco-city Project (the world's first zero emissions city) and an analysis of supply chain pressure in the market for environmental sustainability by Thomas Seberle, the Head of Research & Strategy at DEGI, one of the sector's most active investors, aim to sketch out world class sustainability from a theoretical and practical perspective.
The event will be chaired by one of the C&EE region's pre-eminent property lawyers Pawel Debowski of Clifford Chance. Among the round table panelists are:John Banka, head of investment in Central & Eastern Europe for Colliers International in the region; Markus Leininger of Eurohypo, the sector's most influential banker; Richard Fiddes, Managing Partner of Continental Europe for King Sturge; one of the sector's most respected developers Sven Von der Heyden of Von der Heyden Group; head of Skanska Poland Mats Johansson; highly regarded fund manager Axel Vesperman of Credit Suisse Asset Management; and senior journalist Jan Cienski, Warsaw and Prague bureau chief for the Financial Times.
Over 500 of the sector's most influential players will attend the CEE Quality Awards Gala in the evening, with 200 expected to attend The Green Debate, a compact half day program in the morning commencing 9.30am followed by a GHG luncheon.
Source: Imagine Events
