The Architects Council of Europe together with the  European Concrete Platform and Future Conversations is organising a Conference entitled "Do you Speak Sustainable Construction?".  The Conference will be held in Brussels, on 20 May 2010.

Registration for this conference is now open and places are filling up quickly. Please register now if you wish to attend. 

Background: A great deal of activity is focused on sustainable development issues across the EU. In relation to this the Commission is developing initiatives on sustainable construction as a sub-set of its campaign for sustainable production and sustainable consumption. For example, Sustainable Construction is an EU Lead Market Initiative (LMI) - with a plan to promote the benefits and develop skills and capacities for the future; and the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive revision is under way; also TC 350 continues to make progress on new European standards. 
In this regard, the ACE and ECP established a joint project with the aim of producing a toolkit referred to as a Common Language for Sustainable Construction. The purpose of this toolkit is to ensure a common understanding of the terminology used within the framework of sustainable construction. The finalised version, which was launched on 24 March, is expected to be used by the construction sector, by policy-makers at national and European levels and for communications, educational and training purposes within the sectors directly concerned. At the heart of the toolkit is a glossary of terms currently in use in sustainable construction, and it is important that this glossary is as up-to-date, relevant and helpful as possible.

 Objective: This event will allow politicians & city planners; clients and property developers; architects & engineers; product manufacturers & materials suppliers; contractors and specialist sub-contractors; facilities managers & users to meet and understand the current thinking on: low/zero energy; low/zero carbon buildings; homes and offices; low carbon infrastructure; recycling of buildings and materials; design of buildings and space between buildings; the design of passive house buildings and the use of recycled materials; embedded energy in materials; the use of marks to recognise responsibly sourced materials. 

 If you would like additional information about the content of the event, please contact Mike Gilbert (Future Conversations) mike@futureconversations.com.

 For practical details please contact i.perova@cembureau.eu

We kindly invite you to circulate this e-mail amongst your members, where applicable.  More information on the event, as well as updated programmes, can be found here: http://www.europeanconcrete.eu/press