Romania going green

Energy efficient property will become the norm in the future in central and Eastern Europe, a major conference on green building in Bucharest, has been told.

The vision applies to commercial as well as residential property, Joana Barata Correia said, outlining the Europewide shopping mall which aims at creating value with less impact on the environment.

Participants at the two day Build Green CEE conference agreed that constructing "green" building is an essential element of an overall strategy to reduce growing energy consumption and greenhouse emissions, both identified as the main drivers of climate change.

To steer changes in buildings' consumption and emissions parameters, all parties involved in the construction of the entire scope of developments must be involved, Correia added.

Steven Bornkamp, CEO of Sopolec, the conference organiser, called for the creation of a Green Building Council, following the example of the US and UAE. Such an entity, which would have companies and non-governmental organisations as members, would approach public authorities to push through regulatory changes that would ensure the green concept takes root.

The idea has been warmly received by the local environment and public housing ministry and is on its way to implementation in Romania, just like it has been in Turkey, Greece, Israel and Poland, Bornkamp said.

Anna Surgenor, working for BREEAM, a UK charitable organisation, and one of the first officially recognised assessors of buildings Europewide, said that all new buildings should be tailored to this new green standard. The association has drawn up a weighted scoring system to judge the adherence of new buildings to criteria such as energy consumption, environmental performance, health and wellbeing, access to amenities. An internationally recognised score, based on compliance with guidelines, will be allocated to each building.

The Romanian government has only just started to involve itself in the green building concept but the new attitudes are gaining momentum, the conference concluded.

At the governmental level, Romania is heading toward embracing the green public procurement concept, which in northern Europe has been ongoing for 20 years.

The government has already started purchasing environmentally friendly goods such as energy efficient electric bulbs, eco stationery, among others.

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