"Let us build the low-carbon city for a sustainable planet !"
 
Dear Colleagues,
We are very pleased to invite you to take part in the new Sustainable Building Event
for the Mediterranean region (SB07MED&EXPO), an International Conference&Expo
that will be held in Athens on the 10th-12th January 2008, with the title :
"The Mediterranean City facing climate change :
Innovation, Investment, Governance, for a low-carbon city"
Venue : Technopolis, Cultural Center of the City of Athens, 100, Piraeus str.,118 54 Athens, Greece
This event, put under the aegis of the French Embassy in Greece and the International Organisations iiSBE, CIB and UNEP/DTIE, will be a full part of the SB07 regional event series for the preparation of the Global Sustainable Building 2008 Conference to be held in September 2008 in Melbourne.The event is initiated and co-ordinated by the SD-MED Network, a Hellenic-French and International initiative aiming at promoting and developing scientific and technical co-operation between players at various different levels (local, regional, national, European, international) and between civil society agencies actively involved in sustainable construction and sustainable city fields in the Mediterranean region.
For detailed information about the Tentative Agenda, the Call For a limited number of Papers, the participation fees and other useful Information about the Conference and Expo, you may visit the SD-MED organisation team Blog: http://www.sd-med.com .The English version is directly accessible on http://www.sd-med.com/article-11406351.html
Please note that the Deadline for the Abstract Submission is the 30th of October 2007. For any information you may need please contact the SD-Med Secretariat : Address : 5, Fratti Str., 117 42 Athens, Greece.
Tel,Fax : 0030-210-9235310
e-mail: forum@sd-med.org
To register, please use the electronic submission above.
We remain at your disposal for any further information or clarification that you might need.On behalf of the Organising Commitee, we are looking forward to meeting you again in Athens, at the beginning of next year !
Kind regards
Stella Kyvelou
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About us
The SD-MED Association is a joint Greek, French and international non-profit enterprise. Its aim is to strengthen cooperation in the field of Mediterranean development and sustainable construction. Its partnership concept is in line with French policy (as outlined at the Johannesburg Summit of September 2002) on the need to work together in the region in order to allow a common vision of the Mediterranean 's future to emerge. Our own goal is to push forward with European-Mediterranean partnership as conceived by the EU: as a partnership in an economic sense, serving the environment on the one hand, by confronting ecological imbalances and sharing in all the difficult choices of sustainable development, and serving humankind on the other, by concentrating on education, health, cultural empowerment, and homes. We place special emphasis on sustainable construction , because we think it is a good way of ensuring partnerships built around sustainable development and getting to grips with urban and regional building projects . The emphasis is, therefore, on sustainable construction and high environmental quality. Here Greece is in a position to become, above and beyond its own domestic potential, a centre of dissemination of ecological construction know-how throughout the Balkans and the East Mediterranean area.
We are especially grateful to France 's ambassador to Athens , H.E. Bruno DELAYE, and to the Economic Mission of his Embassy, which is a member of UBIFRANCE, for graciously agreeing to place our principal events for the period 2007-2008 under their aegis.
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For the SD-MED Association
Stella Kyvelou, President
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Contributing to the international movement for
progress
There are two ways of going about integrating the environment into an activity. One is to evaluate the quality of a product; the other is to conceive a product and bring it into being. The HQE procedure clearly implies the second of these ways, though it must of course be supplemented by verifying that the procedure conformed with the reference method and that the environmental goals are plainly stipulated. A sense of
responsibility is thus built in to HQE: it places the works controller, at the front, and it enables the various elements of the operation, the implant site, the project's precise character, and the stakeholders' environmental policy, to be properly integrated. |
International approaches, and in particular those which ISO works involve, are of a universal nature, and can be applied in many different contexts. This is the thinking behind the HQE procedure, though the building sector is essentially a very local one. HQE is the fruit of mature reflection and French experiments. While it derived great benefit from studies and international action in the early 1990s, it is also anchored in building culture and the building profession, as these have developed in France . It was therefore very important to bring this approach face to face with various different practices - for which its potential extension to the Mediterranean basin offered rich opportunities. Ten years after it was first put into practice in France , the HQE procedure is well worth thinking about, in view of the improvements made to it and the adaptations of it to new contexts. Thus the Mediterranean viewpoint is a valuable aspect of HQE.
Worldwide, there are a whole host of approaches to building these days, and the progress made is regularly highlighted at conferences. This is an issue which affects normalization, both in Europe and globally, since it deals with environmentally 'heavy' domains as well as with economic and social factors. An important stage in this movement of international progress is to compare and contrast national methods and to progressively and collectively work out regional approaches, keeping the universal and the local elements carefully separate. The SD-MED procedure study on applying sustainable development to the building sector is a valuable contribution by the SD-MED Association , and a notable 'first'.
Dominique BIDOU
President of the HQE Association (1996-2006)
Honorary President of the SD-MED Association
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The new cult of sustainable development is attracting more and more devotees every day. No public official today would dare express scepticism about it or indifference. But if the number of the faithful is constantly on the increase, the number of practising believers remains few. This is why we must congratulate Helene PAULAT and Stella KYVELOU on their study of the SD-MED procedure dealing with how to apply sustainable development for the building sector in the Mediterranean Area : it is a publication which will assist the inclusion of sustainable development in actual building practice.
I myself am a believer in the 'high environmental quality' (HQE) procedure , which I tried out when planning, building and making functional the
Maryse Bastie College in Limoges, under the works control of the Limousin Region during my time as its president . I can see at least three major virtues in it. To start with, it takes into consideration the building project as a whole, from the materials used, to keeping the site in good nick, taking in on the way direct and indirect cost control. Next, when relating the building to its environment, the procedure is not confined to the immediate aims, but takes the medium term and the long term into account. Lastly, it is per se instructive, in that it sets an example for the players in the operation, for other works controllers, for future users of the building, and for public opinion at large. Of course HQE has an immediate cost: to judge from my own experience, this added cost is more an investment than a debit.
The SD-MED procedure is perfectly in the spirit of HQE. If a construction is to be in harmony with its environment, it must respect the individual character of the latter, whatever that may be. The Mediterranean area is not like any other. Its landscapes, its climate, and its peoples, with their history, culture, and way of life, naturally lead to an adapted version of the main principles of HQE: sustainable development has meaning only if it gives full play to spatial diversity. We are well aware how much the values of today owe to the Mediterranean world. It is vital for that world to go forward towards sustainable development without ceasing to be its own self.
Robert SAVY
Hon. Counsellor of State
Honorary President of the Limousin Region
Architecte : Atelier 4, Rene PESTRE
 Architecte : Atelier 4, Rene PESTRE
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