Canada Wood Participated at the International Conference on Green and Energy-efficient Building in China
On August 26-27, the annual International Conference on Green and Energy-efficient Building was successfully held in Suzhou city, Jiangsu province. The conference has been ranked as a top-level event in green building area in China, organized by China Society for Urban Studies, with the support from central government ministries including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD), the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
As one of the largest conferences to be held post-COVID-19 for the construction industry in China, the event was attended by national leading experts and over 3000 representatives from government organizations, research institutes, universities, design institutes, developers and construction companies. FII China, Canada Wood China and the Greater China Network of the Canadian Trade Commissioners jointly decided to participate in this benchmark event.
The main forum of the Green Building Conference in Suzhou
With Canadian Trade Commissioners joining together from the consular missions in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Beijing, FII China and Canada Wood China leveraged the opportunity to organize a program together on August 25. This program included a half-day briefing session in Shanghai on the wood industry, followed by site visits to wood construction projects in Suzhou built by Crown Homes. FII China also invited local Chinese stakeholders to join the visits, to brief them on wood applications in public facilities, residential housing and prefabricated wood production. The team was joined by research institutes from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, along with the China Academy of Building Research (CABR) to discuss potential cooperation areas.
Briefing session held at Dream Home Canada in Shanghai, with FII China, Canada Wood China, and the Canadian Trade Commissioners
Site visit to the Crown Homes factory in Suzhou for wood prefabrication
Following the program on 25th, the two-day conference started on 26th with the theme of “Healthy Green Building”, which echoed the principle of the new Chinese National Assessment Standard for Green Building issued last year, to pay more attention to improving the living quality and satisfaction of people in buildings. FII China was also invited to deliver a presentation to over 150 industry professionals during one of the forums to introduce wood in the healthy building, and how wood could help developers realize the targets in China for healthy buildings.
Nancy Xie, Director of Government Relations at FII China, presenting on healthy building
In addition to the topic of healthy building, the keynote speeches from leading Chinese academics and experts during the main conference and the 49 sub-forums mainly covered climate change, carbon reduction, energy efficiency, old house renovation, reduction of construction waste, and the framework of towns and villages with special characteristics. All these topics matched with the areas where FII China has advocated for opportunities with wood construction. One particular highlight is that wood had been mentioned many times by a senior fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor from the Southeast University School of Architecture, Professor Wang Jianguo. In his presentation on urban construction and architectural design in the main conference, he emphasized the benefits that wood solutions can offer for energy-efficiency.
During the two-day conference, FII China team members participated not only to follow the most recent policy information and industry trends but also to leverage the opportunity to have on-site meetings and engage with stakeholders from both central and regional government bureaus. This chance to meet and discuss upcoming programs helps to strengthen government relations and expands the network for advocating wood with new industry connections.