World Green Building Council Launches

Nov. 20, 2002
Austin Texas November 11, 2002--  Today, at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin Texas the World Green Building Council (WGBC) was officially launched by its nine founding Countries. The WGBC is a federation of global Green Building Councils.

Delegates from Australia, Spain, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, India, Korea and USA came together to ratify the formal constitution of the organization.
David Gottfried, Founder of the US Green Building Council and Founder and Chair of the WGBC said, “Today the world changed. The proven Green Building Council model is now global. Through this organization we will demonstrate in bricks and mortar how to achieve environmental, social and economic profitability.”Ché  Wall, WGBC Vice-Chair and Director of the Australian GBC said,”Australia has already experienced the direct benefits of the US model and the WGBC provides a network where we can collaborate and aggregate best practices. Membership to the WGBC will ensure all national Councils follow the same ethics of broad consensus industry representation and non-profit incorporation.”
“Establishing a platform protocol for accelerating information exchange will be one of our first priority programs” said Rick Fedrizzi, Founding Chairman of the USGBC and President of the WGBC. The WGBC is chartered with providing assistance to other countries looking to develop Green Building Councils to transform their own national property industries and we are now  accepting applications for additional countries seeking membership.”
Founder of the Japanese Green Building Council, the second Council established, Mr. Ishiguro expressed deep appreciation for the initiative.  “We are proud to be a founding member and see it as a strong framework to provide support to develop Green Building Councils and sustainable construction in Spain and the European Union,” said founder of the Construction Verde Espana (Spanish Green Building Council), Aurelio Ramirez-Zarzosa.“Membership to the WGBC will contribute to national sustainable growth in India,” stated Mr. Sundaresan Raghupathy, Director, Green Building Council of India.  Joe Van Belleghem said “The Canadian Green Building Council views the formation of the WGBC as a major step towards transforming the global market for Green Building Councils and we support this important organization.”For further details on the World Green Building Council visit www.worldgbc.org

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