Although Challenge Europe is now in its second year, some climate advocates from the first year are still very active. A great example of how two advocates have taken further action is in the Czech Republic, where Petr Kotek and Petr Vogel have established the Czech Green Building Council.
Why this initiative?
The advocates were working on the Green Building topic during the first year of Challenge Europe and their work resulted in two expert seminars. The contacts they made during this period have helped them to realise their dream, which has been to do something more and create something new – and so the Czech Green Building Council was born. It is a non-governmental organisation aiming to motivate the market to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built, refurbished and operated to promote an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous built environment that improves the quality of life. The Council was established by 13 Czech companies and is open to all who would like to do more in the area of green buildings.
The Czech Green Building Council aims to cooperate with World Green Building Council network, a union of national councils whose mission is to accelerate the transformation of the built environment towards sustainability. For the moment, it has 14 members all around the world. All national councils try to raise awareness of the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because buildings and communities are responsible for over 40 per cent of these emissions. And this is the mission of the newly-established Czech Green Building Council as well.
The opening ceremony was held on 15 September on the premises of the newly opened National Technical Library in Prague (a green building itself). It hosted a number of important guests such as Tim McEnery, Vice-President of the American Green Building Council (USGBC), Zdenek Zavrel, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture in Prague, and Tomas Sedlacek, macroeconomist and member of the National Economic Council of the Government. The event continued in the evening with a reception at the US Embassy in Prague, joined by the British Ambassador Sian MacLeod and Cultural Attaché of the U.S. Embassy David Gainer.
‘It is great to see the advocates continue to work on this project and develop the contacts we helped them establish during the Challenge Europe project,’ says Jana Hecova, Regional Project Manager. ‘Their success shows that Challenge Europe has big potential.’
