On Wednesday 1st March 2017, one year on from BRE China’s official launch, the ‘China-UK Green Building Ceremony and Forum 2017’ took place at the Shangri-La Hotel in Beijing, attracting high-calibre speakers, including an opening speech from Stephen Ellison, Minister-Counsellor, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and a diverse audience from across China and the built environment.
There were several focal points of the day, the first of which was the marking of progress made, including the formation of some key partnerships that will facilitate the growth of BRE China’s offerings and customer base. One example is the partnership between BRE Academy and Nottingham Sustainable Development (NSD), a subsidiary design company of the University of Nottingham who are from this year rolling out a range of BREEAM Assessor and AP training courses.
Another focus was on the future direction of green buildings in China 
through a showcase of BRE Group’s products and services (health and wellbeing and the value proposition of BREEAM and SmartSite), alongside examples of best practice approaches from industry, and how these can better facilitate progression in the China market and its journey to the planning and execution of higher quality and more sustainable buildings and communities. One of the major highlights of the day was the exclusive announcement of recent research ‘Assessing the performance of Sustainable Buildings in China’, around the synergistic mapping of BREEAM and China Three Star schemes. The briefing paper gives guidance of dual assessment of building performance against the two schemes, simplifying the process and reducing the cost of achieving both the local and the internationally recognised BREEAM standard, to further strengthen the overall value and attraction of building projects.
And finally, the day was wrapped up with a celebration of some of BRE China’s key stakeholders, primarily those who are advocating and using BREEAM. A presentation of awards was made to recognise high achievers where categories included Pioneering Client (Beijing Jinmao Green BuildingTechnology Co. Ltd., CIFI Beijing, CIFI Zhejiang), Pioneering Professional (Dr. Yan Zhu, NSD; Prof. Song Ye Hao, Tsinghua University; Gu Jiang, Innodev; and Frederick Wong, Arup), and the Pioneering Partner Award (Guizhou Guian New Area Administration Committee, Tsinghua University, THHDG, and Shenzhen Xingcheng Holdings). BREEAM certificates were also awarded to recently certified projects, including a ‘Very Good’ at Final stage for the Tibet Museum of Natural Science; and a ‘Very Good’ at Interim for both SY00-0026-6003, B eijing, CIFI Group and Cang Long Ge, Zhu Jiang Jin Mao Palace Guangzhou Rongfang Properties Ltd.
Overall the day presented a good opportunity for UK and Chinese built environment stakeholders to network, to share best practice, and highlighted some of BRE, partners and clients milestones in the collaborative efforts of helping to drive sustainable development in China.
