North American Sustainable Consumption and Production Workshop on Green Building
Ottawa, Canada - 31 January - 1 February 2011
The Governments of Canada and the United States as well as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) hosted the North American Sustainable Consumption and Production Workshop on Green Building in Ottawa on 31 January – 1 February 2011.
The workshop involved more than 80 experts in green building and sustainability from Canadian and U.S. government, industry and non-government organizations, as well as United Nations representatives.
The goal of the meeting was to:
This meeting was a multi-stakeholder dialogue promoting bi-national collaboration on green building, as an important application of advancing international sustainable consumption and production efforts. To do this, the workshop:
The workshop involved more than 80 experts in green building and sustainability from Canadian and U.S. government, industry and non-government organizations, as well as United Nations representatives.
The goal of the meeting was to:
- To identify cross-cutting solutions for green building challenges in the areas of 1) financial structures; 2) building products / life cycle approach; and 3) building performance, including aligning first cost and operations / maintenance budgets;
- To contribute to international understanding of how to advance SCP and the green economy in preparation for the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) and Rio +20 – UN Conference on Sustainable Development (inter alia by applying a sustainable consumption and production (SCP) lens to green building challenges).
This meeting was a multi-stakeholder dialogue promoting bi-national collaboration on green building, as an important application of advancing international sustainable consumption and production efforts. To do this, the workshop:
- Surveyed current issues and efforts relating to green building in and between the two countries (including activities in international organizations),
- Sought to identify important topics where the parties feel that additional international dialogue and cooperation could be especially useful and practical, and
- Suggested options for a path forward.
Workshop documents
- Workshop agenda
- Speaker and facilitator bios
- Full list of participants
- Background paper 1 - Sustainable Consumption and Production
- Background paper 2 - Green Building Key Topics
- Background paper 3 - Existing Canada - U.S. Collaboration on Green Building
- Background paper 4 - UNEP Background Paper on International Processes on Sustainable Consumption and Production
- UNEP flyer on the Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative: Promoting policies and practices for the built environment
- Workshop report
- Full minutes of the meeting