News CENTRE STAGE AT WORLD SUMMIT FOR LAND, PROPERTY, CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

Source RICS Foundation
Release date 10/05/2002
Contributor bulanmir

RICS Foundation News Release CENTRE STAGE AT WORLD SUMMIT FOR LAND, PROPERTY, CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT Aspiration and Reality: Building Sustainability, Johannesburg, 28-30 August 2002 London, 10 May 2002 -- A seminal conference for practitioners in land, property, construction and development will be staged in Johannesburg as part of the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD). The only event at the World Summit dedicated to confronting the sustainability issues facing these interrelated sectors, it will showcase tested solutions from around the world and seek their global implementation with a range of action-oriented outcomes and the support of the United Nations. Titled Aspiration and Reality: Building Sustainability, the conference,a UN designated World Summit parallel event, will attract a mix of the world’s most successful sustainable development practitioners and those wishing to learn from them, over three days of world-changing activity. This will comprise a practitioners’ conference with high profile keynote speakers, an exhibition of world-class case studies, break-out sessions with targeted outcomes in four critical sustainability areas, side events and gala receptions. Carefully planned and integrated into the many WSSD-related initiatives and events to take place in South Africa and around the world, the importance of this conference is recognised by Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, who has invited its findings to be presented at the UN’s main WSSD governmental conference on 2 September. Dr Klaus Töpfer, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director UNEP will officially open the main conference on 29 August with a keynote speech on a sustainable future and the global challenges. The conference already has the support of a million practitioners world-wide. Under the leadership of the RICS Foundation - a global research charity concerned with sustainability in the built and natural environments - fourteen leading professional institutions have joined forces as the Global Alliance for Building Sustainability to co-organise the event. Accountancy, architecture, construction, engineering, facilities and building management and town planning are among the practices currently represented. Says David Fitzpatrick, Executive Director of the RICS Foundation; “This conference represents an unprecedented gathering of key people in these sectors – practitioners, policy makers and business leaders - committed to working together to effect change”. “It is a once in a decade opportunity”, he adds, “to learn, to network and to promote private sector sustainability achievements to the world and to those with the power to implement change. We welcome and recognise as partners, delegates, exhibitors, speakers or sponsors, all those concerned with the knowledge and implementation of responsible environmental, social and economic practice.” ENDS Issued by the RICS Foundation. For further information please contact Alan Gilham/Laura Weston at the RICS Foundation on telephone +44 (0)20 7695 1568, e-mail earth-summit@rics-foundation.org or visit the website at www.rics-foundation.org and www.earth-summit.net The World Summit for Sustainable Development will take place in Johannesburg from 26 August – 4 September 2002. It will bring together tens of thousands of participants, including heads of State and Government, national delegates and leaders from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), business and other Major Groups. The Summit will focus the world’s attention on actions to achieve sustainable development defined by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as “development that meets the needs of today without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs”. For further information visit www.johannesburgsummit.org The Global Alliance for Building Sustainability (GABS) is a unique body of organisations working on behalf of practitioners in land, property, construction and development. It was established by global research-based charity the RICS Foundation to accelerate the achievement of sustainable development in these sectors and to provide a WSSD platform for practitioners. For a full list of members visit the conference website at www.earth-summit.net Established by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) as its millennium project, the RICS Foundation is concerned with raising awareness about worldwide issues of concern within the built and natural environments, both urban and rural. Sustainable development is a key focus. With its roots in research, the RICS Foundation publishes its findings both electronically and in print, organises and sponsors a range of conferences in the areas of land, property, construction and development, and increasingly liaises with major government departments including DEFRA, DTLR and DTI. It is led by a prestigious board of trustees under the chairmanship of the Duke of Westminster. The RICS Foundation is a registered charity number 1085587 and operates on a not-for-profit basis. For further information visit the RICS Foundation website at www.rics-foundation.org

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