The 8th edition of the Green Solutions Awards started on the 21st of September, at the opening of the World Green Building Week.

The competition is now running in a biennial format, maximising the visibility of the competing projects. More than ever, the ambition of the Construction21 network is to find and promote projects and innovative solutions which, if replicated on a large scale, have a real capacity to accelerate our ecological transition.

Nearly 200 projects, buildings, districts or infrastructures, located in 37 different countries, took part in 2019. All of them benefited from the strong communication planned around the competition – 4 million views in total – and from the online display of a case study published in English, French, Spanish or Chinese.

Marc Campési, Manager of Diagonale Concept, comments: “Our participation in 2019 and the prizes won at the 2018 Green Solutions Awards, have greatly increased our visibility and recognition among a wide audience. My clients, encouraged by this success, have in turn become even bolder! “

In addition to providing a helping hand to the candidates and, even more so, to the winners, the Green Solutions Awards encourage project owners as contractors to raise the standard of their future projects.

A biennial competition starting in 2020

The 2019 edition was a real success; it confirmed Construction21’s ability to bring innovative projects to the forefront and to bring them to the attention of professionals, making the Green Solutions Awards a reference in the sector.

However, the scale of the competition has led the Construction21 network to extend the calendar. Launched in September, the 2020/21 competition will last 15 months instead of 9, so the content provided (case studies, articles, trends in sustainable construction, brochures, etc.) will be more extensive and will be used over a longer time frame. The objective is to reach an even greater number of professionals in order to accelerate the adoption of more sustainable solutions.

Green Solutions Meetups

Playing its role of innovation disseminator, Construction21 is now organising regular Green Solutions Meetups. These conferences or webinars address current topics in sustainable construction based on concrete projects, which have been spotted by the juries of the last Green Solutions Awards.

Two webinars were held in June on bio-based materials and low carbon building (available in replay); as well as a conference on September 14 at Propel by MIPIM. Another session including visits of exemplary sites will follow in October, in Lyon (France), on Energy at the district level.

These events allow to open a dialogue between pioneers and professionals of the sector on concrete aspects of these exemplary projects. They also provide opportunities for contacts and even future collaboration.

Increasing student involvement

As a collaborative media open to the entire sector, Construction21 had to create bridges between students, schools and companies.

In 2018, the Green Solutions Awards have thus opened up a student jury at the French level, analysing the candidate projects and selecting their winners. This is an excellent way to introduce dozens of young people in the engineering, architecture and real estate sectors to the very best in sustainable construction. It is also an opportunity to show their difference by rewarding projects in line with the expectations of their generation.

The operation will be extended to other schools and to other countries, with a call for applications sent out to schools in October and juries in April 2021. A nice opportunity to develop international connections between students and  academic institutions.

Another type of collaboration with students is the carrying out of exemplary case studies. As part of their course, they will be led to study exemplary buildings or districts in detail and to formalise the result of their analysis in the form of a Construction21 case study. In this way, they will contribute to informing other students and all professionals using the platform, while enriching their knowledge. Two French schools, the ESPI Group and Suptertiaire, are already involved in this approach. Other institutions will follow by the end of 2020, in different countries.

More information about the Green Solutions Awards

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