Happy Earth Day!

U.S. Embassy Prague invites you to participate in the upcoming Green Building and Energy Efficiency events.

We also invite you view our Earth Day poster exhibition through May 4 at the American Center.

April 29, 4:30 PM, American Center, Tržiště 13 

U.S. Embassy Prague in cooperation with EkoWATT presents a Panel Discussion with American and Czech experts on  “Promoting Environmentally Friendly Buildings in Central and Eastern Europe”  with Steven Borncamp, founder of the Romanian Green Building Council (RoGBC), and Petr Hajek, Vice Dean for Research, Czech Technical University in Prague.

Petr Hajek lectures at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Building Structures of the Czech Technical University. His reasearch is focused on optimalization and multicriterial evaluation of buildings with minimal environmental impact. He is a Board member of the International Initiative for a Sustainably Built Environment, and international commission Integrated life cycle assessment of concrete structures.

Steven Borncamp is founder of the Romanian Green Building Council, associated with the US Green Building Council, and has established cooperative agreements with major construction companies and hotels in Romania. He will describe how he was able to reach out to the Romanian business community to  adopt these new building practices. 

In this YouTube video, Mr. Borncamp answers the following questions in English about RoGBC:

1. What is the Romania Green Building Council and why was it founded in Romania?
2. What will be the activities of this Council?
3. Why does Romania need green buildings and why do we need a radical transformation of the market?
4. Is a green building more expensive?
5. Will the investors be interested in purchasing green buildings?
6. Why does this initiative come from the private sector and not from the government?

We also invite you to participate in the following online events using the State Department’s CO.NX platform.  If you would like to participate in this global webchat, please click on the links below.

Simply choose "Enter as a Guest," type in your preferred screen name and join the discussion.

We accept questions and comments in advance of, and at any time during, the program.

April 23, 5:00 PM (3:00 PM GMT)

"New Energy Economy:  Green Buildings and Technology" 

Speaker:  Mary Colvin-Werner, Buildings Technology Manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

April 27, 2:00 PM (8:00 AM EDT)

“The United States and Energy Efficiency”

Speakers:  Courtney Upshall and Maria Vargas of the Climate Protection Partnerships Division at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)