In a recent report commissioned by the Confederation of Construction and Real Estate (KBiN), experts suggest that passive and zero-energy buildings should only be a stage on the road to even bigger changes in environmentally-friendly construction.

Ewaryst Hille, an expert and co-author of the report Analysis of the Effectiveness of Building Projects, says the desired and economically justified standard of new construction in the next 20 years should be active, positive-energy buildings. In Poland, thanks to some developers, including Skanska, Torus and Hochtief, more than a dozen green office buildings have been completed—projects that use much less energy than those built using traditional methods. Poland’s first passive office building—using just 15 kWh of energy per sq m of space per year—will soon be completed in Katowice.

The subject of green construction is expanding beyond a small circle of enthusiasts and environmentalists. More world-class experts see huge potential in construction when it comes to reducing energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, which is why The Warsaw Voice’s upcoming fourth Innovative Poland conference focuses on energy standards in construction, promoting the latest energy-saving solutions and, first and foremost, regulations that have to be amended not only in view of the European Union’s directive 2010/31/EU, under which all new buildings will have to be almost zero-energy buildings as of January 2021 (as of 2018 in the case of public utility buildings), but also because of Poland’s energy mix. The Polish construction sector has no option but to go green.

How can this be done? What technologies should be used? With the help of experts, we will try to answer these questions at the conference.

The conference agenda will also include information on planned programs supporting green construction and on the most spectacular green building projects in Poland. As usual, the venue is the Copernicus Science Center in Warsaw; the conference will be held on Oct. 18, 2012. We look forward to seeing you there.

Elżbieta Wrzecionkowska