Insurmountable Opportunities
On Feb 4, we held an event to celebrate the new strategic partnership between UBC and Modern Green Development, one of China’s largest property developers (http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2011/02/04/ubc-and-china%E2%80%99s-modern-green-development-partner-to-advance-green-building-research/). The purpose of the partnership is to advance green building research and development at UBC, and contribute to Modern Green’s goals of advancing green development in China. To date, Modern Green has invested more than $100 million CAD in supporting green building research and development, and developed more than 10 million square feet of green buildings in China, with annual sales of more than $500 million (www.chinamg.com.cn/english/chmoma.jsp). As part of this partnership, Modern Green will make an initial contribution of $3.5 million to support our Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS; http://www.sustain.ubc.ca/hubs/cirs/).
With the partnership, UBC and Modern Green will conduct applied research in sustainability policies and processes. Together we will help test and deploy advanced sustainable building technologies in order to provide market-based solutions to global sustainability challenges. Collaborations will take place at CIRS and Modern Green sites worldwide, including its first North American development – a mixed-use green residential development planned in Wesbrook Village on UBC’s south campus that will include a sustainability research and development demonstration centre. Construction is planned to begin this summer.
To me, the significance of this partnership is not just that it opens the door for us to engage with partners in one of the fastest growing building markets in the world, but that it is tangible evidence of a natural synergy between the sustainability agenda and the building industry. Modern Green’s success shows that green buildings are popular, not just in principle, but in the Chinese marketplace. Their leadership and vision are compelling, and I think there are concepts, applications and lessons that we can bring to the table from our CIRS experience, and from other projects on campus, that will create exciting opportunities for synergy. In general, we are faced with insurmountable opportunities in the sustainability field, but by careful choice of strategic partners, we can collectively begin to make a tangible difference.