Building the future – sustainably!

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6 7 4 5 from various nations, inspires the Foundation. Promoting academic discourse The Foundation pursues its objective of promoting sustainable construction in several ways. It initiates academic discourse of sustainable construction by publishing technical books and above all by holding forums. These conferences encourage the exchange of ideas and experience at a high level, and bring together architects, planners, scientists and representatives of the business, political and civil sectors to strive for answers to the 8 pressing challenges of sustainable construction. The first Holcim Forum, on the theme “Basic Needs”, was held in 2004 at the ETH Zurich. 120 experts from 35 countries attended, including about 40 speakers. The spirit of the seminar is captured in the book “First Forum”. It supplies a valuable basis for dealing with fundamental questions about the future. Two-stage international competition The Foundation’s activity with the highest public profile is the Holcim Awards competition. Advisory Board of the Holcim Foundation (from left): Klaus Töpfer, Germany; Enrique Norten, USA/Mexico; Simon Upton, New Zealand; Yolanda Kakabadse, Ecuador; Amory B. Lovins, USA; Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh; Rolf Soiron, Switzerland. Technical events on all continents Inspired by the Holcim Forum held at the ETH Zurich (large photo), symposiums, conferences and orientation events on the subject of sustainable construction were held in collaboration with Holcim Group companies around the world – for example for architecture students in Budapest (1), with Award winner Mark West in Montreal (2), for architects and engineers in Córdoba, Argentina (3), at Mapua University in Manila (4), and at an architect gala in Casablanca (5). Students from all regions were also invited to the Holcim Forum to present their theme-related boards; the best were recognized (6) and exhibited alongside other projects in locations including Cebu, Philippines (7), and Shanghai (8). Sustainability for peace “Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty”: The Nobel Peace Prize 2006 was awarded to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Microcredit Bank, which he founded. Holcim is proud to sup- port “Grameen House” projects in Asia to sustainably improve the living conditions of poor people. As a member of the Advisory Board, Yunus is an important and competent counselor to the Holcim Foundation. 13 Delivering his speech titled “The power of small changes” Muhammad Yunus inspired and impressed his audience at the Holcim Forum for Sustainable Construction at the ETH Zurich.
14 The morning after the global Holcim Awards ceremony in Bangkok in April 2006 the participants were surprised by a 200-square-meter “Thank you” billboard. The Award winners and their projects are each presented in this Annual Report on pages 30, 40, 62 and 86. 2 4 6 The Awards recognize building projects with model character and encourage new approaches, visions and innovation. The competition with a prize of USD 2 million is carried out every three years in two stages. First the best projects in the geographic regions Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa/Middle East and Asia/Pacific are sought and distinguished. The winners of regional Holcim Awards Gold, Silver and Bronze then qualify automatically for the next stage – the global Holcim Awards. Planners, architects and building owners were 1 3 5 invited to submit their projects for the Holcim Awards competition. Over half of the 3,000 submissions from 120 countries met the entry requirements and were judged by independent juries of specialists in five regions. The judging criteria were the five so-called “target issues” that the Holcim Foundation uses to break down the complexity of sustainable construction. The target issues, developed in close collaboration with the Foundation’s partner universities, describe the ecological, social, economic, technical and aesthetic components. Important platform The Holcim Awards competition and the 46 Award-winning projects received great attention around the world. Hundreds of articles appeared in professional journals and the public media. This gave sustainable construction an additional important platform. The competition also helps position Holcim as a company that reaches beyond the bounds of its own industry to promote responsible construction. The global community of architects, engineers, planners and developers has recognized that the Holcim Awards are not just another architecture prize. Sustainable construction incorporates numerous other disciplines. This is also shown by the publication “Measuring up to the criteria of sustainable construction”, published by the Foundation. The book explains the target issues and illustrates them with
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Building the future – sustainably!

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