During the day, several topics were addressed within the Green Economy paradigm. Curt Garrigan, coordinator of UNEP-SBCI, presented us strong arguments for investing in the implementation of sustainable building measures in a context of economic crisis. He show us that the solution is to make green building an engine for the world economy with exponential impact on employment, improving the quality of life in cities and the efficient use of resources that are essential to the Planet.

Inês Vilhena da Cunha, from INTELI, has introduced the RE-GREEN project under the green growth and green economy scope. She also presented some examples of green building policies that are already implemented around the world, namely in: Singapore, Birmingham (UK), San Francisco (USA) and New York (USA). In this context, Ryan Weber, from Nordregio, emphasized the crucial role of the RE-GREEN project in achieving a set of guidelines of the European Union and the OECD on the new paradigm of green growth.

In turn, to the cities representatives, although the figures are impressive, it is necessary to take into account the management and planning difficulties of the cities and the different development degrees and socio-economic contexts. Henryk Zagula, Mayor of the municipality of Dabrowa Gornicza (Poland) stressed the need to find "flexible solutions" adapted to the cities realities. A concern already provided in the methodology that has been developed by ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability). In this contex, Florence Laloë stressed the importance of "thinking locally to act globally" and the priority given to the training of technical staff of the local and regional governments, who implement and make the monitoring of measures.

You can find all the presentations at www.re-green.eu.