Green Solutions for Property Development 2011 - Greener Cities conference to be held at the Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa on Sept 22 presents seven speakers, both local and international who talk about green building technology and innovation. The main aim is to impart and share knowledge on how everyone can help achieve the world's strive in'living green'. Ar. S. Thirilogachandran, Hon. Secretary EAROPH Malaysia obliges a Q&A session with Home Finder.

How many delegates will be at the conference?
300 to 350 delegates.

What is the aim of this year's conference and its highlights and goals?
To further promote Green Solutions for Property Development, which EAROPH Malaysia and REHDA Institute are committed to continue promoting on long-term. This effort will continue annually. Our highlights this year is to promote green solutions for a larger context of property development including cities, townships and neighborhoods. Our goal is to provide green solutions so that the property development industry will be aware of the various solutions, the necessity to'go green' and how to profit by going green in property development.

This year's conference features an almost new selection of speakers. What will the speakers bring to the conference and what are their strengths as a group?
The speakers will present green solutions in various areas of property development. Our speakers will concentrate on our theme - Greener Cities, focusing on green solutions for cities, township or neighborhood.

In our inaugural Green Solution for Property Development 2010 conference last year, we introduced greening of buildings, the benefits on'going green' and green solutions for a building or project. This year we focus on the larger context of cities, and townships on neighborhoods. Some of the topics covered are Green Townships Tools by Green Building Index (GBI), Low Carbon City Framework by the Ministry of Energy Water and Green Technology (KeTTHA), Telecommunication Solutions for Greener Cities FTTH (Fiber to the Home) and HSHD (High Speed High Definition) Ready Home by PCOM, Facilities (Asset) management for greener cities and other solutions for greener cities.

How much more diversified are this year's topics compared to last year's?
This year's topics focus more on greener cities whereas last year's focus was just an introduction to'going green' in property development involving mainly green solutions for greening of buildings.

How do you rate the success of the congress in making it a'carbon neutral' event? Is it repeated this year and if so, what other efforts were put in place in continuation to this effort?
We have to show'leadership by example' in going green and reducing carbon footprint. Last year's event was the first'carbon neutral' conference in the building industry held in Malaysia. In fact, our conference is a'carbon negative' event.

This year, we are also committed in making this event'carbon neutral' if not'carbon negative'. We are taking necessary measures in making this event carbon neutral by reducing energy consumption, minimizing paper works, working online, using recycle paper, webcast the event to reach a larger audience, reducing'heavy meat' meals as well as other measures.

For details on how we made our event'carbon negative' last year, refer EAROPH Malaysia (Eastern Regional Organization for Planning and Human Settlements) website at www.earophmalaysia.org and REHDA Institute (Real Estate and Housing Developers Associations) website at www.rehdainstitute.com on Green Solutions for Property Development 2010.

How much different is this year's conference to last year's in terms of event organization?
First difference is the venue, by having the conference at Sunway Resort Hotel and Spa instead of the Sime Darby Convention Center. Although the venue is different we are still committed to making this event a'carbon neutral' event if not'carbon negative'.

The format of the conference is similar to last year's. We still have speakers presenting their papers on green solutions and a Panelist Discussion session at the end of the conference. We also have an exhibition on green solutions. We also broadcast our conference to other locations via webcast and include online panelists similar to last year.

How much more aggressive and forward-thinking is this year's conference compared to last year's?
We have more time to plan this year and the experienced garnered from organizing last year's event prepared us even better to produce a more polished conference. One of our successes is in securing our targeted speakers and sponsors at an earlier stage of the planning process.

Any last words for Home Finder?
Definitely. We look forward for Home Finder to continue working with us in our effort to create bigger awareness and understanding of Green Solutions for Property Development

Theme : Green Solutions for Property Development 2011 - Greener Cities
Organizers : EAROPH Malaysia (Eastern Regional Organization for Planning and Human Settlements) and REHDA Institute (Real Estate and Housing Developers Associations).
Date : Sept 22, 2011 (tentative)
Venue : Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa, Kuala Lumpur.