By Steve Toloken, Plastics News Staff
Rio de Janeiro -- Bayer MaterialScience AG has picked up an award for its work on green and zero emission buildings, including in China, at a conference on the sidelines of the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development.
The company was awarded "Best Practice of Global Green Building" by the Global Forum on Human Settlements at a conference in Rio de Janeiro June 18 for its portfolio of sustainable projects, including a carbon neutral office building at Bayer's new manufacturing site in Qingdao, China.
When completed, it will be Bayer's first zero-emissions building in China, the company said in an 18 June news release.
The building features several integrated applications to make it carbon neutral, including a geothermal heat pump and renewable energy supplied by a photovoltaic system, Bayer said. Other applications include a polyurethane wall coating system to better protect the building and LED energy efficient lighting that reduce energy consumption.
It said the building will use one-third the electricity of conventional buildings made in line with local standards in China, and will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 195 tons per year.
"To operate and to work inside sustainable buildings is the most economic way," said Michael Vogt, head of Bayer's EcoCommercial Building program in China. "It creates value for our company and provides our employees with better working conditions."
The company said that it wanted to demonstrate the ambitious carbon reduction programs can be reached in China using locally available solutions.
The event where Bayer received the award, the "Conference on Sustainable Human Settlements," was held on the sidelines of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. The UN-event took place 20-22 June in Rio de Janeiro.
GHFS organised the Rio event where Bayer received the award, in conjunction with United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the United Nations Human Settlements Program and the United Nations Environment Program.
According to its website, GFHS is a US-registered non-governmental organization whose secretary-general is Lu Haifeng, the secretary-general of the China City Construction and Development Expo. GFHS is headquartered in New York with offices in Beijing and Shenzhen, China.
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