The exciting  World Green Roof Congress, Copenhagen 2012 will be held in three weeks!  Have you made final plans and registered yet?

Founded and organized by our talented UK colleague Dusty Gedge – also President, European Federation of Green Roof Associations (EFB) and co-founder  of  livingroofs.org  –  the  World Green Roof Congress, Copenhagen 2012  follows on the success of the previous World Green Roof Congresses held in London in 2010 and 2008.

International Ideas Exchange

“This bi-annual World Green Roof Congress will bring together the leading practitioners – policy makers, architects, designers, urban planners, manufacturers, engineering, environmental & ecological consultants – from around the world to highlight the need to transform urban grey to urban green.” ~  World Green Roof Congress, Copenhagen 2012

Hosted by the city of Copenhagen and supported by the Danish Ministry of the Environment and the Lord Mayor of Copenhagen, the organizers says the scene is set for a congress that has sustainability at its core.  Copenhagen’s ambitious goal of being carbon neutral by 2025 means that greenroofs are embedded as an integral part of political policy.

And, Copenhagen is the first city in Scandinavia to have a mandatory greenroof policy.  The new policy makes vegetation and soil a mandatory obligation in planning new developments. The policy covers all roofs that have less than a 30 degree ptich in the new local plans.

Congress Programme

You’ll hear from  60 speakers from over 28 countries and the program is jam-packed:

18 September: Pre-congress Tour & Welcome Reception  includes the Green Roof Tour and Case Study: Malmö where you’ll visit the  Augustenborg Botanical Roof Garden and the Emporia Shopping Centre.

(We visited the  Augustenborg Botanical Roof Garden in 2003 and it was really interesting then – I’m sure much has grown! For example, I don’t remember seeing this cool fountain on any of the roofs, below:)

19 September: Congress Day 1  opens with the Congress Welcome Address by Dusty Gedge,  Lord Frank Jensen, Lord Mayor of the City of Copenhagen, and Congress Chairman Introduction from  Jim McClelland.  The Keynote Address by renowned green architect Emilio Ambasz  (whom we had the distinct pleasure of meeting in Singapore in 2010) follows.  A full day of great speakers and Q & A sessions will entertain you where you can choose from the following parallel sessions: Water, Food Finance Contracts, Hot and Arid, and Plants & Biodiversity, capped off by the Congress Reception from 19.30 – 21.00.

(Side note: I’m sure the WGRC 2012  Congress Reception will be great – Aramis and I attended in 2008 and we had an awesome time!  The food, drinks and service were awesome!)

20 September: Congress Day 2  opens with the Chairman’s Welcome by Manfred Köhler,  University of Applied Sciences in Neubrandenburg and President of WGIN,  and Tina Saaby,  City Architect for the City of Copenhagen,  Architecture, followed by the Keynote Address from Nur Faezah Mohd Sanif, Skyrise Greenery National Parks Board in Singapore.  During the day you’ll select from these tracks:  Approaches to Planting, Energy, and Plants, Walls, & Rain Gardens.

The unique  City Mayors Panel Discussion, sponsored by CIRIA, follows.  This  international panel of mayors will be sharing the vision for their cities in 2020.

“Take a world tour of green roofs.  Join Mayors and policy makers from world cities and understand each city’s unique incorporation of Green Roofs into existing and new city infrastructure.” ~  World Green Roof Congress, Copenhagen 2012

Learn about all the speakers  here.

21 September: Post-Congress Tour  to the  Danish State Archives, the awesome Big 8 Windswept House, and Tivoli Hotel.

Your congress ticket includes: access to all plenary and parallel conference sessions, pre conference reception on the 18th September, conference reception on the 19th September, conference materials and refreshments on both congress days – tours are separate.

Registration Discount Code

Make sure  to quote VIP Code WGRC114 when making your booking here.

Unfortunately, Aramis and I cannot attend this time because of all of our other international travels later this fall to China and India (look for my upcoming posts about it!).  Copenhagen is a great city and reason enough alone to attend the WGRC 2012!  Throw in Dusty Gedge and all these great speakers and participants, and it’s a win-win for all.

But, the ever lovely Contributing Editor Christine Thuring  will be in attendance and has promised to report back to everyone!  In fact, she’ll be speaking on the first day of the WGRC 2012 in the Plants & Biodiversity track about her experiences with the  University of Sheffield and “Ecological Dynamics of Old Extensive Green Roofs.”

If you’re going, we’d love to hear from you as well.  Please send us photos and a few lines and we’ll put your reflections up here as a Guest Post.

By the way, if you haven’t already, make sure to read Dusty Gedge’s June 2012 guest feature article “Copenhagen, the Green City for the  Third World Green Roof Congress” here on Greenroofs.com.

If you have any questions or need any assistance, contact the WGRC Conference Team at: wgrc2012@tfigroup.com and 0044 207 808 5617.

We wish Dusty, CIRIA and all the attendees a wonderful and successful  World Green Roof Congress, Copenhagen 2012!

Happy Greening,

~ Linda V.