Minimizing barriers to trade for green building products, materials and services in the Asia Pacific Region though cooperation on standards and conformity assessment took significant steps forward at the March 3-4 Conference on Green Buildings and Green Growth, which focused on the enabling role of standards and trade.
The U.S. government partnered with ASTM International and approximately 20 other trade associations, standards development organizations and conformity assessment bodies to plan and host the conference, which attracted 150 participants from all of the 21 APEC member economies. The two-day conference was one event in a series leading up to the first APEC Senior Officials Meetings in 2011 hosted in Washington, D.C.The conference featured keynote addresses by Ronald Sims, undersecretary for housing and urban development, and Frank O’Brien-Bernini, vice president chief sustainability officer of Owens Corning.
The building products sector is one of the highest performing manufacturing export sectors for the United States, with exports of $30 billion (2009), supporting an estimated 153,000 jobs. Key topics of the conference included a discussion of a recently completed APEC survey of its members’ policies on green buildings and both voluntary and mandatory requirements for market entry. Businesses discussed their perspectives on the opportunities and challenges of trading green building products in the Asia Pacific market.
APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, is a 21-member intergovernmental forum that works through private sector input to reduce tariffs and other trade barriers across the Asia-Pacific region. APEC represents 60% of global production, 47% of world trade, and one-third of the earth’s population. Increasing economic engagement in the Asia-Pacific region reflects President Obama’s priorities for the United States as the APEC host for 2011, which included strengthening regional economic integration and expanding trade, promoting green growth and advancing regulatory cooperation and convergence.
The conference program
Six conference sessions covered a broad range of sustainable building topics from the manufacture to the export of green products and materials. Ten economies sent speakers: Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States.
In his opening remarks, James A. Thomas, president of ASTM International, paved the way for meaningful dialogue during the two-day program. “As in the standards development work taking place in ASTM and in the standardization system in the United States, this conference is a demonstration of the benefits and value of the public-private partnership,” said Thomas. “From the development of the proposal to the delivery of this conference, the collaboration of public and private stakeholders has been a fundamental component of the effort and keystone to its success.” ASTM International is a private sector standards developing organization which helped organize the workshop.
