BGBC celebrated the World Green Building Week on the 19th of September on Urban Development Forum 2022

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The official opening of this annual event, organized by our partners The City Media Group, was attended by Liliana Pavlova, Vice President of the European Investment Bank, Ivan Shishkov, Minister of Regional Development and Public Works and Adina Welsh, executive director for Bulgaria of Raiffeisen Property Holding International and BGBC board member, who delivered a congratulatory address on behalf of our organization on the occasion of World Green Building Week.

 

The panels focused on the economic, environmental and aesthetic aspects of the sustainable urban development.

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The first panel addressed the topic: Cities and Integrated Transition - Capital programmes, financial instruments and models for sustainable urban transformation.

The EU's entry in 2021 into a new 7-year programming period is posing different challenges, but on the other hand is offering opportunities. We learnt about the financing instruments offered by the EC, EIB and the Ministry of Regional Development Public Works and about the new prospects for sustainable projects financing in Bulgaria with the help of combined financial instruments through the Sustainable Cities Fund and the Sustainable Urban Development Fund. Good examples of an integrated approach for project financing in public-private partnerships that transformed the urban environment in our country were presented by: Nadia Dankinova, Executive Director of Financial Instruments and Relations with International Financial Institutions, Sustainable Cities Fund, Yeva Zalite, Regional Policy, European Commission, Doncho Barbalov, finance and health Deputy Mayor in Sofia Municipality, Angelina Todorova-Boneva, Director General Strategic Planning and Regional Development Programmes, Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works. The discussion was moderated by Lyubo Georgiev, Association for Urban Policies.

 

The next panel addressed the topic: Environment and Economy - Territorial Renewal

How to achieve both high environmental performance and financial return on investment?

Cities are responsible for 35-45% of carbon emissions, and looking at new, holistic urban development approaches is pressing us. Decentralization is a key in addressing these issues. This is the hot topic, putting environmental and economic sustainability on the same plane. Arch. Zdravko Zdravkov, Chief Architect of Sofia Municipality, presented the benefit of the integrated approach between the developers and the municipality in the Hladilnika District - Sofia. Arch. Angel Zahariev, A and A Architects, showed us the problems of the Sofia Central Station area as of 2018 until now. Arch. Vesela Valcheva-McGee, Member of the Board of BGBC, and Managing Partner of Triple Green Building Group Bulgaria, alarmed on the global trends of obsolescence and low energy efficiency of the building stock, which in combination with the worldwide growing household heating costs, will lead to an increase in the number of homeless people. Public policies must ensure affordable and energy-efficient housing for all. The subsequent discussion was attended by David Davidov, Managing Partner, Garitage Investment, Georgi Georgiev, Chairman, Sofia municipality council, Adina Welsh, Executive Director for Bulgaria, Raiffeisen Property Holding International and BGBC Board member, Borislav Tochevski, co-owner, Green District, Georgi Kirov, Partner, Colliers. Kaloyan Karamitov from the Association for Urban Policies, presented the new approaches in the treatment of urban development that put environmental sustainability on par with economic sustainability. Diecussion moderator: Nurhan Redjeb - an urbanist in Place Make.

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People and aesthetics - public spaces and local identity - this was the focus of the discussion in the final panel, which examined the importance of preserving the image and cultural monuments of the cities in order to protect their aesthetics and identity. Plovdiv's Chief Architect Dimitar Ahryanov addressed the challenges for investors of the Tobacco City in Plovdiv and the need to change the status of this historic urban area. The discussion was also joined by Vladimir Botusharov, Managing Director of Nordix Invest, owner of a building in the zone. Once again we focused on the opportunities of integrated financing, which helped a number of projects to be implemented in the cities of Stara Zagora and Burgas. The implementation of these projects was presented by Vesna Baltina, deputy Mayor of Burgas, Arch. Desislava Stoyanova, designer at Motto Studio and Iva Petkova, Director of the Fund for Sustainable Urban Development. Desmond Gardner, Financial Instruments Advisor in the European Investment Bank, presented the objectives and initiatives of the New European Bauhaus and how they are already becoming best practices for creating sustainable, aesthetic and inclusive urban environments. This time the moderator role belonged to Hristo Stankushev, Association for Urban Policies. 

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We would like to thank the City Media Group team, our members and long-time partners for recognizing the importance of World Green Building Week and for proposing to celebrate this event together at the Urban Development Forum, especially to the executive directors Veneta Krasteva and Kamen Krastev and the programme developer arch. Lyubo Georgiev.