RUSSIA’S GREEN REVOLUTION
Russia’s move to low-energy design is being spearheaded by Englishman Guy Eames. Liza Young finds out how the experience of Sochi is being used to spread environmental best practice across the Russian continent
T
Many developers eyed the certification suspiciously, regarding it as an unnecessary burden – Guy Eames
he pretty market town of Stamford is an incongruous setting for a meeting with the Russian Green Building Council (RuGBC). But its CEO and co-founder
Guy Eames is English, and he’s taking a break in his hometown before flying back to Moscow to help Russia deliver a sustainable Winter Olympics in the Baltic town of Sochi. Eames has been advising Putin’s government on the delivery of sustainable venues for the Games since 2009, when he co-founded the Russian arm of the global environmental body with Professor Yuri Tabunchikov (who sits on the UN climate change committee) and Alexey Polyakov. Before 2007, sustainable building design
EAMES’ PATH TO THE SOCHI OLYMPICS
Guy Eames has worked in business development in Central and Eastern Europe since leaving college in 1991. In 2005, he returned to the UK to take a Master’s in Sustainable Development and Climate Change at DeMontfort University. He then spent a year setting up the Peterborough Eco Innovation Centre, before returning to Russia to establish the Green Building Council in 2009. Last November he was re-elected for another two years.
barely existed in Russia but, after the International Olympic Committee made green building a condition of hosting the Winter Olympic Games, the government had to act. The RuGBC was, in part, set up to help the government deliver the green Games it had promised. In its Olympic Bid Book, Russia set itself sustainability targets, including the certification of venues to international standards, the use of renewables, and green procurement. In fact, SC Olympstroy (the Russian Olympic organising committee and delivery body) issued corporate requirements for the procurement of green materials, which has now become federal legislation. ‘SC Olympstroy knew that the venues for
the Olympics in Sochi had to be green and certified, but really didn’t know how to go about that,’ says Eames. ‘They wanted partners and people with more experience.’ This is where the Englishman came in.
He had just completed a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development and Climate Change at Leicester’s De Montfort University, and – as a Russian speaker – he was in the perfect position to introduce Olympstroy to
36 CIBSE Journal February 2014
The main media centre taking shape in the coastal cluster
Western consultants who had a track record of delivering successful projects with low environmental impacts. He even organised RuGBC stands at Ecobuild to help accelerate Russia’s understanding of UK best practice. Mott MacDonald, Arup, Buro Happold,
PRP Architects, and Aecom all responded, and advised Russian contractors and engineers on how they could embed green measures in their design and construction processes. The RuGBC was responsible for 10 key Olympic venues being assessed using BREEAM by Buro Happold and Aecom. ‘BREEAM and LEED are good toolkits for
creating better-quality buildings, because they’re really forcing the teams to look very carefully at every element of the construction
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