Diaspora help for motherland

by L. S. Ananda WEDAARACHCHI

Sri Lanka's diaspora in Australia and Germany have launched ventures to help rebuild the motherland, said Australian Institute of Business Excellence Executive Director Lionel Nawagamuwa. This followed a request from President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Nawagamuwa, said the Green Buildings Council of Sri Lanka (GBCSL), which was set up recently held its first workshop at the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo on Friday. Eminent Sri Lankan and Foreign scholars from leading educational and research institutions in Australia, Germany and Sri Lanka participated.

It is a very important to have a local body to develop guidelines for Green Buildings suitable for local conditions, he said. Senior university academics, building professionals and state officials got together and established the GBCSL to fullfil a national requirement. The GBCSL will work closely with the World Green Building Council set up in 2002 the WGBC has provided an important non-political global forum to discuss and promote the sustainable transformation of the global property industry. The WGBC supports the creation of cultural and economically appropriate rating tools, the design and construction of demonstration green development project and other collaborative green building efforts in developed and developing countries. The founding countries include Australia, Canada, India, Japan, Mexico, Spain and the United States, he said.

Prof. Priyan Mendis of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and Head of Infrastructure Protection and Management Group, University of Melbourne, Australia and a world leader in Construction and Environmental Engineering who made the opening presentation, on 'Introduction to sustainable Buildings concept and Green star rating system' said that buildings and communities are responsible for over 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.