The European Regional Network is a coalition of Green Building Councils around Europe that work together in their common mission to shift the market to green building practices. Together they become more that the sum of their parts in furthering policy and education initiatives and building capacity within the European Region.

The European Region holds both great opportunities but also significant challenges due to its geographic and cultural diversity, and the wide range of practice with regards to green building.

The development of the European Regional Network has been gradual and organic, arising from networking and communications between various GBCs in Europe. The UK-GBC and Germany SBC (DGNB), as the first Established GBCs in the region, began looking forward at the opportunities of bringing influence on the European region scale. Meanwhile, other GBCs in the region (at various stages of development) began networking in order to learn from one another’s successes and challenges.

As at May 2010 the region is made up of 26 GBCs at various levels of development- bringing significant strength, representation and potential for driving the green building agenda from a regional scale.

History of Meetings

The initial discussions around developing a European Regional Network began at the 2009 Consense Conference in Stuttgart, which was attended by several GBC groups. At this point in time a pilot network model was introduced in the Asia Pacific Region.

The next official European Regional Network meeting was held at the Build Green CEE Conference in Budapest (April 2010) where discussions around the needs of (and possible structure for) the Network yielded three main areas of focus: Capacity Building, Education and Policy. Tapping in to the resources currently available it was agreed that the European Network would have a coordinator, a Policy Taskforce, an Education Taskforce and a possible Steering Committee in the future.

The latest European Regional Network Meeting took place at the 2010 Consense Conference in Stuttgart (June 23-24th). This meeting held very positive results in further developing the network into a strong coalition of GBCs focused on supporting one another's initiatives while coming together to further the green building agenda within the region.  For the agenda, outcomes and presentations at this meeting please sign on to the Council Development Gateway.

The next European Regional Network Meeting will take place in October 2010. We are currently taking proposals from GBCs who have an event in October and would like to host this meeting.

Current Projects and Activity

The general work focus for the Network over the next 4-6 months will include:

1. Improve knowledge sharing, networking and capacity building

   • Through the further development on online resources, regular networking calls and meetings, a regionally focused coordinator and Taskforces.

2. Work directly with the European Commission to help GBCs implement targets within their countries, influence the development/revisions of future policies and provide their members with the most recent information.

   • This work is to be done by the European Policy Taskforce.


3. Work around bringing core common education and training to the European Region.
   • This work is to be done by a European Education Taskforce.

For more information about the European Regional Network or to share your ideas, suggestions, or comments please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Coordinator of Council Development.