March 2011
look who’s talking
SPECIAL FEATURE
BuildGreen highlights some of the top speakers set to take to the stage at Green Building Middle East rupert oliver is an internationally-recognised independent authority with 20 years experience on environmental issues related to the timber trade and forest management. Oliver has travelled widely, studying forestry practices and market development in North America, Europe, the Far East, and Africa. Regularly consulted by international and national agencies in the international forest products sector, he is a regular speaker at international conventions and is a strong believer in the contribution that forestry and timber can make to sustainable development. He holds a Masters degree in Forest Business Administration and is also director of Forest Industries Intelligence Limited.
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Rupert Oliver, consultant to AHEC for sustainability issues.
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Peter saling, head of the global Eco-Efficiency Analysis Group within the Sustainability Centre at BASF, is a chemist and joined the company back in 1993. After research activities, he joined the development group for Eco-Efficiency Analysis within BASF together with Roland Berger consultants. Saling was formerly project leader for the development and integration of social aspects into the SEEBALANCE sustainability analysis.
Peter Saling, head of the global Eco-Efficiency Analysis Group within the Sustainability Centre, BASF.
Seeing out the second day of the event, will be Bee’ah’s charismatic director of environmental responsibility, Jeremy Byatt. Joining the Sharjah-based environment company in August 2008, Byatt is primarily responsibility for guiding the strategic direction of Bee’ah, making decisions on all the projects the private-public entity are involved in. The vastly-experienced environmental expert has spent time working in the private, public and nongovernmental sectors in his native Canada and Jeremy Byatt, director of environmental responsibility, Bee’ah. around the world. Previous positions he has held include policy director of Friends of the Earth Canada, where he led an international ozone depletion campaign. He has also been an advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme’s OzonAction programme and worked as a member of Canada’s delegation to the Montréal Protocol. As a consultant, Byatt has worked with the Asia-Pacific Branch of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and holds an MA in International Affairs specialising in environmental economics from Carleton University. He also holds a postgraduate diploma in mechanical engineering specialising in vehicle design from the Cranfield Institute of Technology in the UK and a BA in politics and economics from the Royal Military College of Canada. Byatt’s environmental experience both in Sharjah with Bee’ah and across the world should make for an interesting discussion.
In his role as chief technical officer at the Middle East Centre for Sustainable Development (MECSD), thom Bohlen and the staff of MECSD are currently working on more than 200 projects, covering more than 40 million square feet, helping developers through the sustainable development and certification process. Bohlen graduated in Architecture from the University of Illinois, USA, and began his career during the first energy crisis in the 1970s, long before the term ‘sustainability’ had yet been coined. Despite this, he was already practising organic architecture through the use of active and passive solar design, indigenous materials, climate driven building orientation and techniques that make effective use of daylight. Bohlen has been involved in the design and construction of more than 600 projects in the US and the Middle East. MECSD, one of the region’s largest independent sustainable development organisations, has more than 30 LEED-accredited professionals on its books.
Thom Bohlen, chief technical officer, Middle East Centre for Sustainable Development.