Lebanon’s Construction Boom and the Challenges to Urban and Environmental Planning 26/11/2012 Waltraud Frommherz-Hassib

While a number of countries slid into a deep recession in 2008, Lebanon witnessed spectacular economic growth. Over the last few years, not only trendy downtown Beirut but other parts of the country, too, have seen a major construction boom. ...more

Waste-to-Energy Technologies 26/11/2012 Boghos Ghougassian

The world is now discovering new means to meet the growing demands for energy, to fight climate change. And “Waste-to-energy” (WtE) is the slogan, which is a sustainable waste management paradigm and at the same time a renewable energy generator with proven success stories. ...more

Korea’s 4 Years of Green Growth Policies: Impacts and Prospects 1/11/2012 Soogil Young

Green growth was formally launched as a development paradigm of a nation for the first time internationally when President Lee Myung-bak declared it to be the main pillar of Korea’s new development vision in his speech on August 15, 2008, marking the 60th anniversary of the Republic. In this speech, President Lee explained that: ...more

Sustainability Seoul Style 1/11/2012 Shada El-Sharif

Over eight hundred delegates from all over the world converged in South Korea’s vibrant capital, Seoul, for the annual World Consulting Engineering Conference of the International Federation of Consulting Engineer’s (FIDIC) this past September. The conference was an open invitation to industry professionals from over 67 countries to engage in this year’s theme: Beyond Green: A New Paradigm. ...more

Global Green Growth Forum in Copenhagen 1/11/2012

The 2nd Global Green Growth Forum, which took place in October in Copenhagen, brought together 250 business, public and civil society leaders committed to advancing inclusive green growth. ...more

Ancient Rice Terraces of Batad 1/7/2012 Meryl Haddad

With traffic that is probably worse than Beirut’s and noise from its peculiar modes of transportation (jeepneys and trikes), the rush of Manila can get to be too much. After about two weeks of dealing with the hazards found in the capital, it was decided by my friends and me to head out of metro Manila for the weekend and into the wilderness of the Philippines. Batad was our destination, a village surrounded by nature in Northern Luzon, and a 10 hour bus trip from metro Manila. ...more

‘People’s Summit’ in the Streets of Rio 1/7/2012 Gabriela Speziali

Outside the borders of Riocentro, where the official document of Rio+20 was produced, the debate of sustainable development was propagated by people´s voice in more than one hundred side events ...more

Rio the States the people 1/7/2012 Cynthia Fleury

As in Copenhagen, the last weekend before the arrival of Heads of State and Government, the final document for Rio +20, The Future We Want, still had many loopholes and unanswered questions. Brazil then took further negotiations in hand, speeding up the tempo and offering to agree on a less ambitious document. ...more

ARZ Green Building Rating System 1/6/2012 Samir Traboulsi

The ARZ Building Rating System is the first Lebanese green building initiative of international standard with its certification process being administered by the Lebanon Green Building Council (LGBC). ...more

Ecological Footprint and Sustainability Options in the Arab Countries 1/6/2012 AFED 2012 Annual Report

The 2012 AFED report will analyze sustainability options in Arab countries, based on a survey of available renewable resources (biocapacity) and consumption (footprint). ...more