by Brianna Crandall — March 25, 2011—With the global uptake of green building practices, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) network continues to grow. WGBC now has member councils in more than 80 countries dispersed over five regions: Asia Pacific, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and most recently the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
WorldGBC has 15 established country councils: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Chinese-Taipei, the United Kingdom, the United States, Colombia and Romania.
In 2010, six GBCs graduated to “Established” status: Colombia, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Singapore and Spain. A further six GBCs gained “Emerging” status: France, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Peru and Sweden, with Russia joining them in March 2011.
A further 19 GBCs achieved “Prospective” status in 2010: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Finland, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Syria.
In addition, nine new countries have commenced the process to develop green building councils: Bolivia, Botswana, Denmark, Ghana, Ireland, Kuwait, Norway, Pakistan and Tunisia.
With this growth, WorldGBC’s regional network model has reportedly proved very successful in zeroing in on regional priorities and providing specialized knowledge, networking opportunities and support.
