The World Green Building Council’s Chairman Tai Lee Siang announced the winners of the prestigious WorldGBC Global Awards at a special ceremony in Jaipur, India.
Romilly Madew, the CEO of the Green Building Council of Australia, was awarded the prestigious WordGBC Chairman’s Award for her outstanding role in advancing green buildings around the world, while William McDonough and Professor Dr. Michael Braungart were jointly awarded the David Gottfried Global Green Building Entrepreneurship Award for their unique, innovative and entrepreneurial contribution to the global green building movement.
Ms Madew was chosen as the winner of the Chairman’s Award for her tireless commitment to the green building movement, both in Australia and beyond, which spans over 10 years. During this time, she has helped to establish a number of Green Building Councils in the Asia Pacific region, served on the WorldGBC Board of Directors as Secretary from 2012 to 2016, and, under her leadership, GBCA has played a major role in WorldGBC’s projects and activities.
Her position as a role model to all through efforts to champion equality in business and the green construction sector, was also praised.
Tai Lee Siang, Chairman of WorldGBC, said: “I am truly inspired by the individual contribution Romilly has made to the green building movement for over a decade. Not only has she been instrumental in transforming Australia’s building industry through her leadership of the Green Building Council of Australia, but she has also played a vital role at the global level.”
Professor Dr. Braungart and Mr McDonough were chosen at this year’s winners of the David Gottfried Award for their unique approach to a business-led green building strategy. The pair were praised for their 2002 book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, which strongly advocated for Cradle to Cradle approaches within businesses to design products which eliminate the concept of waste, use clean energy, and value clean water.
William McDonough is a renowned architect and designer, and the founder of William McDonough + Partners architectural practice, and Professor Dr. Michael Braungart is a chemist and the founder of the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency, in Germany.
Tai Lee Siang, Chairman of WorldGBC, said: “I am truly inspired by their role as champions of the global green building movement and how their book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, remains the blueprint for sustainable design some 15 years on from its publication.”
Romilly Madew joins an illustrious list of previous Chairman’s Award winners, including Sir Timothy Smit of the Eden Project (2012); Qiu BaoXing, former Vice Minister of the Chinese Government’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (2014); and Rick Fedrizzi, former CEO of the US Green Building Council and current CEO of The International WELL Building Institute (2016).
Past winners of the David Gottfried Award include Pierre-André de Chalendar, CEO of Saint Gobain (2016), and Nils Kok, Founder and CEO of GRESB (2014).