Association of Consulting Engineers of Serbia (ACES) continues active cooperation with Colliers International and USAID Compete Project through implementing one more cycle of LEED Green Associate Prep Course .

Representatives of OPEKA-BRICK Construction Cluster and Construction Start-Up Cluster, with LEDIB Programme support, participated in this, thus far, pioneering project in our country. The training was implemented in Colliers International premises in Belgrade, from June 29 till July 15, in English language, two times a week.  Participants had the chance to learn all about LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) concept and standards from a renowned expert in the field of sustainable energy and environmental protection. LEED System is an internationally recognised system providing the independent verification that a certain building has been designed and built according to Green Building standards, meaning energy saving, emission reduction, better water supply management and environmental quality increase.  After completing the training, all the participants have the right to take the exam and get professional LEED® Green Associate Certificate, that confirms basic knowledge in designing, building and construction works.

Training deals with topics like costs and Green Building advantages, as well as necessary points enabling the implementation process itself, ways to obtaining LEED Certificate, as well as key LEED concepts. This kind of certification system can be applied to all kinds of constructions – from residential to business ones – and several thousand buildings all over the world have already been certified according to this system. LEED Consultant Certificate is an important one for telling the qualified experts in that specific area, and is also meant for the professionals without prior experience in that field.

Implementation of such an innovative education represents a good way to create educated staff ready for future demands of EU and rest of the world related to design and construction. Another important thing for promotion of this topic is the latest Guide book by Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning that would be ready in September. According to the Guidebook of Energy Efficiency each new construction will have to have “the Green Passport – Passport of energy efficiency” in order to be licensed. That means that each building would need to have data on energy consumption, energy saving, as well as information of building features, location and heating costs. A very good example is Danish Embassy building in Belgrade that is one of the top ones according to official LEED standards.

This training provided to participants a lot of innovative information from all areas and disciplines that make the Green Building concept unique. It also helped them validate already acquired professional knowledge, and learn a lot about domains and sectors tightly connected to construction business. The newly gained knowledge can be applied as Serbia enters Green Zone of Energy Passports. This is one an opportunitiy for the clusters to get closer to adopting the needed FIDIC, ISO, and soon LEED, standards in order to be ready to meet the demands of new world trends in construction business.