BRE, Tsinghua University and Evergrande Sign a £200m Built Environment Science Deal at UK-China Business Summit

LONDON, October 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

UK building science centre BRE, China's top university Tsinghua and one of its largest property development companies Evergrande will sign a collaborative research agreement on sustainable urbanisation today. It is one of seven exclusive UK-China collaborations being signed as part of the UK-China business summit in London on day two of the state visit of China's President Xi Jinping to the UK. 

Designed to support China's sustainable urbanisation and national green building programme, the £200 million research programme will involve the development of a number of sustainable demonstration projects in China, a pilot sustainable city demonstration in Danzhou, and a green building demonstration zone in Hainan province.

The programme will also include the development of green standards and improved processes for planning, design, procurement, construction and management of buildings, R & D on new green materials and low carbon products and technologies and a programme of post occupancy evaluation studies.

Chief Executive of BRE Dr Peter Bonfield said 'Our Chinese partners have the ability to affect real change in the built environment. They currently deliver buildings, homes and communities on an unprecedented scale quickly and cost effectively. They will take the learning from this collaborative programme and deliver a sustainable built environment without compromising on cost and speed - something that hasn't yet been done anywhere else in the world. We look forward to playing our part in what will be a transformative research partnership.'

Minister of State for Universities and Science Jo Johnson said 'China is one of our most important international partners and at the last China-UK trade summit our Governments agreed to boost collaboration on science and technology. This project is a direct result of that commitment, and I look forward to seeing it progress.'

UK Special Envoy on Sustainable Urbanisation to China, Sir Michael Bear who witnessed the signing ceremony said 'I am delighted to oversee this important collaboration that brings together three organisations who are leading in their fields to help China deliver its sustainable urbanisation programme.'  

The research programme is one of a number of active collaborative projects that BRE has in China which follows on from the visit by Premier Li Keqiang's visit to BRE headquarters in London in 2011 during which he requested BRE to support China's sustainable urbanisation and green building programme.

For further information please contact Linda McKeown, BRE, email mckeownl@bre.co.uk

NOTES TO EDITOR
BRE http://www.bre.co.uk
Tsinghua University http://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/
Evergrande http://www.evergrande.com