Representatives Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) and Russ Carnahan (D-Missouri) hosted a briefing with Swiss leaders in energy and environmental building design. "The Swiss were among the first to recognize what other countries have come to understand: that climate change is real and it threatens our economy, our environment, and our national security," said Congresswoman Baldwin a Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Co-Chair of the Congressional Friends of Switzerland Caucus. "The Swiss model for reducing greenhouse gases and the MINERGIE Building Standard are examples we can all learn from and benefit from," Baldwin said.
Since 1998, the Swiss MINERGIE ™ standard has offered green building standards as a framework for architects and building designers to achieve greater popularity and profitability. Nick Beglinger, a managing board member of MINERGIE ™ said, "Switzerland is a sustainability leader - ranking, for example, as No. 1 in Yale University's 2008 Environmental Performance Index. The Swiss sustainable building standard, MINERGIE ™ makes an important contribution here. With over 14'000 certified buildings, MINERGIE focuses on the key success drivers: design, comfort and energy efficiency".
For more information, please visit http://www.thinkswiss.org/
Bio
Tammy Baldwin
Tammy Baldwin has represented Wisconsin's Second Congressional District since January 1999.
In the 111th Congress, Baldwin serves on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, its Subcommittee on Health and its Subcommittee on Energy and Environment. She also sits on the Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. She is a leading advocate for universal health care and a proponent of energy independence and renewable fuels.
Nick Beglinger
Nick Beglinger is Co-Founder and CEO of Foundation for Global Sustainability. He supervises the activities of the foundation, sets activity priorities, and launches new projects. Beglinger is also a partner at the advisory firm Maxmakers (focused on sustainable real-estate and infrastructure development).
Beglinger has led Maxmakers' Masdar team (as strategic and financial advisor) since 2006 and was in charge of several other advisory engagements with public and private clients. His career started at McKinsey & Company in Germany and has taken him to China, Vietnam, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi. Beglinger holds Master degrees in Economics and Management from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Community of European Management Schools (CEMS / HEC).
Russ Carnahan
John Russell "Russ" Carnahan is currently serving his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives. A Democrat, he represents Missouri's 3rd congressional district, which includes the southern third of the city of St. Louis (known as South City) and most of the southern St. Louis suburbs including most of Jefferson County and all of Ste. Genevieve County.
Some cities located in the district include: Webster Groves, Mehlville, Affton, and Oakville (as part of South St. Louis City), and the southern suburbs of Arnold, Herculaneum, Pevely, Crystal City, Barnhart, Imperial, and Festus, as well as Ste. Genevieve in the neighboring Ste. Genevieve County.
Zach Dobelbower
Zach Dobelbower is the Neighborhood Planning Coordinator for Ward 2. Before joining the Office of Planning (OP), Mr. Dobelbower served one year as a Capital City Fellow within the office working on revitalization and neighborhood planning efforts. Prior to that, Dobelbower worked for the DC Department of Parks and Recreation and the US Department of Education.
His previous experience includes public policy, project management, economic development and revitalization, and environmental planning. Mr. Dobelbower has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of Oklahoma and a Masters in Public Affairs from American University.
Ambassador Urs Ziswiler
Urs Ziswiler was appointed ambassador of Switzerland to the United States on March 25, 2006.
Ambassador Ziswiler most recently served as head of the Directorate of Political Affairs at the Federal De partment of Foreign Affairs and as senior diplomatic advisor to the minister of foreign affairs. Since joining the Foreign Service in 1979, Ambassador Ziswiler has held a number of postings both in Bern and abroad, including ambassador to Canada and the Bahamas (1999-2004), chargé d’affaires for Yugoslavia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (1993), as well as deputy chief of mission of the Swiss embassies in Buenos Aires (1994-95), Tel Aviv (1988-90), Kinshasa, Lagos and Oslo (1980-85). In Bern, Ambassador Ziswiler served as head of the Political Division for Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy and coordinator for international refugee policy (1995-99), as well as spokesman and head of the Information Department in the European Integration Office (1990-92).
Art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. The practice of architecture emphasizes spatial relationships, orientation, the support of activities to be carried out within a designed environment, and the arrangement and visual rhythm of structural elements, as opposed to the design of structural systems themselves (seecivil engineering). Appropriateness, uniqueness, a sensitive and innovative response to functional requirements, and a sense of place within its surrounding physical and social context distinguish a built environment as representative of a culture's architecture. See alsobuilding construction.
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