On October 13th, the 2016 World Green Design Forum Brussels Summit organized by the World Green Design Organization (WGDO) was opened in Brussels. Taking “New Opportunities of China-EU Green Design Cooperation” as its theme, the Forum aimed to promote global ecological environment protection, green industrial development and boost exchanges and cooperation between China and the EU. The Forum drew active responses from all walks of life and attracted hundreds of government officials from more than 20 countries and representatives of international organizations, professional institues, and business and design communities to attend. The main events of the 7-day conference featured: a mayor‘s forum, a workshops on green building materials, green homes, green designs and Smart City, and field trips to green enterprises in Europe.

  
Jo Leinen, Member of the European Parliament and President of the EP Delegation for the relations with China, and Shi Dinghuan, chairman of the WGDO and former Counselor of the State Council, acted as co-chairs of the Forum. Mr. Jo Leinen remarked that EU-China relations are of great significance to both sides and both the EU and China have a strong desire to achieve coordinated development. It is now a consensus between both sides to establish environmental cooperation to generate more opportunities for the R&D of green technology. Zhang Zhiqin, Minister Counselor of the Chinese Mission to the EU, attended the Forum and said that environmental pollution has become a global concern and green design will be a permanent theme of future global sustainable development. He noted that China and Europe have carried out fairly extensive cooperation in green innovation and can still do more to expand their exchanges and cooperation to contribute to the global green development and jointly build and share a sound ecological system for mankind.

Since 2011, the Forum has been held for 6 consecutive sessions to promote green design around the world. The WGDO is the world’s first non-profit organization committed to promoting the development of green design. Since its inauguration in 2013, it has made many important achievements including setting up the first green design institute and the first green design association in China; successfully building a platform to promote green technology, materials and equipment; creating a specialized think tank on green design; and issuing the world’s first China Green Design Report in cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.