June 2020 – The U.S. Green Building Council, or USGBC, has published an official recognition – the Certificate of Professional Leadership – which has elected architect Stefano Boeri and the entire Team of Stefano Boeri Architetti as pioneers of Biodiversity “for their commitment to transforming living architecture through biophilic design aware of natural biodiversity and to their vision and projects of a future city sustainable and accessible to all”.
In a letter to Stefano Boeri, Mahesh Ramanujam, President and CEO of USGBC & GBCI writes: “Your efforts to improve standards of social equity and quality of life by incorporating Urban Forestry in the built environment and by creating the Vertical Forests is incredible”.
Thanks to the Vertical Forest in Milan, the U.S. Green Building Council and Green Business Certification Inc. – international and non-governmental organizations which, with LEED certification, revolutionize the global approach of how buildings are designed, built and maintained and representing the most widespread certification system for Green Buildings in the world – are developing new parameters in order to include the presence of greenery and trees in certification protocols.
“I am deeply honored to receive such recognition from the U.S. Green Building Council – says Stefano Boeri – and I personally thank the President and CEO Mahesh Ramanujam for the attention shown towards the Vertical Forest and for having highlighted the effort carried out by our Team to include Urban Forestry in city planning, in pursuit of a new alliance between city and nature”.
Thanks to the design of the first Vertical Forest in Milan – built by COIMA SGR and heart of the important urban redevelopment project in the area of Porta Nuova – and its variations all around the world, thanks to the projects of large scale green architectures such as the Shenzhen Rehabilitation Center in China and the urban planning of future Forest Cities such as the Smart Forest City of Cancún and the experimental green district of Tirana Riverside, Stefano Boeri and his Team have for years been carrying out constant research to support sustainable urban development where domestic and public green spaces can protect and increase local biodiversity.
“The collaboration with Stefano Boeri in generating a conceptual model integrating back nature in to urban life has raised the bar on a global basis. Inequality and climate change are now the challenges that we all have to face in thinking forward for the next Bosco Verticale”, says Manfredi Catella, founder and CEO of COIMA.
“We are grateful that an organization such as the Green Building Council of the United States appreciates the value of the architectures designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti”, said Francesca Cesa Bianchi and Marco Giorgio, partners of the studio. “This shows that all the experimentations carried out to integrate nature and trees with the built environment not only have an aesthetic quality but also an ethical and social value, in search of new minimum housing standards accessible to all”.
Stefano Boeri Architetti’s continuous efforts to improve the standards of social equity and quality of life find their expression in the Vertical Forests in Milan, Eindhoven, Nanjing, Tirana and Cairo as a manifesto for a better, more livable and green future.
As President and CEO Mahesh Ramanujam states: “As such a highly regarded and influential global firm, Stefano Boeri Architetti has a powerful and lasting impact on a wide range of people and places. With such a partner, we can achieve even more to create a sustainable future for all”.