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Photo: Anne de Haas
Kaarin Taipale is a senior visiting fellow at the Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research of the Helsinki School of Economics, Finland.
She is Chair and coordinator of the UN-initiated Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable Buildings and Construction with Finland as lead country. The Task Force advocates the need for local and national policies and legislation to secure greater sustainability in the construction, use and maintenance of the build environment.
The first focus area of the Task Force has been energy – public policies to promote energy efficiency, energy savings, and an increased use of renewable energy of the built environment. The Task Force is currently working on a “Sustainable Building Checklist” for decision-makers and citizens to increase awareness of the challenges and opportunities for sustainable building.
A Finnish national, Kaarin Taipale studied architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), Switzerland, and has also obtained a master’s degree in historic preservation from Columbia University in New York, USA.
Her areas of expertise are urban sustainability, and the impact of globalization on cities. She currently works on her Ph.D. at the Helsinki University of Technology.
Kaarin Taipale has worked as an architect in Zurich, New York and Helsinki; later as the editor of the Finnish Architectural Review and for ten years as the chief executive of the Building Department of the City of Helsinki.
She has also held the positions of visiting professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, 2005-2006, and senior adviser of ICLEI World Secretariat in Toronto, Canada, 2004. Among her publications is the report Local and global – the role of local government in a sustainable world.
As Chair of ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability in 2000-2003 she was a political representative of local government, and expert on urban issues in several United Nations and other intergovernmental meetings including the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, 2002.
Kaarin Taipale became a Council Member of the World Future Council in 2007. She was awarded the Order of the White Rose of Finland, Chevalier of the 1st Class, ordained by the President of Finland in 1999.
Kaarin Taipale was a member of the global Holcim Awards jury in 2006, and a member of the Academic Committee for the Holcim Forum in 2007.
[last updated: 30-Apr-08]
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Holcim Forum 2007
Academic Committee | | |
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