In a continuing industry-wide effort to promote sustainable construction around the world, Swiss construction materials giant Holcim Ltd. has created a competition open to anyone who pursues such projects, including architects, planners, engineer or project owners. Sponsored by the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, the competition was launched late year and spotlighted domestically at World of Concrete in January

Entries for the competition are open, and sustainable construction projects can be submitted for the awards via the Internet, www.holcimawards.org, until March 31, 2005. Three regional awards and additional recognition and encouragement prizes will be awarded in each of five geographic regions: Europe, North America (Holcim (US) Inc., St. Lawrence Cement, Holcim Apasco), Latin America, Africa/Middle East, and Asia Pacific. The regional winners automatically qualify for the global competition to be held in 2006. Prize money for the five regional competitions and the global awards totals $2 million. The winners of the North American portion of the contest will be announced at a September 29 ceremony.

Holcim reports that as of the end of 2004, nearly 200 applications have been submitted. The Holcim Foundation is working closely with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and four overseas institutions, each of whom will lead independent juries in their regions and have also assisted in defining the five target issues of sustainable construction that will be used to evaluate the submitted projects: change and transferability; ethical standards and social equity; ecological quality and energy conservation; economic performance and compatibility; and contextual response and aesthetic impact.