On Wednesday, March 26th An Najah's Green Buildings Project, a collaboration between the American Corner Nablus and the Building and Transportation Center, held a virtual training with Colin Rohlfing who is the Sustainable Director of HOK, one of the largest international architecture firms in the world. The training included an introduction to the history of green buildings in the US and internationally, current and future trends, project case studies, types of tools used, green initiatives, research and development, and the sustainable design process including climate, load reduction, integrated systems and renewables. The training was attended by the Director of An Najah's Building and Transportation Center, Dr Mutasim Baba, Dr Sameh Mona of the architecture department, Dr Muhannad El Haj of the Building Engineering department, Ms Alia Gilbrecht of the American Corner Nablus and roughly 60 student participates of the Green Buildings Project.

During the training, Colin discussed crucial information pertaining to green buildings including the fact that one of the top four obstacles to creating green buildings has been a lack of trained/educated green building professionals, an issue this project specifically focusing on changing.
Noting trends in US green buildings, Mr Cohlfing highlighted the top three types of buildings that are being built green globally as K-12th grade schools, higher education facilities, and office spaces.
Colin also outlined how changes in policies at the local and state level in the U.S. have greatly impacted the number of green buildings being built in certain locations. For instance, in September of 2005 the city of New York passed a measure requiring LEED Silver certifications for all city owned new construction and renovations over 2 million dollars which has lead to New York being one of the top US States with green building projects.
Notes:
HOK is a global engineering, architecture, design, and urban planning firm founded in St. Louis Missouri in 1955. As of 2015, HOK has been ranked the largest U.S. based architecture-engineering. The firm now has over 20 locations worldwide including in Dubai, London, Bejing, Chicago, and Washington DC
HOK has won countless sustainability awards including the US Green Building Council's "Organizational Excellence Award," the Global Green USA "Designing a sustainable and Secure World Award," Sustainable Buildings Industry Council 's "Best Sustainable Practice Award" and countless others.
An Najah's Green Buildings Project is coordinated through the American Corner Nablus with the Faculty of Engineering and Buildings and Transportation Center. The project aims at effectively reshaping the academic landscape of sustainability in higher education in the West Bank through a series of training workshops with Palestinian and American experts.