iiSBE focuses its efforts on issues related to Sustainable Built Environment (SBE) and as part of this mission iiSBE has been a leader in the development and management of an international SBE conference series since the year 2000. This work is carried out in partnership with four international organisations including:

  • International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB, cibworld.org)
  • International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment (iiSBE, iisbe.org)
  • International Federation of Consulting Engineers, fidic.org
  • United Nations Environment Programme, unenvironment.org

The SBE series follows a three-year cycle, beginning with a review of the previous cycle results and requests for expressions of interest (EOIs) for events in the new cycle. Selected teams are invited to submit detailed proposals that are then reviewed by the SBE partnership in order to select a single World conference or a series of Regional events.

The SBE partnership is responsible for overall planning and management of the series, with iiSBE taking the lead in this activity on behalf of the SBE partners, Organisation and management of the individual conferences, however, is the responsibility of the selected proponent organisations, which include research institutes and/or universities in leading roles.

The series places a core emphasis on peer-reviewed papers and presentations of regional policy papers, displays of pre-evaluated projects and a small number of high-quality commercial exhibits. While papers and presentations in the regional SBE conferences may be bilingual, those in the global World SBE event are presented in English. All papers undergo a double-blind refereeing process and accepted papers are indexed.

Research-based organisations take financial and management responsibility for the individual regional events while the international series partners, iiSBE, CIB, FIDIC and UN Environment, provide organisational advice and use their networks to help ensure large and multi-disciplinary audiences.

In the previous SBE cycle (2021-2024), the summary list of the conferences held is here. In the current cycle (2025-2026), the currently planned events are here (This will be updated soon). The next World SBE conference will take place in Melbourne in mid 2026.

Greg Foliente is guiding and coordinating the SBE process, with advice and guidance from the SBE Partners and advisors.