Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and Mr. Liang Guiquan

From July 18 to 21, Mr. Liang Guiquan, President of Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation (GIUI) led a three-member Guangzhou delegation on a field study to Melbourne, Australia to review the “4 C Cooler – Using green infrastructure to build a climate resilient and prosperous Melbourne” initiative which was shortlisted for the 2nd Guangzhou Award.

During the visit, Lord Mayor Robert Doyle met with the delegation and exchanged opinions on the significance of sharing experiences learned from the 4 C Cooler program with global cities.

On behalf of the City of Guangzhou, the delegation delivered an official invitation letter to Lord Mayor Robert Doyle to attend the Workshop for Thought Leaders: Learning from Urban Innovation event which is to be held in early November in Guangzhou this year.

The Guangzhou delegation also had a discussion with Melbourne City Council Urban Landscapes Team Leader Yvonne Lynch, Innovation Coordinator Matthew Willcox and Sustainability Officer Arpad Maksay sharing their experiences on eco-city construction and fields relevant to both cities.

Accompanied by Urban Forest & Ecology Planner Zhang Lingna and her colleagues, the delegation visited the First six-star green office building in Australia: Council House 2 of Melbourne City Council and had a walking tour to downtown. Here, they captured first hand data from the urban forest project and eco-city construction and observed the rainwater capture, purified and cycle use system and monitor devices that apply dendrochronology techniques to study microclimate change on trees. Plus, the Guangzhou delegation respectively met with Former Mayor of Melbourne and Jury member of the 2nd Guangzhou Award Mr. John So; Director of United Nations Global Compact, Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Prof. Ralph Horne; 100 Resilient Cities Chief Resilience Officer Toby Kent as well as the Director of Victoria Institute of Strategic Economic Studies Prof. Bruce Rasmussen and his research fellows to exchange ideas on urban sustainable development and relevant topics and explore the possibility of potential cooperation with the Guangzhou Award, as well as GIUI.

Guangzhou delegation meets with Former Mayor of Melbourne and Jury member of the 2nd Guangzhou Award Mr. John So.

Guangzhou delegation visits the first six-star green office building in Australia: Council House 2 of Melbourne City Council.