An insight into the Professor

Visiting International Speaker & 2007 UN Habitat Award Winner: Cuban Professor Dr Fernando Martirena, has recently advised that after the destruction caused by hurricanes Gustav and Ike in various provinces in Cuba, CIDEM (translated to English, the Innovation and Business Development Center) has been designated to implement post disaster actions in the provinces of Pinar del Rio and Holguin.

"I have assembled a ‘task force’ with my team and we are receiving a strong support from high levels of the Government and the Swiss have provided us with some extra funding to do everything.", he states.

"I am absolutely drowned in the organisation of the implementation, which will yield 8 new workshops in less than one month. I am travelling throughout the island, from west to east and vice versa.

"The Cuban Government is betting on our choices to a wide and quick response to the construction of more than 120,000 houses that were torn down by the over 300 kph winds [420,000 affected in total], and this brings up a lot of responsibility, but also joy to see that what we have done was not wrong.", he exclaimed.

The Professor added, "I am moving in places where power went off 20 days ago, roads are flooded still with water and houses, trees, everything was torn down by the heavy winds...amidst the debris we have managed to set up two workshops in operation, where we are producing one house per day... I am going to be very, very busy during the next two weeks, but this won’t affect at all my commitment and trip to Australia."

Australian Green Development Forum in partnership with CSR Hebel are hosting Professor Fernando Martirena in Australia and he will be headlining AGDF's first National Road Show (for Sustainability, Construction and Innovation) touring Australia in October. Tickets are selling now! You don't want to miss out on this rare opportunity! Click below for more information.