The new body will support China’s endeavours to develop its towns and cities in a more sustainable way and help it meet its COP21 carbon reduction commitment. Special Envoy for Sustainable Urbanisation to China Sir Michael Bear officially launched BRE China at a ceremony in the city of Shenzhen earlier today attended by key figureheads in the Chinese built environment. The new venture represents a natural progression for UK based building science centre BRE which has been working on a number of projects in the country for several years including: the creation of an Innovation Park in Gu’ian, the sustainable development of the international shipping centre marina project in Shanghai and a joint built environment research partnership with China’s top university Tsinghua and developer Evergrande. BRE’s flagship buildings and communities sustainability standard BREEAM has also been applied to several key developments across the country. Sir Michael said ‘I’m delighted to be here today to participate in the opening of BRE China - it represents a very important development in our UK China bi-lateral trade relationship which is currently in ‘a golden era’. Mutual benefit is at the heart of our relations  - we focus on  bringing the best of China to the UK and the best of the UK to China – BRE is a very tangible example of this, I look forward to seeing it progress.’ BRE China is based in the new Qianhai District of Shenzhen City* and will initially be located in the headquarters of the Shenzhen municipal government. BRE has been working with the city’s leaders to help them realise their ambition of making Shenzhen the most sustainable Tier 1 city in China. President of BRE China Jaya Skandamoorthy said ‘Developing green, low carbon buildings and infrastructure is at the heart of China’s 13^th Five Year Plan and its New Urbanisation Plan. BRE China’s mission is to support the delivery of this plan with a range of collaborative initiatives and development programmes on research, training and standards’. Speaking at the launch the Shenzhen government’s Head of Department for Housing Construction Bureau Mr Yang Shengjun said ‘BRE is one of the world’s leading building science centres so we are very pleased they have established their China headquarters in Shenzhen city. We signed a collaborative agreement with BRE in 2014 and will continue to support them to grow their business base here and across China. We would also like to welcome many more leading UK companies to come here and be part of the growing green building industry and innovation movement that Shenzhen is leading.’ Also speaking at the launch Niall Trafford, Chief Operating Officer of BRE and Chairman of BRE China said ‘The seeds for creating BRE China were sown during the visit of Chinese Premier Li-Keqiang to our Innovation Park in 2011. He asked us to share the knowledge we’ve gathered over the past decades on sustainable development and collaborate more with Chinese partners.  We look forward developing new Chinese partnerships that will help us continue with our mission to Build a better world together.' For further information please contact Linda McKeown, BRE, email pressoffice@bregroup.com. NOTES TO EDITOR About BRE: We are a world leading building science centre and the authority on all aspects of the built environment. We generate new knowledge through research that is used to create products, tools and standards that drive positive change across the built environment. We enable our government and private sector clients to meet the environmental, social and economic challenges they face by delivering higher performing, better quality, safer, more secure and more sustainable products homes, buildings and communities. We are owned by the BRE Trust, a registered charity, which funds research and education that advances knowledge of the built environment.  We are committed to building a better world together. We are BRE. www.bre.co.uk *Shenzhen Shenzhen is located in Guangdong Province in Southern China, and has a population of over 10 million.Situated immediately north of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the area is China’s first and one of its most successful Special Economic Zones (SEZ) which benefit frommore free market-oriented economic policies. It is afree trade and tax area making it a good entry base for UK companies seeking a move into the Chinese market.