A student accommodation firm is to spend £21 million to install energy-saving lighting in 120 properties across the UK. Unite Students has teamed up with electronics company Philips, which will upgrade the lighting in 23 town and cities in the next two years.

A variety of Japanese businesses participated in a seminar on October 26 to discuss new financial mechanisms for applying energy saving technology to buildings and hotels.

A conference entitled “Green Housing in Vietnam: between Tradition and Modernity” opened at the Goethe Institute in Hanoi on October 16.

Environmental experts have called on Viet Nam to make further efforts in providing economic incentives and better policies to promote "greener" buildings in the face of resource depletion and rapid urbanization.

Facebook’s new, state-of-the-art data center is situated on 120 acres of land in Central Oregon. The campus will be completed in two phases, each consisting of 150,000 square feet of data warehousing space. Phase I has been completed, with phase II scheduled for completion at the end of this year.

Authorities have pledged to speed up construction of green buildings in response to the surge in building energy consumption that has resulted from the country's rapid urbanization. Li Bingren, chief economist at the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MHURD), said at a press conference Monday that authorities had made numerous efforts to save energy and reduce emissions, yet energy use efficiency remains low.

Almost 800 businesses from 22 countries and territories from around the world will take part in the International Exhibition of Construction, Building Materials, Housing and Interior Décor (Vietbuild) being held in Ho Chi Minh City on September 16-20.